To cut through the jargon this means that, once again, SG is officially superb to work for, engages in excellent workplace practices and - the key point - has in place great leadership as defined by our employees. In other words, our own people have independently decided that SG is the business - and they've given us three stars to prove it.

The Michelin-style recognition puts us among a stellar crew. Of the 434 organisations registered for Star Status in September 2006 - with more than 100,000 individuals providing the main input - only 42 have made it to the rarefied atmosphere of the scheme's highest accreditation.

The research body which conducts the scheme, Best Companies Ltd, provides participating organisations with high-quality data on the relationship between employees and their employers. Having to date surveyed almost 2,000 organisations, the company is able to provide an extremely powerful system of benchmarking, both by industry sector and by identifying best practice within the UK labour market.

The information is rigorously compiled by asking individuals what they seek from the workplace experience. Employees respond (positively or negatively, on a sliding scale) to 16 key statements, from 'my work is stimulating' to 'I feel I receive fair pay for my job responsibilities'.

The results of the survey deliver a forensic insight into individuals and their engagement with the organisations which employ them. Final accreditation is based on a rating system, in which one star is first class, two are outstanding and three stars are extraordinary.

If SG's extraordinary ranking makes us sound like a first-class restaurant, it's only apt. In one guise or another we've been delivering a fine, a la carte menu of workplace excellence for over three decades. So here's to another year of Best Companies' highest accreditation. We aim to make it a hat-trick.