NMBS achieves Investors in People Gold accreditation

NMBS has gained independent recognition of its progressive employment practices. 

Following an external audit conducted by third party assessors, the UK's largest buying society for independent builders', plumbing and heating, timber, and hardware merchants has secured Investors in People Gold certification.

Second only to Investors in People Platinum status and surpassing the standards demanded by Accredited and Silver statuses, Investors in People Gold is held by only a select number of employers in the UK. 

It places NMBS amongst some of the nation's leading organisations when it comes to people management excellence.

In order to achieve Investors in People Gold, the business was assessed in a number of areas and using a variety of assessment methods - including employee interviews and observations of the NMBS team at work.

The assessors were keen to explore existing working practices and their subsequent outcomes in relation to three key goals - leading, supporting and improving.

In particular, they were looking for evidence of an approach to people management that met nine different criteria: leading and inspiring people; living an organisation's values; empowering and involving people; managing performance; recognising and rewarding high performance; structuring work; building capability; delivering continuous improvement; and creating sustainable success.

NMBS secured Investors in People Gold by being able to demonstrate established and developed practices in all of these nine areas and advanced practices in at least seven of them.

The gold accreditation reflects NMBS' longstanding recognition of the value of its team and builds on the buying society's previous Investors in People Accredited status which it has held since 1995.

Commenting, Chris Hayward, managing director at NMBS, said: "The entire team at NMBS is absolutely delighted that we have achieved the high standards demanded by Investors in People Gold status.

"As a business, our people and our wider culture set us apart and are instrumental in our success.

"So much of what we do is about the team we employ, their knowledge and their commitment to quality as well as their ability to build strong relationships with both our members and suppliers alike.

"The accreditation reflects our genuine appreciation of our workforce and our dedication to their on-going career satisfaction, well-being and continued professional development."

- ENDS - 

Images:

Investors in People Gold logo.jpg

Caption:
Gold standard success.NMBS, the UK's largest buying society for independent builders', plumbing and heating, timber, and hardware merchants, has secured Investors in People Gold accreditation.

For more information on this story, contact Wayne Leith atwayne.leith@nmbs.co.uk 

Notes to editors:

• NMBS (National Merchant Buying Society) is the UK's largest buying group for independent builder's, plumbing and heating, timber and hardware merchants.

• Since its formation over 50 years ago in 1963, NMBS has continued to grow and evolve. Today it represents more 1000 merchant members and enjoys collective buying power in excess of £1.7BN. It uses this buying power to negotiate favourable prices and terms for members from over 600 brand leading, building industry suppliers.

• Collectively, NMBS members operate more than 3000 branches nationwide and achieve annual sales of £7BN. This equates to approximately 40% of the value of the entire merchanting sector.

• Further value-adding services offered by NMBS include credit insurance, marketing support and access to a dedicated and secure portal known as the ‘Report Centre'. This enables members and suppliers to deal with many day-to-day transactional requirements online, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. 

• NMBS also stages regular networking, knowledge sharing and trading events that bring together both its members and suppliers. These events include the NMBS Golf Day, the NMBS Gala Dinner, the NMBS Dinner Dance, the NMBS All-Industry Conference and the NMBS Exhibition.

• As part of its commitment to ‘Strengthening Independents', NMBS not only delivers services and events to enhance the profitability and success of its members but also acts as a voice and as a champion for the independent merchanting sector.

• For more information on NMBS, visit www.nmbs.co.uk