Sponsored by JobOppo, our ‘Large Employer of the Year’ award is new for 2021 and recognises the contributions of businesses that actively seek to employ members of the military community, specifically military veterans, and dependants.
Having received a record number of entries this year, we announced in July that this year’s award has been split into two categories, ‘Large Employer of the Year’ and ‘Small Employer of the Year’.
These awards would not have been possible without the generosity of JobOppO, who will be donating Gold membership to their platform, worth £10,000, to each of our winners.
Garrath Williams, JobOppO’s Director of Veteran Engagement & Development, tells us ‘It’s a privilege to be sponsors of this year's 'Employer of the Year' awards. Due to the number and the quality of entries this year we decided to split and offer two awards, one to the large employer of the year and the second to small employer of the year. All entries this year have clearly demonstrated a great level of support to the military community, to our veterans, spouses, reservists, cadets and it shows that by welcoming these people into their team they value the benefit they will bring.’
We are delighted to announce that this year’s winner of ‘Large Employer of the Year’ is Compass Group UK & Ireland
In the UK & Ireland Compass are the market leader providing contract catering, hospitality, and business support services across education, business, healthcare, Government and Defence, sport and leisure, and hospitality.
Compass strive to hold events and implement initiatives to capture the interest of the military community that is within their business, as well as those that are looking in at Compass as an employer.
Their 'Military Spouses' day recognises what a key part military spouses play in their business. Compass tells us, 'They are a group of the military family that don’t always get the recognition they deserve. By recruiting and retaining veterans, spouses and dependants as they move from one ‘home’ to another, it allows us to continually move experienced and high calibre candidates from one region to another which benefits both our business and our employees’ careers.'
Mick Hickman, Foodservice Director and Chair of the Armed Forces Covenant Committee at Compass, tells us 'We are delighted to have won the Large Employer of the Year award. I'd like to thank Heropreneurs for everything they do to showcase the companies of ex-service men and women in industry.
I would like to extend my thanks to JobOppO for sponsoring this category because without the sponsors these awards couldn't take place.
We have long been supporters of defence and fully understand the benefits that ex-service men and women bring to our business. We have a very vibrant armed forces community which we are proud of.'
Thank you to JobOppo for their extremely generous support and sponsorship of these Awards. We also extend our thanks to our mentors and panel of judges for their time and support.
If you would like more information on applying to our mentorship programme please click here.
Watch our video announcement which includes Mick's reaction and thoughts from Garrath at our fantastic sponsors, JobOppo: