Motivate your staff to transform public services, says P3

Public services will only be saved by social enterprise if organisations engage with and motivate their staff, according to the boss of the 'best company to work for' in the UK.

P3, a social enterprise supporting socially excluded people, topped The Sunday Times list of the top 100 companies to work for for the second time on Sunday.

P3 CEO Martin Kinsella, a Social Enterprise Ambassador, said his enthusiastic and engaged staff were key to providing a 'first-class, cutting edge service', which supports hundreds of people every day.

He added that if the social enterprise sector wanted to have a real impact on the future of public service delivery with its 'added value' approach, it needed to put its staff at the forefront of its operation.

'The most important thing in the future of public services debate about getting more for less is to engage staff and get them motivated. That's where the difference can be made,' Kinsella said.

'It's about people enjoying what they do and taking pride in it. If social enterprise can lead the way in engaging and motivating its workforce, it will show that we can clearly do a better job in public service delivery.'

Kinsella added employees were not turned into a 'happy workforce' with gifts and trips away, but with 'support, training and vision'.

It was the first time the organisation, which has 262 employees, was judged in the mid-sized company category.

It has appeared in the list every year since 2005 and was last at number one in 2007, in the small company category. Last year it was in seventh place.

As well as making it to number one in the list, P3 also scored the lowest levels of stress among its employees (88 per cent) and the highest number of employees who did not feel taken advantage of (83 per cent).