UBC Celebrates Individual Achievements at Annual Staff Awards

Each year, UBC gathers team members from its 7 business centres across the UK, including head office staff, to reward them for their hard work and dedication over the past 12 months.

In January 2019, the UBC team got together for a day out at Resorts World in Birmingham to celebrate the past year, and to look ahead at what’s to come for the next 12 months.

Before the team set off to enjoy a fun afternoon, MD Richard Johnson announced two awards for UBC Employee of the Year and Team of the Year. This is an opportunity for UBC to celebrate our hardworking and talented staff and to recognise their individual and team achievements, and for the first time, both awards were nominated by colleagues - so everyone at UBC had the opportunity to vote.

The winners are:

Team of the Year – Sarah and Rich, Enterprise House, Southampton
Employee of the Year – Sharon Attwood, Financial Controller, UBC Head Office

Announcing the awards, MD Richard Johnson said:

“Sarah and Richard have had a phenomenal year. Winning the BCA Flexible Workspace of the Year 2018 award is testament to their performance. Everything they do puts our UBC clients first, so it is no surprise Sarah and Rich were very popular nominees and winners.”

Moving onto Employee of the Year, he said:

“This is the first time an employee has won this award for a second year, however Sharon is an incredibly worthy winner. Through Sharon’s direct actions, and those of her team, Sharon has transformed the finance function of UBC, delivering accurate and timely information to all of our centres and all of our clients. Sharon’s actions have been recognised and appreciated company wide, so it was a very popular nomination and award.”

Looking Back Over a Successful Year

Richard noted that 2018 “was a year of successes for UBC”, which included the re-launch of The Mille business centre in Brentford after a complete refurbishment of 16,000 sq ft, “which has received a strong and positive response.”

“Outside of our core business, our support of our chosen charity, Guide Dogs UK, was a resounding success. With the help of our clients UBC surpassed our fund-raising target by over 60%.”

The final total has reached over £4,000, which is an incredible achievement that far surpasses UBC’s initial £2,500 target. UBC also partnered with Enterprise Nation, the nationwide small business group led by Emma Jones, to offer greater support to clients across the country.

“Finally the crowning achievement was winning the BCA Flexible Workspace of the Year award for the second year in a row. This is an industry award, judged by our peers and nominated by our clients, so it is safe to say we doing something right!”

2019: A Year of Expansion

Looking ahead, Richard added:

“2019 is a year for development and growth for team UBC. We are looking to build on the success of 2018 by adding a new business centre location during the year.

“We are also launching a number of initiatives in 2019 that will focus on and improve our client experience, the quality of the UBC business centre environment and our sales process, so that we can capitalise on our strong performance in 2018.”

After Richard’s presentation, the UBC team set off for a very different challenge - the Bear Grylls Base Camp experience. This involved splitting into two teams (Team Richard and Team Tom) and completing four testing activities; Breakout, Survival Maze, Target Archery and Assault Course.

Team Richard was declared the winner after a tough but fun afternoon, and in true UBC spirit, everyone pitched in and supported each other to the finish line, which included helping Team Richard with their celebratory Prosecco!