Chwarae Teg Employer of the Year Award

Human Resources staff (from left) Catherine Lees, Nia Meacher and Dr Alison Wiggett with a representative of Employer of the Year Award sponsors, Highgrade Recruitment.: © Chwarae Teg Womenspire Awards 2016 Human Resources staff (from left) Catherine Lees, Nia Meacher and Dr Alison Wiggett with a representative of Employer of the Year Award sponsors, Highgrade Recruitment.: © Chwarae Teg Womenspire Awards 2016

Bangor University has been awarded the ‘Employer of the Year’ (public sector) category in the Chwarae Teg ‘Womenspire’ awards.

This new awards scheme recognises the remarkable contribution made by women across Welsh society and aims to inspire future generations of women to achieve and prosper.  Categories reflect a wide variety of activities and encourage applications from women of all ages and across all walks of life who are proud of what they are achieving – whether it’s in their private or professional lives or in the wider community. Also nominated for the Employer of the Year award were the South Wales Police, DVLA, and Traveline Cymru.

Lyn Meadows, Director of Human Resources at Bangor University said:

“We’re delighted to win Employer of the Year, as we’ve worked hard at the University to review women’s development across our activities, from the promotion of senior staff through to providing encouragement to girls to study STEM subjects.

“We are committed to gender equality and have made changes to processes, which have directly led to an increase in the number of women in senior positions and on key decision making groups. Our activities have also included active support of women’s development and careers and a commitment to provide a wide range of support for staff, including maternity and paternity provisions and other support for staff with young infants.

Joy Kent, chief executive of Chwarae Teg said: “We are so pleased with the first Womenspire awards and it’s been great to hear from people on the night and afterwards that everyone really wants it to become an annual event. If Wales is really going to make the most of women’s contribution to the workplace we need to highlight the challenges women face and celebrate those organisations and people who are doing great work to overcome them.”

Bangor University is also equally committed to advancing women's careers in science, technology, engineering, medicine and mathematics (STEMM), principles which are embodied in the Athena Swan Charter initiative. The University has achieved the Bronze Award and is committed to improvement. The Athena SWAN initiatives and projects address and benefit both staff and students. 

Publication date: 19 April 2016