This year’s event was held at the Leopold Hotel in Sheffield on Friday 3rd December 2021, and was won by George Hill, Delivery & Training Specialist at Sheffield based cleaning equipment manufacturer and janitorial supplier, Killis Ltd.
After receiving a record number of nominations, the judging panel, comprising of key figures from the local business community, including Gail Smith, the Lord Mayor of Sheffield, reviewed each application to decide on the final shortlist of ten, along with the overall winner, two highly commended and one special mention award.
Rob Shaw, Managing Director of Glu Recruit and founder of the Office Heroes Awards comments: “This year’s ceremony was a fantastic occasion, even more so with us being able to get back to running a physical event to celebrate all of our finalists.
“The ethos of the Office Heroes Awards has always been to shine the spotlight on individuals who go above and beyond, day after day, to support their teams and their businesses, and this year’s stand out performers didn’t let us down. Every single nomination we received lived up to the criteria, and they are all Office Heroes within their organisations.
“We have a very worthy winner in George Hill of Killis Ltd, who really did go above and beyond to claim the top prize. George is a Delivery & Training Specialist at Killis and has worked there for 5 years, and was nominated by his colleague Charlotte Killi, who described George as an ‘absolute asset to Killis in every way, he is the most polite, caring, and dedicated gentleman who will turn his hand to anything to help anyone in the business.’
“Congratulations to George, and all this year’s award winners!”
Gail Smith, the Lord Mayor of Sheffield and Judge at the Office Heroes Awards comments:
“It was a great honour to be asked to take part as a judge at the Office Heroes Awards. I comment on behalf of all the judges here by saying it was a very difficult decision to choose the overall winner as it could have been any one of a number of people as the shortlist was so strong.
“However, we all scored George so high prior to our panel discussion, it became clear during our debate that he was the stand-out choice for everyone. We’d like to extend our heartfelt congratulations to George who is a very worthy, and humble winner.
“The Office Heroes Awards is a great initiative from Glu Recruit and is something we should be really proud about because celebrating the heroes in every office across the Sheffield City Region is something every organisation should be doing. Well done to everyone involved in the awards!”
The winner
After pulling in a clean sweep from the judging panel, the top prize was awarded to George Hill for his achievements at Killis Ltd.
Described by the judges as ‘Clearly going above and beyond, taking on extra-curricular activities for the benefit of the team, showing ingenuity and someone who you would want on your team’ George won the coveted title of Office Hero, along with an engraved trophy and £500 of Meadowhall vouchers.
Charlotte Killi, Head of Sales & Events at Killis and nominator of George Hill comments: “George’s official role at Killis is ‘delivery and training specialist’ although he goes above and beyond in this role in so many ways.
“During the Hight of the pandemic, George volunteered to go and train all the staff at the pop up nightingale hospital in the London Excel centre on all the cleaning machines we supplied. His caring, calming nature means George can easily communicate with anyone and everyone. He is incredibly respectful, polite, and patient, and takes the time to ensure everyone understands how to use the machines.
“His standout moment came when carrying out his daily job of delivering training on our cleaning machines. George saw a gap in the market to create a cleaning storage module on wheels for those sites which didn’t have much storage space or have to move from site to site. Having decided to design a unit, he had the vision to create a CAD image of it to present to the business, and then had the unit fabricated which we took to the London Cleaning show to display and house all the equipment.
“The feedback we get about George is absolutely phenomenal and we are so proud of his achievement at the Office Heroes Awards!”
GEORGE HILL, WINNER OF THE 2021 OFFICE HEROES AWARDS, ALONGSIDE COLLEAGUE, CHARLOTTE KILLI (LEFT), GAIL SMITH, LORD MAYOR OF SHEFFIELD, AND ROB SHAW (RIGHT), MD OF GLU RECRUIT
George Hill, Delivery & Training Specialist at Killis Ltd comments on his award: “I feel very humbled that my efforts are getting noticed by my colleagues at Killis and winning the Office Heroes Awards has been very moving and something I am still processing.
“When my name was announced I felt as if I was being woken from a deep sleep and lifted back to reality. I couldn’t believe is as all the other nominations are so inspiring. Thank you to all at Killis and Glu Recruit for guiding, trusting and supporting each other during uncertain times.”
Rob Shaw concludes: “Huge congratulations to George for being crowned this year’s winner. He really has gone above and beyond in his role, making a huge difference to his employer and their customers and we’re thrilled to be able to highlight his efforts at the Office Heroes Awards.
“Huge thanks goes to everyone who got involved in this year’s awards; to unLTD Business, our co-sponsors, Cuckoo Films for pulling together the shortlist video together for us (which you can watch here), everyone who nominated their fantastic colleagues, the judges, the finalists, the Glu Recruit team for all the hard work in arranging the event, and of course all this year’s award winners, who made our first physical award ceremony since the pandemic one to remember.”
The 2021 Office Heroes Award winners
- George Hill, Killis Ltd – Winner
- Emma Harrison, Whyy Change? – Highly Commended
- Teresa Mansell, Highlander Computing Solutions – Highly Commended
- Alexandra Mamantzi, Barnsley College – Special Mention
THE FINALISTS AT THE OFFICE HEROES AWARDS 2021
The Judges
- Gail Smith, Lord Mayor of Sheffield
- Anne Wilson, MBE, Local business champion
- Dan Laver, unLTD Business and co-sponsor
- Charlotte Swinhoe, Weston Park Cancer Charity and 2020 winner
- Richard Allman, Champion Health
- Brendan Hall, Hallmark Branding