For Immediate Release
Contact:
Chris Caldwell
Christopher.Caldwell@orcc.doe.gov
(804) 658-8367
UCOR honored with Culture Excellence Award for professional development
Oak Ridge, Tenn., October 21, 2024 – United Cleanup Oak Ridge has received the Top Workplaces 2024 Culture Excellence Award for Professional Development. It is the sixth award UCOR has received since it started participating in the Top Workplaces program to gather employee feedback.
The Culture Excellence Award for Professional Development places a special focus on developing employee careers and enabling people to grow professionally. In the spring, the company received its first Culture Excellence Award, this one for Compensation and Benefits, which celebrates organizations with packages employees believe are fair for the work being done compared to others in the industry.
In addition to these two awards, UCOR has also been named a national Top Workplace by USA Today in 2024 and a regional Top Workplace by the Knoxville News Sentinel in 2022, 2023, and 2024. All these awards are based on feedback from UCOR’s workforce. In every year the company has surveyed, roughly 50% of the workforce responded.
“We take the feedback we receive from our workforce very seriously,” said Charlie Malarkey, Director of Administrative Services. “The survey results provide targets for us on where we can improve the workplace experience for our employees.”
Since UCOR received its first survey results, the company has enacted several new programs and policies. For example, UCOR developed a first-of-its-kind (in the DOE Complex) national project labor agreement that enhanced pay and benefits for roughly a quarter of its 2,200 workers, resulting in a significant retention of the labor workforce. The company established a new parental bonding leave policy, launched Employee Resource Groups, created a new mental health program with an onsite counselor, and implemented additional employee appreciation programs.
UCOR is the DOE Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management’s lead environmental cleanup contractor. The company’s 2,200 workers are dedicated to safely reducing environmental risk on the Oak Ridge Reservation while helping DOE’s Office of Science and the National Nuclear Security Administration continue their important missions. Learn more about the company at UCOR.com.
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UCOR NR 2024-11
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