Fortel is celebrating following a double win at this year’s Birmingham BusinessLive Awards having been crowned Company of the Year and Diversity and Inclusion champions.
The leading supplier of labour to the construction industry picked up the two awards this month (March) which are run in association with the Birmingham Post and were held at the ICC.
Fortel were praised by judges for being ‘disruptors in its field’ who also said they were impressed by its work within D&I, as well as excelling in a difficult sector during the pandemic.
Also mentioned was the campaign #MakeItStick, which has been spearheaded by Fortel Group to help construction workers across the UK know they have allies at work they can talk to, with staff being trained in Mental Health First Aid, Mental Health Awareness, Fairness, Inclusion & respect, or LGCTQ+ training and then wearing stickers on their hard hats to highlight their knowledge and training.
The company’s training academy, charitable work, keynote speaker events and also its Top 5 by 2025 initiative, which promises to increase under-represented demographics in its own workforce by 25 per cent in the next three years, were also noted.
Birmingham Post editor Graeme Brown said: “My congratulations goes to all our finalists and winners and especially to Fortel.
“Diversity and Inclusion in the business world has moved on from the fringes to the heart of the conversation, so perhaps it is fitting that the winner of our first ever D&I award has been named our overcall Company of the Year.
“Our judging panel was impressed with its commitment to helping all sections of society to address a cripping skills shortage in the construction industry,” he added.
Fortel Group COO Amar Sandhawali said: “Diversity is at the forefront of what we do as a company and as an industry going forward, we have to diversify and move into different pools for talent selection which hasn’t been done in the past.
“We are glad to be working within our communities, within schools and colleges and with our clients. We shall be continuing on this path, looking across all areas of our industry and strive to make them more inclusive,” he added.
Fortel Nijjer, CEO of Fortel said he wanted to thank the whole team for working so hard during what had been such a turbulent two years.
“We are just thrilled to have picked up these awards, and they are testament to the hard work of not just our management team, but each and every one working for Fortel Group. This means a lot to us all,” he said.
This is the second and third awards Fortel Group has picked up this year. In February, Nexus Security picked up the accolade for Enterprise of the Year at The Signature Awards for developing a new app called Leaf.
