2022 top employers

Car manufacturer Bentley Motors, bank Santander UK and retail business Harrods are among the 84 UK-based organisations who have been certified by the Top Employers Institute as 2022’s top employers.

In order to achieve top employer certification, participating organisations are assessed by the institute via its HR best practices survey. It covers six HR domains consisting of 20 topics across the business and employee lifecycle, with the information then validated and audited independently to ensure process and data integrity.

A total of 11 UK organisations have been certified for the first time, including McLaren Racing, Pladis UK and Lidl Great Britain. Other first-time certified top employers this year are Ageas UK, Catalent, Charles River Laboratories, Computacenter, EQ, Medtronic, Mondelez International and Phillips 66.

Many businesses have now achieved certification for 10 years or more consecutively, including Alphabet (GB), Bat UK, Chiesi, DHL International UK, HCL Technologies, JTI UK, Molson Coors Beverage Company, PepsiCo UK, Travis Perkins, Virtusa UK, Weightmans and Whitbread.

According to the institute, its Global Certification Programme has certified 1,857 top employers in 123 countries and regions across five continents. To be eligible, organisations must have at least 250 local or 2,500 international employees, as well as advanced and formalised HR practices.

Phil Sproston, region manager UK and Ireland at Top Employers Institute, explained that being certified as a top employer showcases an organisation’s dedication to a better world of work for their employees, exhibited through “excellent” HR policies and people practices.

“The latest data from our benchmarking shows how top employers in the UK have continued to develop their people practices and are still innovating as the pandemic evolves. In particular, the last twelve months have seen the introduction of new policies in the areas that matter most to employees, particularly in wellbeing and in equity, diversity and inclusion,” he said.