A leading firm of Chartered Accountants from Wrexham has been hailed as “world class” after becoming the first in Wales to win a prestigious accolade.
The glowing tribute to Chartered Accountants Coxeys came from local AM Lesley Griffiths, who controls the biggest budget in Wales as Health Minister in the Welsh Government.
She was speaking at a special celebration after Coxeys was awarded Investors In People Gold.
Coxeys are the first accountancy firm in Wales to be judged worthy of the coveted award which was presented by the Minister.
Lesley Griffiths said: “As the Assembly Member for Wrexham, it’s always fantastic to hear about a good news story like this in the area and to be able to come here and celebrate it with you.
“I was previously Deputy Minister for Science, Innovation and Skills for 16 months and IIP was part of my portfolio and in that time I presented just one gold award and that was to the Wales Millennium Centre which is a massive organisation.
“To be the first accountancy firm in Wales to win this award shows you are comparable with the world’s best.
“Upskilling our workforce and developing them is really important if we want to compete on the world stage and the fact that Coxeys has attained gold shows they take that very seriously and I’m delighted a Wrexham firm is at the forefront in this.”
The IIP scheme aims to encourage greater employee engagement and development within firms and organisations and the gold standard is the highest level that can be achieved and follows a rigorous on-site assessment.
Coxeys Director Gill Atkinson said: “We’re delighted that Coxeys is the first accountancy practice in Wales – and one of the first in the UK – to receive this award is very important to us.
“The assessor told us that gold represents world class best practice and shows that we are a really cutting edge organisation operating at the highest level of people management practice.
“We used the IIP framework as a business model for excellence – and we consider the award as much more than just a kitemark, it’s embedded in our ethos of client care and staff development.
“We wanted to challenge the way we were doing things and have put massive effort and energy into people management and this really is the icing on the cake.
“The award has been achieved against a backdrop of economic gloom and we have used IIP as means of navigating the recession.
“We concentrated first on clients’ needs as we always want to exceed their expectations – and we know we are doing that from the feedback we receive.
“We also wanted to work with the people within Coxeys by providing training opportunities and fostering personal development as a means of ensuring that the future growth of the company is in safe hands.
“It is important to us that people feel secure in their jobs. It’s never been more important for people to feel safe and valued at work.
“IIP also requires you to look at areas you don’t always prioritise and as part of the process we have developed a new social responsibility policy.
“One of the early initiatives of the new policy was booklet entitled 147 Ways to Beat The Recession which provides advice on how to cope with the economic downturn.
“We have also been closely involved with the successful launch of the Wrexham Business Professionals for the town’s accountants and solicitors.
“The group now has more than 40 members and aims to show that businesses don’t have to look over the border for top quality business services.”
