Laura White

Over the past 12 months, Laura White has led a transformative culture shift at Irwin M&E, focusing on employee engagement, leadership development, and skills enhancement. Laura designed and implemented an Employee Engagement Survey aligned with the company’s core values—loyalty, safety, innovation, and success—achieving a 77% completion rate and revealing strong work-life balance satisfaction (98%). The survey insights drove key initiatives, including enhanced maternity/paternity policies, flexible working, and increased holidays.

Under Laura’s leadership, the EDGE Leadership Programme has been instrumental, delivering 100% retention of directors and senior management, alongside a 40% reduction in staff turnover. She also introduced a competency framework for leadership, aligned with business objectives, and spearheaded Innovation Days to foster continuous improvement.

Laura developed a comprehensive training matrix and individual learning plans to address skill gaps and succession planning, investing over £250k in specialist skills development. Apprenticeship recruitment flourished with 30 new hires and an 85% retention rate post-qualification.

Other successes under Laura’s stewardship include 45% internal promotions, recruitment of 70 new employees, the launch of a new Building Division with six managerial roles, and an enhanced internal communications strategy that boosted social media reach by 2200% and encouraged employee recognition.

By embedding core values into recruitment, appraisal, and feedback processes, Laura has strengthened the company culture. Exit interviews show 95% of departing employees acknowledge a positive workplace and management style.