Congratulations to the 2022 Go Beyond Award winners.
Chief Operating Officer, Ciara Pryce, presented the awards at VGC’s six monthly meeting on 15 December.
She said: “We are delighted to celebrate the successes that have been delivered by our people in 2022. We have received over 130 nominations across our offices and sites, and it has been a joy to review these submissions. Shortlisting was incredibly difficult, and picking a winner has been a challenge. Congratulations to you all for your hard work.”
We Achieve potential:
Highly Commended (Head Office) – Krista Edwards, Assistant Quantity Surveyor, VGC Projects
Krista has been on a journey of professional development and improvement over the last few years. Initially joining VGC projects as a project administrator she has challenged the team to provide more opportunity and responsibility within her role and is now an Assistant Quantity Surveyor.
During the year Krista completed her Apprenticeship programme in Construction Quantity Surveying at London South Bank University gaining a HNC qualification with incredibly high scoring.
She has now enrolled on a Level 4 apprenticeship at Westminster University to complete her BSC in quantity Surveying and Commercial Management.
She has quickly picked up knowledge and has a huge thirst for learning, keeping the projects she’s responsible for on their toes and managing the commercials. Krista has proven to be a real asset to both the VGC Projects commercial team and the VGC group.
You can read more about Krista’s apprenticeship here.
Winner (Head Office): Ryan Rees, HSQE Manager
Ryan Rees was promoted to HSQE manager for the midlands region this year. During this time he has made a huge impact on both his regional team and our clients.
He has provided valuable input on safety stand down days and supported client audits for collaboration on projects.
A client said ‘Ryan’s manner, knowledge and relationships with the operational team, safety team and workforce is exemplary – it is evident that Ryan played a big part in the positive safety culture’
You can read more about Ryan’s journey at VGC here.
Winner (Site Staff): Paulo Lapa & Joao Prates, Carpenters, Kier – Mogden Sewage Works
Paulo and Joao were nominated by our client Kier for work that they delivered on Mogden sewage works projects.
They both went above and beyond to deliver to a high standard including the revitalisation of the war memorial on site where they put in new posts, sprayed the chain, remade the crosses, placed the new silhouette, and cleaned and tidied the whole area.
Well done for delivering to the highest standards!
Go here to find out more about Paulo and Loao’s work.
We deliver on our promises:
Highly Commended (Head Office): Christina Donaghey, Marketing and Communications Executive
Christina joined the team in March 2022 and has made a significant impact to her colleagues across the business. She has supported hugely with award submissions and taken full control of all marketing and PR activities for the group. She has also provided extensive support to the CSR team with schools engagement and work experience programmes. Her enthusiasm is infectious and the quality of her work is incredibly high.
Winner (Head Office): Kayleigh Boxley, Labour Manager
Kayleigh Boxley is a recruiting machine! As labour Manager for EKFB on HS2 she has delivered a 50% increase in some of the most challenging geographies to recruit in. She has built fantastic relationships with works managers and foreman on the sites ensuring that she 100% understands their labour requirements and sets high standards for everyone to follow!
Winner (Site Staff): Alec Richards, Civils Package Manager, working for Siemens through VGC Personnel
Alec Richards ins the civils package manager for Siemens through VGC Personnel Our client has commended him for his excellent zero harm behaviours in challenging the civils design on a project. It is these sorts of behaviours that ensure that projects build to the highest standards and that the safety of our people are kept at the focus of all activities.
We look after each other:
Highly Commended: Nicki Mason, General Manager, Cole Hire
Nicki is the general manager at Cole Hire, our vehicle rental business. Nicki has been nominated due to her exemplary service to Cole Hire and looking after her staff to the best of her abilities. She is a great listener and helps resolve issues inside and outside work. She was personally nominated by a member of our team for noticing when they weren’t quite seeming themselves. She paused what she was doing to have a chat with them to make sure they were okay, and she continued to check on this person on a regular basis. She is a great colleague as well as a mental health first aider. Nicki also upholds the highest levels of service for both our internal and external customers making sure we always goes the extra mile to ensure excellent results.
Winner (Head office): Amy Wells, Resourcing and Compliance Specialist
Amy is a resourcing and compliance specialist in the midlands team. Following on from some training on modern slavery awareness, Amy identified some suspicious activity. As a direct result of the training she had the confidence and knowledge about how to escalate the matter for further internal investigation. Thankfully there was a legitimate explanation to the issue but Amy’s actions demonstrated that she was focused on ensuring that everyone that works for us is looked after well.
Winner (Site Staff): Luke Waddy, General Operative, A63 Hull (Balfour Beatty)
Luke Waddy was awarded a medal at the Highways Heroes awards. His award is for a very sensitive issue for which we cannot divulge too much information but in summary he provided support to a very vulnerable member of the public who had gained access to the site. His support ensured that they ended up in a safe place with a level of secondary and professional support.
Outstanding achievement:
Nirvana Murray, Compliance Manager
Nirvana was promoted to the role of Compliance manager for the Labour Solutions team this year, in recognition of the impact she has had in maintaining and promoting high standards within the recruitment and onboarding side of the business. She is a self-confessed non-technical person but has focused herself on self-improvement this year undertaking various courses including Power BI, the winning mindset and excel. She has helped prepare and represent her team at various audits including both client and internal audits, and stepped up to present to the HMRC on the processes VGC have in place to ensure compliance with tax legislation. She is a go to person when people have concerns. Following modern slavery training many colleagues reported concerns to her about some activities. Nirvana fully investigated the matter, took relevant advice and ensures that both the candidate and company were not at risk. Her colleagues have said that Nirvana is the go-to person when they have either professional or personal queries and that as well as providing excellent support, she also has them in fits of laughter!
Sam Balasundaram, Finance Director
After 15 years with VGC Sam is retiring as finance director this year. He has supported VGC throughout our growth from £22 million to £108m million. We are incredibly grateful for all the support, hard work and dedication that Sam has given to VGC.
Enjoy your retirement!
Congratulations to all of the winners, see the 2022 award shortlist page for details of all the people who were shortlisted.
Our end of year review video was also released at the meeting, showcasing VGC’s achievements across the year.
