Mental health and wellbeing have been a priority for leaders at recruitment business, Empiric, over the past year.

Management has also made significant contributions to guiding people towards health improvements. A company-wide “Challenge Hound” was mobilised twice. It involved the whole company splitting into teams and competing in physical activities to improve their health and raise money for charity.

Another move that boosted staff engagement and performance has been the transformation of the leadership team culture, from one of "telling" to "coaching", thanks to extensive in-house and external training.

The company has evolved beyond blanket policies into which employees fit, to take a more individual approach to each person. The transparency, support and self-empowerment ethos that is fostering during wellness seminars, meditations and end-of-day meetings has precipitated a culture of openness which has helped more people ask for what they need.

Empiric, which has offices in London and Glasgow, and has expanded in Europe and America, styles itself as a unique and inclusive company whose mission to be the number-one technology and transformation staffing agency across four key areas of technology — data, security, cloud and digital.

It has won numerous awards, demonstrating Empiric's commitment to its clients, candidates and employees. As well as featuring regularly in Best Companies lists and The Sunday Times Fast Track 100, it picked up the Association of Professional Staffing Companies award for diversity and inclusion in 2015 and has been recognised as a Disability Confident employer.