Proud employees celebrated into the early hours at the two 100 Best Companies to Work For awards nights in London, when the rankings for this year’s three Best Companies lists were announced.

The glittering events held at Battersea Evolution — one for the SMEs and one for mid-sized and big firms — rewarded the exceptionally high levels of employee engagement across the Best Companies’ lists.

Our 2008 winners — Heat (mid-sized), KPMG (big) and Christians Against Poverty (CAP) in the SME category — were announced by BBC newsreader Fiona Bruce. Eight hundred people acknowledged their successes at the SME night, and 1,200 employees celebrated at the event honouring the mid-sized and big firms 24 hours later.

For the first time in five years, it is all change at the top, with last year’s three winning firms all knocked off the top spot.

Turning up the Heat pays off

Strong training and a sense that work is to be enjoyed add up to Heat powering past its rivals into top spot this year

Background

• Hats off to great leadership

• Getting the message across loud and clear

• Fly high with the X Factor

• Why it pays to know what you’re doing

Background

• Charity wins top small company award

• Special awards for best practice

• Rules of engagement

• 100 Best SME's to work for 2008

Multimedia

• Best Small Companies to Work For 2008

• Highlights from the awards ceremony

With the quality and quantity of entrants once again higher than ever, all the contenders had plenty of reasons to toast their companies.

Explore Best 100 Companies

• Best 100 Tables