Mark Hunter MP applauds local firm’s employee engagement

MP praises SolutionsPT’s Investors in People and Sunday Times accolades

Mark Hunter MP visited industrial IT specialist SolutionsPT in his Cheadle constituency on Thursday August 30, to help the company celebrate achieving the Investors in People Gold standard.

Mark Hunter MP shaking hands with Phil Gillard, SolutionsPT's general manager

This latest achievement follows the company’s record high entry in The Sunday Times 100 Best Small Companies to Work For list earlier this year. Hunter learned how SolutionsPT uses its focus on employee engagement to recruit and retain high quality staff from within his constituency and beyond.

“Within ten minutes of entering the SolutionsPT building, I’d already seen the Sunday Times Best Companies logo on display in three or four places,” joked Hunter. “In all seriousness though, the company’s pride in this and the Investors in People standard indicates how seriously they take employee engagement.”

Discussing the benefits of ThinClient

During the meeting, Phil Gillard, General Manager of SolutionsPT, explained that balancing the interests of all the stakeholders in the business has been crucial in the company’s growth. Hunter commented, "This is clearly an outstanding firm that has achieved a lot, both for its customers, on behalf of its staff and on behalf of its stakeholders." 

There was also a debate on how emerging technologies, such as the use of social media could be applied in novel ways outside SolutionsPT’s traditional markets.

Gillard explained that there was an emerging need for enabling machines to talk directly to each other and that this could have significant value in areas outside manufacturing processes, where SolutionsPT was historically focussed. The infrastructure in our cities, transport and energy systems could benefit from this kind of technology, becoming more efficient.

Gillard illustrated the theory by referring to technology that could one day see public transport resources routed in accordance with demand. Need could be measured by social media and mobile phone signals, rather than relying purely on timetables.

Mark Hunter MP and the SolutionsPT team

This was clearly of interest to Hunter who was extremely supportive and offered to assist SolutionsPT in forging the relationships that will help the company reach technology thinkers at local, regional and national level, as he would any company asking for help in his constituency.

Mark Hunter is the Liberal Democrat MP for Cheadle, covering Bramhall, Cheadle, Cheadle Hulme, Gatley, Heald Green, Stepping Hill, Woodford and parts of Hazel Grove. He is also the Liberal Democrat Deputy Chief Whip – making him a Government whip in the Coalition.

Hunter was elected in a by-election, succeeding local favourite Patsy Calton in 2005, and held his seat in 2010 with a majority of 3,272.