Q&A with Gabi Sanchez from Verisure UK

We caught up with Gabi Sanchez, Managing Director at certified Top Employer Verisure UK who reveals how they retain talent in a competitive market, the fantastic wellbeing initiatives in place, and how the organisation utilises AI to enhance DEI within its recruitment processes and to boost efficiency and productivity across the board.

Introduce yourself and tell us about your organisation

My name is Gabi Sanchez, I am the Managing Director of Verisure UK. We are the leading European provider of professionally monitored security systems. We are proud to protect over 5 million customers in 17 countries in Europe and Latin America. Our mission is to bring peace of mind to families and small business owners by providing them with the best security solutions and services.

What makes Verisure UK a Top Employer?

We recognise the importance of continuous career development and wellbeing. Our initiatives are constantly evolving to allow our colleagues to grow both professionally and personally. We are delighted to offer a range of training and development courses, weekly check-ins, and annual career discussions to empower colleagues to reach their full potential.

We believe that personal wellbeing is critical to the overall growth of our colleagues, we offer a comprehensive employee benefits package to improve our colleague’s well-being, including private medical insurance, pension, flexible working, health and wellbeing programmes, away days, financial advisors, a day off for birthdays and many more.

Additionally, we have created spaces that foster a collaborative and innovative work environment. Our offices are designed to enhance productivity and satisfaction, with amenities such as subsidised canteen, games room and break out spaces in our Newcastle Centre of Excellence.

What is the biggest people challenge your business faces in 2024? And what will you do to meet this challenge?

One of our challenges revolves around talent retention and development in a competitive market. As one of the UK’s leading monitored alarm companies, we recognise the critical role our employees play in delivering exceptional service and driving innovation. As a result, we are continuously investing in tailored training, competitive benefits packages, providing clear career paths, and addressing feedback to retain top talent and remain competitive.

Tell us about a recent HR initiative you have instigated within your organisation that you are most proud of?

We are immensely proud of the initiatives we have implemented. One standout initiative is our Mental Health First Aiders program, a vital support system for colleagues navigating mental health challenges. This program cultivates an environment where individuals feel supported and empowered to seek assistance, resulting in improved mental health and overall wellbeing throughout our workplace. Furthermore, we extend a 24-hour counselling service through Aviva, ensuring that our team members have access to professional support whenever they need it.

How is AI affecting your business?

AI has become a transformative force in our business, impacting our people practices in different ways. One notable aspect is our utilisation of AI tools to enhance diversity and inclusion within our recruitment processes. We employ an AI tool to ensure gender-neutral language in our job ads, mitigating unconscious biases and promoting equal opportunities for all candidates. In addition, we’ve implemented an AI tool called Co-Pilot, which streamlines our work processes and workflows, allowing our teams to focus on strategic initiatives rather than repetitive administrative tasks. By automating routine processes, we’ve been able to boost efficiency and productivity across the board.

Which wellbeing offerings in your business are proving the most popular with employees? And which are proving the most effective in terms of their impact?

Our flexible working opportunities and private healthcare are two of the most popular and impactful wellbeing offerings among our employees.

Our colleagues are given the flexibility to work remotely from home or abroad or simply adjust their hours to suit their schedule depending on their role. This plays a huge role improving work-life balance and maintaining high satisfaction levels. Additionally, our private healthcare offering has been incredibly popular. It has had a significant positive effect on our employees’ well-being. Our private healthcare option contributes to better overall health and morale within the team, and we continue to receive positive feedback on both fronts.

Have you any new DEI initiatives you can tell us about that help you tap into fresh sources of talent?

We have several DEI initiatives that help us tap into fresh sources of talent both internally and externally. This year, one of the exciting outcomes from our DEI roundtable is the launch of an internal job fair. This allows us to tap into fresh sources of talent within our existing workforce and promote internal mobility. It also provides an opportunity for our colleagues to meet colleagues from different departments and discover different opportunities that they didn’t know is available to them.

What’s next? Tell us about a new initiative/project for 2024 that you’re most excited about?

This year brings a wave of exciting new initiatives and roles. We are on the lookout for talented individuals, who would like to grow with our company. The roles currently available include customer service representatives, sales executives to Alarm Receiving Centre Ambassadors and many more. We offer extensive on the job training and a supportive work environment that empowers individuals to thrive and advance their careers. We’re also launching thrilling new initiatives, such as new television campaigns, so people can expect to see a lot more of our branding throughout the year!

Best Practice | Conscious Leadership Builds an Inclusive and Effective Culture at Boehringer Ingelheim



At Boehringer Ingelheim Mexico, leaders are crucial for shaping a culture where all employees can feel a sense of belonging within the organisation. As role models, they help to set the scene and show that diversity and inclusion are priorities. For the organisation, the meaning of diversity refers to diversity of thought, while inclusion is how they bring different perspectives and ideas together for innovation. 

This best practice focuses on developing a new generation of inclusive leaders through a series of targeted training modules to enable them to foster psychological safety at all organisational levels and identify issues arising from micro-aggressions, harassment, discrimination, and unconscious biases. The basis for this transformation was a “Conscious Business Leadership Programme,” an Unconscious Bias e-learning course, and Psychological Safety & Speak Up workshops. 

This is just a snapshot of Boehringer Ingelheim’s innovative best practice. You can find the entire practice in our HR Best Practices database, which is exclusively available to Top Employers. Get inspiration and insight into the approach, challenges and learnings experienced by certified Top Employers. Access it now via the Top Employers Programme if you are certified or learn more about it here! 

Why the practice was needed 

Culture and leadership are inextricably linked: consciously or unconsciously, leaders foster the values and beliefs that underpin an organisation’s culture and imprint values and assumptions that persist for decades. An organisation’s leaders can also shape culture over time through their conscious and unconscious behaviours. 

Boehringer Ingelheim Mexico recognises that being able to promote their organisation as one where different genders, identities, races, ages, and backgrounds are celebrated is directly linked to increased employee engagement, innovation, and productivity. Prioritising diversity and inclusion training at all levels, but especially for the role models who lead organisational culture, is key to facilitating true inclusivity. Without engaged leadership, such activities can become nothing more than corporate speak. 

How the practice was implemented 

Boehringer Ingelheim Mexico has implemented a Leadership Journey that includes comprehensive D&I training. Traditionally, in business, leaders are often selected based on their individual success. At Boehringer Ingelheim Mexico, developing leadership skills goes beyond technical skills; the ethical aspect of leadership has become imperative. Leaders are asked to grow in their roles in a human sense. 

These programmes aim to evoke the internal commitment of the team members to accomplish the organisation’s mission with effectiveness and integrity. It means doing so with the understanding that their team members are human beings who will only do their best if they are inspired, feel safe, and believe they are truly included and have a sense of belonging in the organisation. 

All leaders in the company are required to participate in training programmes to ensure that they all operate from the same basis for managing talent within the organisation.  For D&I, their Leadership Journey includes four programmes: 

1. Unconscious Bias e-Learning accessible through an online D&I channel 

1. Psychological Safety & Speak Up leadership workshops 

1. People Growth + Diversity & Inclusion + Belonging: D&I topics as part of management are addressed during the mandatory training for Boehringer Ingelheim leaders. The training includes skills and tools for communication, feedback, and feedforward. 

1. Conscious Business Leadership Programme: developed and presented in conjunction with Fred Kofman, a renowned Executive Coach and Advisor on leadership and culture and Founder of the Conscious Business Center. Over the course of 32 weeks, leaders engage in learning about the following topics: leadership, culture, communication, responsibility, humility, collaboration, resolution (honesty), coordination (commitments), essentialism, co-evaluation (feedback), emotions, meditation, perspectives (empathy), stoicism (flourishing), teamwork, coaching, capitalism (ethics), anti-capitalism (justice), and the West (economy and citizenship). 

The web platform, for leaders and direct reports, was created on the company’s intranet.  This space is available to ensure that employees are able to find all the information they need and more to reinforce an open, just and equitable culture. In this way, leaders have access to information from anywhere, at any time, to be able to effectively address issues such as micro-aggressions, bullying, discrimination, etc. 

The Conscious Business Leadership Programme was designed and aligned with the company’s corporate competencies, behaviours and code of ethics, allowing Boehringer Ingelheim Mexico’s leaders (Directors, Senior Management and Middle Management) to put the organisation’s philosophy and values into practice on a daily basis within their teams. Their leaders learn to manage by improving effectiveness, caring for collaborative relationships with their team and peers, as well as promoting the welfare of all involved. 

Leadership is divided into three cohorts, and the programme is tailored accordingly. Thereafter, the training is cascaded throughout the organisation. Those three cohorts are:  

• Cohort 1: Senior Leadership 

• Cohort 2 and 3: Leaders across the business functions 

The results of the practice: 

To measure the effectiveness of this best practice, a global survey is undertaken annually across Boehringer Ingelheim countries, totalling 54 000 employees. Each country has its own results and a comparison with the global results.  Below are a selection of the results Boehringer Ingelheim Mexico has obtained that are directly related to the leadership development trainings and coaching discussed in this best practice: 

• 86% agree that leaders work effectively with people who are different from themselves. 
• 93% agree that people are treated with respect in Boehringer Ingelheim, regardless of their job, level, etc. 
• 98% agree that the values of Boehringer Ingelheim and the principles of the Code of Conduct support employees in their work on a day-to-day basis. 

Notable Quotes:

“No matter what position you hold in the company, you can make a huge impact with what you say and how you say it.”  Luis Carlos Pérez, Director of Communication 

“Regardless of position or rank, lets demand that we work with the principles of Conscious Business. It is the most efficient and fastest way to establish a conscious business culture.”  Augusto Muench, CEO 

Haier Europe: Elevating its People Practices with the Top Employers Programme

About Haier Europe

Haier Europe is a global leader in home appliances and consumer electronics, recognised for 15 consecutive years as the world’s No.1 brand globally in major appliances, selling under the Candy, Hoover and Haier brands. The organisation comprises of 750 colleagues in the UK&I and 100,000 globally.

Haier Europe’s Top Employers Journey

Haier Europe had been on an improvement journey, investing heavily in people systems, processes and benefits and whilst colleagues inside the business would have seen the transformation, they wanted to receive external recognition in order to attract great talent, and give candidates the confidence to know that they had been certified by an external, independent validation process. They therefore joined the Top Employers Certification Programme, and following completion of the HR Best Practices Survey and Validation Process, were certified as a UK Top Employer 2023.

Elevating its People Practices

“We have definitely seen the profile of our employer brand increase, we see our candidate numbers are very strong and our retention figures are improving in key areas, but the most important outcome from joining the Top Employers Programme is that it has really made Haier Europe a better workplace for our colleagues because it has given us the impetus and direction to keep improving.” Matthew Given, Group HR Director UK & Ireland, Haier Europe

Having achieved Top Employer Certification in year one, the Haier Europe team immediately started work on its action plan to further improve its HR, using the Top Employers Results Dashboard. They did this by:

• Having a dedicated team of specialists within the HR team working on the Top Employers Certification project.
• Aligning the Top Employers HR Best Practices Survey topics and results with the action plans and choosing focus areas which would add most value to the business.
• Regularly reviewing with the team each quarter to ensure that improvements were being made within these focus areas.

Impressive results

In year two, following on from the action planning, Haier Europe increased their score on the Top Employers Best Practices Survey by 20% points.

They had prioritised Employee Listening, wellbeing and DEI, with the new colleague listening strategy bringing great insights and making sure that they really understood how colleagues felt about the business and its programmes. They also mapped, explored and improved many more colleague and candidate journeys.

The leadership team has also taken notice of the tremendous progress and are now championing many new initiatives across engagement, wellbeing and DEI.

Whitepaper | A Step-by-Step Process to Driving ROI and Growth through Effective Wellbeing Practices

Employee wellbeing is not just a trendy buzzword but a critical factor that directly impacts organisational success.

Employee wellbeing is not just a trendy buzzword but a critical factor that directly impacts organisational success. Over 95% of Certified Top Employers understand wellbeing’s importance as a strategic priority.

While many organisations are working to embrace effective wellbeing practices, they are still weighing up the return-on-investment on these initiatives.

In our latest whitepaper, A Step-by-Step Process to Driving ROI and Growth through Effective Wellbeing Practices, we are diving into the data around wellbeing with practical actions that businesses can put into practice to get the best out of their people.

Download the whitepaper for free to discover:

• How employee wellbeing is critical for the success of an organisation.
• A data-driven approach to making wellbeing decisions that involves three pillars: a holistic strategy that covers the health of body, mind, and spirit; predefined metrics to measure and track wellbeing trends; and regular evaluation of the utilization and satisfaction of wellbeing programs.
• How to effectively evaluate wellbeing programs with information about how organisations should define objectives, identify root causes of problems and challenges.

Global Work from Home Day 2024

It is safe to say that the way we work has changed fundamentally. Today’s workforce has expanded through digital connectivity and remote collaboration.

As organisations all over the world adapt to new work models, we celebrate Global Work from Home Day as the vehicle through which employees and employers celebrate the flexibility and productivity obtained through remote work.

What are some of the key benefits of working from home? 

When allowing the flexibility to work from home, organisations are creating a positive work environment for all kinds of living situations, life phases, and personal preferences, this takes out of the equation the exclusion that happens when you dictate how people should relate themselves to work. 

Inclusivity brings multiple advantages to adopting a work from home model because it benefits both the employee and the employer.

Employers see a bigger pool of people who can be successful at the organisation. For professionals, an enhanced opportunity to choose how they work is offered. The added autonomy of working at home, office, or shared workspace increases their wellbeing. Moreover it conveys a employee-centric approach, which can boost engagement and therefore improve overall company performance.

How do employees relate themselves to work? 

We see high engagement at Top Employers, even with people working from home, but we know the key is to make sure we maintain this level of engagement. We must continually gather information to develop ways to stay connected as the organisation grows. That is why we focus on the importance of creating a programme that is intentional by design.  

To create an intentional programme, we must first know the relationship between employees and their work.  This is possible, through hr analytics and employee insights.In organisations with a human-centric approach, there is the employee, then the team, then the company, and this needs to be well defined.

At Top Employers Institute, we continue to develop the process of defining how the employee relates to the team and the company to offer them a journey that is aligned throughout the world.

This explains how we look at variables like work location and decide what needs to be in place no matter where you work to keep high levels of engagement. 

Download Now: Navigating a Dynamic Workforce 

How do we stay connected working from home? 

Intentional connection is the key. By making connectivity a goal, we see how working from home fits into the bigger picture of how professionals work and how this shapes the employee-employer relationship.

Connection can’t be left up to chance. It must be worked into an organisation’s goals, and these goals should answer questions like what the relationship between the employees and the employer should look like. How do the employees relate to the work at hand and to the overall goals of the organisation? 

Working from home should not equal working in isolation. There should always be opportunities for employees to learn from each other and model behaviours that create the corporate culture, not in a forced way, but because they like it.  

Practical examples include: 

• Creating an environment that promotes the exchange of information. 
• Fostering efficient processes that support an employee’s best performance. 
• Encouraging a sense of belonging through shared rituals like traditions or team events that improve the employee experience. 
• Providing opportunities for employees to contribute to the company’s narrative and identity. 
• Understanding that this is a work in progress and that growth and change are vital to creating a good programme for the employees. 

What are some things to be aware of when working from home? 

Employees must have what they need to perform their role. This is not just in physical items like computers and desks but also in processes that allow for connection with colleagues and managers, including periodic connections to evaluate performance and ensure goals are being met.  

Keeping a work-life balance can sometimes be harder. One surprising fact is that many people tend to work more when working from home because they’re relaxed and forget the time.

Finding the balance when working from home is an important part of why this arrangement must be intentionally planned as it is important to the employee’s wellbeing. 

How can an employee advocate for remote work accommodations? 

An employee’s work environment needs to match their own beliefs and vision to bring about the best work. It’s a very personal decision, and it won’t look the same for all employees. Our belief at Top Employers Institute is that everyone we hire is a professional and is motivated.

The organisation and the employee should work as a team to make sure the employee has what they need to be successful because the motivation is already there. It’s hard to believe that providing employees with what they need to fulfil their duties doesn’t link to better financial results for the company because people are happier, and happier people perform better.  

When advocating for this type of work arrangement, the organisation must be able to see how this is of mutual advantage. The culture in the organisation must be the type that believes that giving people autonomy will produce better employees, so making a business case for this type of work set-up must show how it will improve productivity. 

What advice do you have for companies deciding on their policy for a work from home programme? 

For us, the priority is getting the right person for the job rather than the right person, in the right place, in the right time zone, and in the right phase of their lives for the job. The model is simple, but the effect is huge. There are a lot of systems to hold up this style of working but having a productive workforce should be the goal. 

Organisations are hiring professionals, and the expectation is that they should know what they need to be successful. This can only happen once the definition of success inside the organisation has been explained. A certain balance in autonomy, sense of belonging, and a clear picture of what is expected of the professional is the key to developing a great work from home programme.  

Part of it is, of course, where the employee is physically doing the work. The other part is how they are staying engaged. Are they collaborating? Do they feel connected? Many elements that can be used to create the right work from home environment, and this is where we should focus on the philosophy or point of view and not where a person is physically working.  

The role of the organisation is in coordinating the matrix that facilitates the connections to happen between employees. Reinforcing the culture, common language style, ad hoc encounters, and building relationships are some of the tools an organisation can use to facilitate connections between employees.  

Organisations that keep a human-centric approach must continually ask if policies are still working for the wellbeing of the employees and for reaching the organisation’s goals. We need to make sure we take care of each other; if one sees the other is not doing well in our definition of success, it’s my responsibility to help you out.

Your success is my success. The human-centric approach towards working from home is just one element of a whole approach to a person-centric work culture and it’s what we believe is the right thing to do for a successful company. 

During Top Employers Inspire 2023, we got an insider’s view of how Top Employers Institute is becoming a human-centric organisation. Paola Bottaro, People Director at Top Employers Institute, talked to Wouter van Ewijk about how the business has adapted to support its employees better while learning to be mindful, empathetic, and purposeful. You can watch that session here. 

Final thoughts: the shift to remote work has significantly enhanced the digital employee experience

As technology becomes the primary means of communication, collaboration, and productivity, working from home has increased reliance on digital tools, like video conferencing, project management software, and virtual collaboration platforms.

This shapes the way employees interact with colleagues and complete their tasks.

This digital transformation has not only made work more flexible but also redefined workplace culture, as organizations invest in fostering engagement, well-being, and professional development through digital channels.

As remote work continues to evolve, the digital employee experience will likely play an even more central role in shaping organizational success and employee satisfaction.

Best Practice | Virtusa’s Talent Digital Transformation

Certified Top Employer, Virtusa, committed to an 18-month-long HR digital transformation to dramatically change the digital experience for their employees, covering everything from recruiting and onboarding to learning and development, inclusion, and rewards. The organisation did not simply make small incremental changes; they reimagined all their processes and radically transformed them into a single, fully integrated, hyper-personalised employee platform.

This is just a snapshot of Virtusa’s innovative best practice. You can find the entire practice in our HR Best Practices database, which is exclusively available to Top Employers. Get inspiration and insight into the approach, challenges and learnings experienced by certified Top Employers. Access it now via the Top Employers Programme if you are certified or learn more about it here! 

Why the practice was needed:

Although technology is at the core of their business, Virtusa struggled to make technology work correctly for their employees. They had too many disjointed systems that were not creating a seamless employee experience. The systems were not driving engagement or speaking to one another. Eranga Pathirage, VP & Head of HR for the UK, Europe, and the Middle East + the Global Head of HR Tech Transformation, helped the organisation dramatically improve its talent understanding and engagement through a digital HR transformation.

Pathirage recalls that they already had all this valuable data about their 35 000 employees across 25 countries. As a provider of technical services, they respected and knew the power of technology. They saw a solution in centring the relationship between technology and their employees to drive adoption and employee loyalty.

Read More: Best Practice | Momentum Metropolitan’s Offboarding Practice

How they implemented the practice:

Pathirage recalls that the most challenging part of their HR digital transformation was the beginning, as he and his team wanted to be bold and did not know exactly how to start; they wanted to involve everyone in the business and obtain their buy-ins as well.  Pathirage and his team took on the enormous task of reviewing all their processes to truly reimagine a digital solution offering their people an optimal employee experience. As he explained, they were not making incremental changes to some of their HR systems but instead re-hauling the entire process. In thinking through the right solution then, they followed some important grounding principles:

• There would be one single source of truth.
• Their HR digital solution would be fully integrated within Virtusa’s IT system.
• The technology they picked would also give the company the ability to evolve. The technology selected and implemented should allow Virtusa to stay agile and guide the business accordingly.
• As a technology services organisation, Virtusa also wanted to put technology first.

With these grounding principles, the organisation set out to pick a Software as a Service (SaaS) solution for each element of the employee experience. The solution as a whole was born in the cloud.

Download Now: World of Work Trends 2024

The results of implementing the practice

The results of this HR digital transformation can already be seen. The company now has an AI chatbot to assist in a personalised candidate experience, providing a consistent company story for prospective employees. SkillPrism, powered by AI, can create an employee profile from multiple data points to fully understand competencies within the business. The company can now also offer a personalised learning journey for their employees and, through Edge, can offer their own internal “LinkedIn,” giving each employee one to three personalised job openings across customers, domains, and countries.

Once this digital solution was offered, Virtusa employees adopted it quickly, with an 85% adoption rate in the first two weeks.

Learn more about the Top Employers Certification here.