Gripple, the Sheffield-based employee-owned manufacturer of wire joiners and tensioners and suspension solutions for agriculture, construction, solar and infrastructure, celebrated with colleagues from across the globe at its fifth annual GLIDE Awards held in Sheffield recently.

The GLIDE Awards, which recognise excellence and dedication amongst Gripple employees, is a unique celebration of the people that best represent Gripple Spirit.  Colleagues from all Gripple territories, including Europe, USA, Canada and India, joined the UK team at the Sheffield event which celebrated the achievements of the 14 finalists for each region’s coveted GLIDE Award winner title.

Since 1994, all Gripple employees have had the opportunity to own a piece of the business and in 2011, GLIDE (Growth Led Innovation Driven Employee) Company was born.  The annual GLIDE Awards celebrate the core values of Gripple, with colleagues voting for other team members across seven categories, including Learning, Communication, Community, Teamwork, Innovation, Fun & Laughter and Leadership. 

This year, the awards received an overwhelming response with over 2,000 nominations, including 700 votes received from the UK alone.

The GLIDE Reps, who are elected solely by shareholder employees from each Gripple company, have many duties in representing shareholders and they are also responsible for reviewing the Award nominations.  There are 42 GLIDE Reps around the globe who decide the winners on the strength of the nominations.  This includes the highly prestigious GLIDE Award winner, with two people selected from each Gripple territory for the GLIDE Awards final, which took place at GLIDE House in Sheffield on Friday 27th October. 

Congratulations to UK category winners Isabel Laroche, Jake Hallatt, The Old West Gun Works Packing team and Gary Hallatt, Phil Healey, Will Banks, Dan Spooner, the Finance Team and Robbie Sanderson.  All category winners were invited to the awards event where they were presented with trophies in recognition of their efforts, by Deb Oxley, former CEO of the Employee Ownership Association, who hosted the evening.

Michael Hodgson, Chair of GLIDE, explains: “We had a tremendous response from our employees across the business this year, with a record-breaking number of nominations.  Now in their 5th year, the GLIDE awards are the highlight of our calendar, helping us to recognise our people and their outstanding achievements.” 

He adds: “I would like to congratulate everyone who was highly commended or won a GLIDE award.  Reading through the nominations is a fantastic part of the process for our GLIDE Reps as it shows us just how colleagues are demonstrating our values in their day to day lives, including driving innovation, working as a team and most importantly, having fun – well done to all!”

The UK GLIDE Awards finalists were Judit Rusznyak, a quality engineer at Norfolk Bridge and Hawke Street in Sheffield and Bradley Allott.  Bradley, a diecasting facilitator at Gripple’s Hellaby site in Rotherham, was selected as the winner of the prestigious title.  Video footage played at the awards event demonstrated how he was admired by colleagues for his tireless work ethic and unwavering commitment to the business – which earned him the title of being one of Gripple’s best operators.  Bradley received a prize of a trip to a Gripple location of his choice plus an extra day’s annual leave.

There were also GLIDE Award winners from each of the Gripple territories.  Congratulations go to Talel Bouquila (Gripple Europe), Mukesh Kumar Yadav (Gripple India), Yanick Dussault (Gripple Canada), Mick Blacktin (Loadhog) and Nick Jones (GoTools).

The GLIDE Awards is a group-wide awards scheme which includes all Gripple GLIDE member businesses including GoTools and Loadhog. 

The GLIDE Awards are a celebration of shared GLIDE values, incorporating the Gripple Spirit principles. Gripple Spirit involves more than just getting the job done, but also sees employees contributing to the present and working towards an ambitious future. Gripple is committed to its people and the company aims to recruit people who share its values – of fun, innovation, passion, entrepreneurship, teamwork, integrity - who are invested in the shared purpose to be a fun, rewarding place to work.