Rope and Sling Specialists Ltd. (RSS) crowned the winners of its first ever company awards at a gala evening held at the Village Hotel Swansea, Wales.
The lifting and rigging equipment supplier announced the victors in 11 different categories, from Digitalisation to Young Person, in front of 140 staff and guests at a ceremony that was co-located with the company’s annual festive celebration.
The awards were the brainchild of Steve Hutin, managing director at RSS, who wanted to devise a concept that would recognise the outstanding achievement of a nationwide workforce that will soon be spread across 14 UK facilities.
He said: “Constant expansion and growth doesn’t come without exceptional performances from individuals and teams that execute strategy. However, such a dynamic environment can lead to a culture wherein those contributions are overlooked; we wanted to avoid that and create a vehicle whereby we could take a moment to celebrate certain members of staff and high-performing depots.”
Over 30 nominations were put forward by RSS directors; winners were chosen based on a variety of criteria in each category. Stephen Littler, regional manager, was named Manager of the Year. He was shortlisted alongside Jack Sleeman, depot manager; and Jake Folkes, manager. Sleeman held off competition from Marcus Small, office manager; Graham Dawson, depot manager; and Paul Smith, depot manager in the Team Player category. The company’s Warrington facility won Depot of the Year, with Pyle and Minworth also in the running.
Carl Coysh, depot manager, was named Rising Star, while Chris Winton, hire and sales coordinator; and Tony Mac, depot manager, were also nominated. At just 19 years old, Morgan Wright, apprentice, was presented with the Young Person award. Lee Gibson, fabricator / welder apprentice; and Jack Campbell, apprentice, also received nominations. Erin Thomas, health, safety, and environment (HSE) manager, won the Safety award; Alan Varney, engineering services director; and Andy Hawkins, LEEA accredited trainer, were also nominated.
Lacey Brown’s leadership in Sage accounting software saw the company’s assistant financial controller win the Trainer of the Year award, but Mark Barnard, operations manager; and Hawkins were also recognised for contributions to training in RSS Live365, the company’s online inspection software, and other systems. It was Live365 that secured the Digitalisation award for Folkes; Littler and Barnard were also nominated.
Winner of the Lifting Engineer award was Derryl Godwin, senior lifting engineer. Four others were nominated for directors’ consideration: Steve Conroy, senior lifting engineer; Scott Hessey, engineer; Tony Hooper, senior lifting engineer; and Gary Coleman, site engineer. Smith backed up his Team Player nomination by winning the Outstanding Impact award; Sophie Coleman, depot manager, and Hawkins were shortlisted. Additionally, the latter received a special award for the Most Nominations across all categories.
Hutin said: “Our winners spanned a number of geographies and generations; some have been with us a long time, while others were commended for the potential that they have showed in the early months and years they have been working with us.
“It has been a year of challenges and opportunities in equal measure, but, thanks to our award winners and all members of staff, we feel well equipped to move to the next stage of growth in 2025.”
Full list of winners:
- Manager of the Year: Stephen Littler
- Depot of the Year: Warrington
- Team Player: Jack Sleeman
- Rising Star: Carl Coysh
- Young Person: Morgan Wright
- Trainer of the Year: Lacey Brown
- Digitalisation: Minworth (Jake Folkes)
- Safety: Erin Thomas
- Lifting Engineer: Derryl Godwin
- Outstanding Impact: Paul Smith
- Most Nominations: Andy Hawkins