Mitie celebrates exceptional colleagues at its annual Stars Awards

• Mitie has announced the winners of its Mitie Stars Awards at its annual event to celebrate exceptional colleagues

• The first, second and third place winners were chosen based on their embodiment of Mitie’s values, and have been awarded with £10,000, £5,000, and £2,500 respectively

• Winners include the Mitie British Embassy team in Poland, a school janitor from East Ayrshire, and security colleagues from the Inland Border Facilities contract

Mitie has announced the winners of its Mitie Stars Awards 2023. The annual awards recognise and reward Mitie colleagues for their exceptional performance and dedication to going the extra mile.

The Mitie Stars scheme is the company’s flagship employee recognition programme, with colleagues recognised for going above and beyond to deliver Mitie’s values. Employees can be nominated year-round for a Mitie Star by either fellow colleagues or Mitie customers and will then be considered for that month’s prize. At its annual awards, all of these monthly winners are shortlisted, with the top three entrants named the overall Mitie Stars of the Year.

The winners were awarded with cash prizes, with first place taking home £10,000, second place £5,000 and third place £2,500. They were officially presented at an award ceremony at Mitie’s London HQ in The Shard, hosted by Phil Bentley, Mitie’s CEO.

During 2022, Mitie received 18,000 Star nominations for its colleagues in recognition of their hard work and dedication, with nominations for everything from delivering excellent work, showing great customer service, going above and beyond their regular duties, supporting other teams, responding to critical events, and even acts of bravery.

This year’s winners are as follows:

First Place – Mitie British Embassy team, Poland

The Mitie team at the British Embassy in Poland recently found themselves heavily impacted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. With the Polish team based only 500 miles from the UK’s Ukrainian Embassy in Kiev, the Embassy is a key location for Ukrainians trying to get out of the country safely. Following the relocation of the British Embassy in Kiev to Warsaw, the Mitie team has stepped up to also support this second client team, as the number of people working on site doubled.

With responsibility for delivering reception services at the Embassy, the team has been taking calls from people in Ukraine as well as from concerned friends and families trying to help get their loved ones out of the country safely. The Mitie reception team is also acting as the first point of contact for the vast number of people coming to the Embassy for support in person. All of this has been managed with compassion and sensitivity, while still delivering normal duties to a high standard, and even going the extra mile to collect food and other donations, taking them to distribution centres to be sent to those in need.

Second Place – John Bowman, Janitor, Shortlees Primary School, East Ayrshire Schools PFI contract

John was awarded second place as a result of his outstanding response in the face of an emergency. In December 2022, just two days before Christmas, a bomb alert was raised in East Ayrshire, with Shortlees Primary School, where Mitie provides facilities management and cleaning services, being named as a refuge centre for families evacuated from the area. John, a Mitie Janitor at the school, played a key role in managing the site, liaising with the Local Authority and emergency services to ensure the school was open and available during the evacuation period. After John had completed his shift, he continued to remain on site until 4am the following morning to ensure everyone was safe and secure at the school. He has received thanks from across the community for his hard support in the emergency response.

Third Place – Hayden Paffet, Kelly Lofthouse, and Nathan Manley, Security, Inland Border Facilities contract

Hayden, Kelly, and Nathan were awarded third place due to their prompt and professional manner when a colleague suffered a medical emergency on site. Suspecting a heart attack or stroke, the team responded quickly, providing crucial first aid, and subsequently taking the colleague to hospital themselves when learning an ambulance would take too long to arrive. Kelly accompanied the colleague to A&E and stayed with them until they were discharged. The team went beyond their duties, acting as first responders in an emergency situation with their prompt action helping prevent a more serious outcome.

Jasmine Hudson, Chief People Officer, Mitie, said:

“The annual Mitie Stars Awards are an excellent opportunity for us to recognise and celebrate our colleagues who embody what it means to be Mitie by going the extra mile. We are a business full of exceptional people, and this year’s winners have all shown great levels of courage, bravery, and commitment to go above and beyond their duties. They should all be incredibly proud of themselves, as we are to call them our colleagues.”