We Are Hereford and Worcestershire Chamber of Commerce Awards Finalists!

Payara Services have been shortlisted in a total of 4 Hereford and Worcestershire Chamber of Commerce Awards ! These awards, organised by the prestigious local branch of the UK wide British Chambers of Commerce business network, aim to raise profile and celebrate excellence in a range of businesses across the two counties local to our Malvern office.

We are shortlisted for the below categories:

  • Employer of the Year
  • Small Business of the Year
  • Health and Wellbeing in the Workplace
  • Exporter of the Year

Winners will be announced on Thursday 2 September in a black tie ceremony at the Worcester Arena. The quartet of award categories we are finalists in cover both HR and business success. More HR orientated is Employer of the Year – honouring organisations that demonstrate excellence in the promotion of a learning and development culture – and Health and Wellbeing in the Workplace, which aims to recognise that the wellbeing of employees is embedded in business culture.

On the more financial and corporate side, Small Business of the Year will go to the company that has achieved consistent growth backed by strong financial performance and market knowledge, whilst Exporter of the Year honours those how stand out on the international stage. We’ve already seen recognition this year for our global success, achieving the Queen’s Award for Enterprise for International Trade in April.  Read more here about this prestigious “Knighthood for Businesses”.

Hereford & Worcester Chambers Awards finalists

In Our Own Words: What Being a Finalist Means to Us

We talked to our HR and Operations Manager Julia Millidge about what being shortlisted in the awards means to us.

“Becoming a finalist in these four categories shows that we are a thriving local business with innovative practices across a wide range of business activities. We are passionate about our people and product achieving their full potential. It’s been a tough 18 months for many businesses and there has been, and will be, many challenges ahead, but through support at both local and national levels and a willingness of leadership to adapt and innovate, businesses have an amazing opportunity to look at best practice and reinvent themselves to be competitive in a global market space.

As a ‘Remote first’ business that was born global, Payara has always been innovative in the way it approached business. We have a globally distributed work force; we were early investors in remote working technology enabling us to communicate and imagine across multiple time zones, languages and cultures, and we placed our people at the heart of what we do – giving them the freedom and support to imagine and create open-source software that is valued and appreciated by our global customer base.”

  • What does being finalists in these awards mean for the Payara team / Why is this form of recognition important?

“External recognition is always very rewarding for a business – it shows that your business peers see the value and best practice in what your business does. At the heart of Payara is our people, and without such a loyal, trusted, and passionate team, Payara would not be the amazing place to work that it currently is. The Payara team appreciate that being finalists showcases the work they do and how together we can make a difference.”

  • We’re nominated in the ‘Health and Wellbeing’ category. In your opinion, why is health and wellbeing so important for employers to prioritize?

“The challenges of the last 18 months have taken a severe toll on most people’s mental and physical health and any employer who does not prioritize their staff’s health and wellbeing will rapidly lose those staff. Having a strong and tailored health and wellbeing strategy makes us an employer of choice globally. We incorporate health and wellbeing campaigns into our daily business activities that have been informed by data collected to show annual trends in our staff wellbeing, so we can focus help and resources where needed. A happy and healthy workforce leads to greater productivity and many other benefits, but most of all shows your staff that you care and value them as individuals. In turbulent times, knowing our staff are loyal and committed to supporting the business offers us the reassurance to look to growth and investment.”

  • What do you think has been the team’s biggest achievement in the past year? 

“We were already a successful remote working business, used to the management and communications styles that new technologies have enabled, so the recent challenges some businesses have faced have not affected Payara much. Therefore, I would say the biggest achievement in the last year has been to build a high functioning Sales team who are focused on exceeding targets and growing our customer markets. Also worth noting is our very high staff ‘satisfaction with the business’ rating – even through a stressful year our team has supported, encouraged and cared for each other.”

  • What does it mean for us to be a global business with a Worcestershire office, in your words? 

“Payara was founded in Malvern, Worcestershire, and like any living thing hopes to grow and fulfil its potential. Payara’s potential is summarised in its mission statement “to grow a sustainable business that imagines and creates innovative, trusted, open source software and services that are widely used, deliver value and are loved by our users”. To do this we have formed a close-knit team with strong core values which extends globally. The staff based in the Malvern office are very much a part of the global team and this introduces them to new concepts, cultures, and attitudes which they in turn share with local people bringing a richness to Malvern and Worcestershire business life.”

  • How does being a top exporter bring benefits on a county level? 

“Payara was born global.  Due to its success in sales overseas, Payara revenues increased which has enabled the business to invest in many corporate social responsibility projects for the benefit of its staff and also the local community. We are also a growing business offering employment to a wide range of local people. Being a tech-based business, we strongly support local schools and colleges with STEM educational and career-based projects and work in partnership with Aston University to run a degree apprenticeship program that enables local people to ‘earn while they learn’ and build a highly skilled workforce in tech that could potentially attract future employers to the area.”

Watch this space to find out how we do in the September awards themselves – wish us luck!

Read our ‘Fish Food’ blog to find out more about the HR, Marketing and Sales input it takes to grow a thriving team: 

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