The Jenrick Recruitment Group treads on thin ice when it comes to the environment. One of its ecological initiatives has been to sponsor the Catlin Arctic Survey, which left for the Arctic in February to measure the ice there and assess its lifespan.

The company, based in Walton-on-Thames, aims to deliver its services “with a sense of humanity and social conscience”. It specialises in recruiting people for a range of industries including IT, engineering, medical and building services, and gets the best result of all of the top 100 Small Companies for the work it does to protect the environment (a 90% positive score). Employees agree that it puts a lot back into its local communities too (85%).

The results of the Catlin survey will be presented at the next United Nations climate change summit and Dominic Hilton, project manager, said that without Jenrick’s help the event would “never have taken place”.

Staff give the firm its highest relative marks for their sense of Wellbeing, ranking it third overall with a positive score of 84%. Despite the economy, deadlines are realistic and employees don’t feel under too much pressure to perform well (both 86%) and are happy with the balance of their work and home life (87%)

Salaries, which average £26,000 for the typical recruitment consultant, are competitive. Staff say they have fair pay relative to similar positions in other firms (82%) and have a Fair Deal overall (81%, the fourth-highest score for all questions on this topic).

Awards include Simon Murphy, the chief executive, giving out “little surprises” such as Hallowe’en goodie bags. Then there’s the “Jenrick Experience” of a £1,000 gift — which Kevin Matthews is using towards his entry donation to Children in Crisis in order to run the London marathon, while Samantha Coates had the longed-for experience of becoming a keeper for a day at London Zoo, and even adopted an animal afterwards.

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