Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 28th September 2023 Issue no. 1082
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Winners announced for the BPCA Member Awards 2023 Awards
The British Pest Control Association’s Member Award winners were announced at the World Pest Day Digital Forum on 6th June. Free to enter and open to all BPCA Members regardless of the size of the company or how long a business has been in BPCA membership, the Awards celebrate positive contributions made by members to the Association and the wider pest management sector.
A number of Awards were presented to winners of six different categories, as well as some highly commended entries. Some of the Awards were nominated by the membership, others were put forward by the BPCA Staff team.
This year sees the previous award for Business and Innovation split into two separate Award categories, and the introduction of two new Awards for sustainability and leadership.
"We had fantastic nominations from a wide variety of individuals and companies, and it was especially great to see a lot of new nominees among some regulars,” reports BPCA head of technical & membership, Dee Ward-Thompso.
"We know that the people in this sector go above and beyond every single day, making a real difference to public health, safety and wellbeing. The Awards are our way of trying to highlight just some of the amazing work done across the UK by pest management professionals.
"Congratulations to all the winners.”
BPCA Leadership Award… This award is designed to recognise business owners, managers and supervisors, that support amazing teams and fantastic pest management companies.
WINNER: John Knight (Vergo Pest Management)
"Strong leaders always lead by example. There are many early mornings and late nights where John can be seen loading his service bag into his car and working on technicians' patches to support them rather than leading from behind a desk.
"He has taken struggling teams and grown them into slick-performing units that deliver time after time. He runs incentives for his team and fun team-building events which help him lead a high performing team.
"John is a fantastic ambassador for our business and the industry and shows how hard work and commitment truly pays off."
HIGHLY COMMENDED: Gabrielle Hogg (Pest Solutions)
BPCA Spotlight Award… This award is designed to recognise those working behind the scenes who keep the industry going. That's support staff, office staff, warehouse staff and anyone else rarely seen or given the opportunity to be in the limelight. The judges felt that the quality of nominations was such that this award needed two winners this year. They are:
* Melanie Kemp (Beaver Pest Control)
* Gary Morris (Vergo Pest Management).
Melanie joined Beaver Pest Control as the companys first administrator in 1999 when it was operating from Graham Lodge's spare room. Since then, for over two decades, Mel has been the backbone of the company's administrative and finance team.
Gary has worked in the pest management industry for over a decade and is currently head of customer services for Vergo Pest Management in the UK. In his role Gary is responsible for leading and managing a team of 29 administrators and supporting key account managers. He plays a crucial role in ensuring the business maintains its focus on providing public health services and delivering high-quality customer service.
Charles Keeble Award… This is awarded to the person who achieves the highest score in the BPCA Certificated Advanced Technician (CAT) accreditation for the previous year.
WINNER: Mary Rudgard (Rentokil)
BPCA Special Contribution Award… This Award is designed to recognise a significant and outstanding contribution to the Association in 2022, exceeding what might usually be expected from members. This may be based on a single but very important action or a continuing series of actions that have impacted others.
WINNER: Philip Halpin (Countrywide Environmental Services and former president of BPCA)
* BPCA Servicing Committee Member
* BPCA Servicing Committee Chair
* BPCA Board Member
* BPCA Vice President
* BPCA President
* Immediate Past President
Phil's contributions to the Association, plus commitment and support to ensuring that the members are well represented, earned him his nomination. His supportive nature and service to the Association and its members has been significant over a prolonged period of time.
Phil was the Board Champion behind the planning, implementation and launch of the BPCA Registered CPD scheme, which should pass 3,000 enrolled pest controllers in 2023 and has been a significant success, highlighting the focus of the Association and its members on training for professionalism in the industry.
Phil has helped steer the Association through the appointment of a new CEO, Stewardship, general licensing issues, Covid, and the Association's 80th Anniversary.
BPCA Outstanding Continuing Professional Development Award… CPD is critical to great pest management. When judging this Award, the team looked for those who had made the most of 2022 and excelled in their CPD journey. They gained points from various activities and across different subject areas showing real creativity and passion for their development.
WINNER: Louise Grant (NBC)
Louise learned new skills through taking advantage of mentoring opportunities through her organisation and then expanding those skills further through formal classroom training. Overall she has demonstrated an integrated approach to CPD with a focus on areas where she knew she wanted to develop.
HIGHLY COMMENDED: Iain Rodgers (Pest Solutions)
BPCA Commitment to Training Award… This Award is designed to recognise a BPCA member who has committed to upskilling their employees.
WINNER: John O'Conner Pest Control
In addition to regularly enrolling employees in a variety of the Association’s core technical training courses, this organisation has vigorously supported the Association’s Onboarding programme and shown a real commitment to the ethos of embedding new recruits.
BPCA Business Growth Award… Since 2004, this company's pest control provision has grown in all areas including financial, number of employees and customers, seeing a huge growth during the pandemic. This continued into 2022, with a 97% increase in turnover and a staff team growing to eight from their initial one technician.
This company has made the most of initiatives such as the BPCA trailblazer group, working with APHA, and investing in its staff and the programmes they use to help them to grow, whilst ensuring its values as a company remain at the core of their focus.
WINNER: John O'Conner Pest Control
HIGHLY COMMENDED:
* Vergo Pest Control
* Pest Solutions.
BPCA Innovation Award… This award is for companies that have innovated their services, products or business structure.
WINNER: National Pest Control Network, made up of Pest Solutions, Beaver Pest Control, Harvey Environmental and Bounty Pest Control
These four companies have demonstrated that innovation is not just about products. This award was won for their contract sharing initiative, and is the first time an award has been won by four BPCA members.
HIGHLY COMMENDED: Contego Pest Control
BPCA Sustainability Award… This award is new for 2022 and was designed to recognise a company that has made a deliberate and conscious effort to reduce its impact on the environment and become more sustainable.
WINNER: Cleankill Pest Control
Cleankill submitted a fabulous entry demonstrating all of the hard work it has put in to ensure that the company is sustainable, whilst protecting public health and safeguarding the environment.
Looking ahead...
Lauren Day, BPCA events manager, comments:
"The Award nomination process is open all year round, meaning nominations for the awards will never close.
"Whenever you see something in the membership community that you think deserves recognition, you can submit a nomination; we encourage you to start applying for next year's awards straight away!"
22nd June 2023