Ark Data Centres is honoured to announce that it has joined the very select group of organisations in the UK who have achieved the necessary levels of excellence to be awarded the elite Gold Standard approval from Investors in People (IIP).

Investors in People is the UK’s leading accreditation for business improvement through people management, and provides a wealth of resources for businesses to innovate, improve and grow, with a focus on good people making great business. The IIP Standard is a respected stamp of quality worldwide defined and set by business leaders. A benchmark for best practice, the Standard recognises a company’s commitment to developing its people and demonstrates its ambition, drive and focus to the rest of the world.

Dorothy Shirvell is the IIP Practitioner who has been working with Ark for the last 18 months. Commenting on the accredication, she said: “It is entirely deserved and marks a particular stage of Ark’s journey in becoming a High Performance Organisation (HPO). This must be one of the most exciting companies to work for in the UK right now; its growth performance is phenomenal and this has to be down to great leadership, staff with the right capabilities and attitudes, outstanding relationships with other stakeholders and inspired people practices.” She continued, “Ark would make a great case study in leading organisational cultural change as it is evident that this has been the key focus over the past four years. Without this successful shift, the target level of growth would not have been possible.”

Whilst Ark has joined 7% of the IIP community who have the Gold Award, the company is never complacent and is already looking forward to embracing the IIP 6th Generation framework as part of its onward journey to outperformance.

“Our mission at Ark is to take every step necessary in becoming an HPO,” commented Huw Owen, CEO of Ark Data Centres. “While we aspire to provide the most advanced and cutting edge data centres, it’s our incredible team who actually make that possible. I cannot emphasise enough the importance of the people within our business to its success and to the success of our customers, which is why we are so delighted to have achieved Gold Status from Investors in People in recognition for that commitment to excellence.”

About Investors in People

• Investors in People makes people management excellence count. They exist to help businesses realise the potential of their people, improve standards and gain the accreditation to prove it.
• Through the respected Standard, business insight and the IIP bank of tools and resources, organisations of all shapes and sizes can put their people first – and discover a brighter business future.
• Over the last 20 years, IIP has helped more than 100,000 businesses around the world improve, using their Accreditation Framework to boost working culture, increase employee engagement and encourage game-changing leadership.
• Investors in People is owned and managed by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills, an executive non-departmental public body of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
• Investors in People South of England is delivered by Grant Thornton UK LLP under license from the UK Commission for Employment and Skills.