Pride in the Job Awards 2009

While we are delivering much needed new homes we recognise that the construction phase of development can have a significant impact on the surrounding community. We also recognise that we are using resources, and that construction activities form a significant part of our carbon footprint.

We aim to ensure that we manage our sites well, minimise any disruption to the local community and that we are increasingly efficient with the resources we use on site.

Pride in the Job

'Pride in the Job' is a prestigious competition run by the National House Building Council. The award reflects the Site Managers' commitment to delivering excellent standards on site, which ultimately ensures that our homes are built to the highest quality, whilst having a positive impact on the local community.

Once again Crest Nicholson has enjoyed success in the NHBC Pride in the Job Awards with thirteen of our regional Site Managers being recognised among the 400 Quality Award winners, chosen from over 18,000 Site Managers nationally. These awards are the ultimate accolade for Site Managers, recognising them as being at the pinnacle of their profession.

The Crest Nicholson winners were:

Five of our Site Managers went through to the second stage and went on to win 'Seal of Excellence' awards.

Both Terry Huntington and Barry Corrick were named overall winners in their particular geographic region. This put them through to the final stage - The Supreme Awards where they competed against 28 other Site Managers from across the UK.

Terry Huntington was one of two site managers who won a National House-Building Council 'Quality', 'Seal of Excellence' and 'Overall Regional winner' awards in the prestigious 'Pride in the Job' awards. Here Terry talks about what is involved in managing an award-winning site and how it feels to be recognised in this way.

Terry is no stranger to NHBC awards. He has won six in his time, three in the four years since he joined Crest Nicholson. This year Terry won the award for managing the Kaleidoscope project in Cambridge, a complicated site of 408 apartments in the city centre. It was his first regional winner's award, and took him into the top six in the country in the 'multi storey' category.

The first part of the journey to regional winner is winning a Quality Award which is no mean feat in itself. The NHBC inspectors assess Site Managers across 38 different aspects of site management, including technical knowledge and consistency in the build process, as well as leadership and organisational skills.

"It covers every aspect of the site," says Terry. "Everything from the foundations to how clean the canteen is. How you manage people, how you run the site. It all gets marked."

When a Site Manager is being considered for a Seal of Excellence, the assessments just get tougher. "You will have independent building inspectors assess you. I also had two retired construction directors, a sales director, a marketing manager; they all come round and take a look. Sometimes they even film you doing your job."

This intense scrutiny rewards Site Managers who really go the extra mile. "I've got that in me, I suppose, you've got to be like that, with a real attention to detail. But I get great support from my team – we all pull together to make it work. So I was very glad that some of them could come with me to the event at the Lancaster Hotel."

It's about Pride in the Job – as the name of the NHBC awards suggest – but recognition doesn't only come in the shape of awards. "It was great to be a regional winner," says Terry. "But it also feels good when a lorry driver is making a delivery, and he says 'Blimey, I've never seen a site like this!'. That's coming from someone who sees a lot of sites so that's its own reward."