Dockyard firm wins an award

THE firm that operates Devonport Dockyard has won a major award for the way it manages its staff.

Devonport Royal Dockyard Ltd, which is part of part of Babcock International Group plc, picked up the People Management trophy at the EEF Future Manufacturing Awards.

The firm won for demonstrating an "absolute commitment to its people and going above and beyond to respond to their concerns".

Devonport Royal Dockyard refits and repairs Royal Navy ships and submarines.

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It won the award, sponsored by JAM Recruitment, for its innovative change process.

Called Time Out for Safety (TOFS), the process brings the business to a standstill once a week to focus on the company's people and safety, giving all employees an opportunity to consider safety issues and raise any concerns so they can be appropriately addressed.

The judges agreed that the company fully understood its employees' needs and combined their external knowledge to execute a new style of people management.

TOFS has been successful in encouraging staff engagement and communication which has resulted in a major culture change which benefited management and employees.

Phil Jones, Devonport Royal Dockyard's managing director, said: "Babcock are delighted to be recognised nationally by the EEF for their TOFS employee engagement programme.

"It instils a real sense of pride in everyone involved at Devonport to see our efforts to improve safety standards for our employees, support partners and customers being recognised and rewarded by such an eminent organisation as the EEF."

Presenting Devonport Royal Dockyard with the award, John Morris, chief executive and founder of JAM Recruitment, which provides specialist skills to the engineering and manufacturing industry, said: "Year on year, the nominees and winners of the EEF Future Manufacturing awards continue to show that in the face of tough conditions British manufacturers remain just as passionate, innovative and talented as ever.

"I am confident that, with the right support from Government, the industry can continue to be one of the biggest drivers for growth in our economy in the years ahead."

The EEF Future Manufacturing Awards were sponsored by business software and services firm Infor and were presented at the EEF National Gala Dinner at the Grand Connaught Rooms, London.

The awards were set up to recognise excellence in enterprise, innovation, environmental performance, exporting and skills development among UK manufacturers.

They also recognise outstanding apprentices.

The People Management Award is presented to manufacturers that have introduced new ways of working through people management.

The EEF National Gala Dinner was sponsored by Santander Corporate Banking.

EEF, the manufacturers' organisation, is the representative voice of manufacturing in the UK together with UK Steel.

EEF has a growing membership of more than 6,000 companies of all sizes, employing about 900,000 people from every sector of engineering, manufacturing, engineering construction and technology-based industries.

It has a strong Plymouth membership containing many of the city's leading manufacturers such as Pipex, the Barden Corporation, Fine Tubes, Goodrich, Plessey Semiconductors, Underhill Engineering, in addition to Babcock.