Member Article

HomeServe CEO, Martin Bennett, is “Most People-Focused CEO”

Leading home assistance provider, HomeServe’s chief executive officer (CEO) Martin Bennett has been named the UK’s most “People-Focused CEO” at the HR Excellence Awards.

Martin was one of just ten UK CEOs in the running for the coveted title, and beat off stiff competition from other nominees including CEOs from McDonalds UK, Lush and Three to be named joint winner of the award along with David Done from London-based housing association RHP.

The category, which spans both the private and public/not-for-profit sectors, is based on HR Magazine’s analysis of employee views on their CEO or managing director, and takes on board the person’s ability to “inspire, excite, create strong values and engage with their workforce”.

Commenting on the prestigious award win, Martin Bennett said, “I’m really honoured to win this award. I’m a strong advocate of the philosophy that if your People are happy, they will look after your Customers and that will give you a successful business. 2016 has been a great year so far, reaching 2.2m Customers, seeing Customer satisfaction on the rise, our People are engaged in business and now, being named joint ‘Most People Focused CEO’ especially when up against such strong competition in the category..

“We are on an exciting journey at HomeServe and actively encourage an open and authentic culture, which means our People are empowered to share their views about the company we work at. To win such a special award, especially in its first year, that is based on those views direct from our own People is a really special honour.”

HR Magazine, hailed Martin’s leadership, which has helped the business back to growth after a period of turbulence. Under Martin’s direction, People engagement has risen from 56% to 84%, Customer retention is at 83% and profits are increasing.

Katie Jacobs, Editor, HR Magazine, said; “Our most-people focused CEO award is one of the most prestigious in the HR Excellence Awards, and for Martin to take it home is a great achievement. It is heartening to find CEOs who understand the importance of people to organisational success, and Martin is a shining example of this. Our panel of HR director judges were impressed with Martin’s leadership in challenging times, praising his “impressive turnaround in both business results and the engagement of his people, in a difficult sector’ and saying he has ’driven root and branch change through people”.

Martin has an approval rating of 95% on recruiting and jobs website Glassdoor, putting him in the top 20 of Glassdoor’s annual ‘highest rated’ CEO rankings based on the reviews of employees from over 19,000 companies.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by HomeServe .