Hear from our Chief People Officer, David Deacon about how he sees this as the next step on our journey to delivering an excellent working environment for all.
Building an open and transparent leadership culture sits at the heart of our decision making at activpayroll. It’s a simple approach but one that works for us.
When it comes to our people we believe that our success as a business should be reflected in career success for our people – hence the “our growth, your growth” mantra which amplifies that. So applying for the Most Loved Workplace certification was an obvious fit.
The Most Loved Workplace certification recognises companies like us, that want to build a culture that people love to work in. It recognises how we are continuing to build trust in our teams; our ability to promote and deliver on collaboration across the business; how we demonstrate respect, and how we assist our people in achieving professional and personal goals.
Our successes as a business – our growth, our focus on customer excellence, and our high-performing teams – are underpinned every day by our great people and our brilliant attitude and so our strong company culture and positive approach really matters. So it’s no wonder I am delighted to merit this certification.
We have done a lot of things to transform our culture – including instilling a positive leadership style, lots of training for managers in managing well, a big focus on career development, tons of recognition and communication, and an equity stake for all our employees in the business. But of course we are simply a work in progress – there’s a lot still to do.
This is why getting the certification feels like a great achievement and one that reflects our continued journey towards a truly open, transparent and positive leadership style. We are determined to create a great working experience where our teams have the best possible chance of success and growth, and while this is still a work in progress, to my mind this certification proves we are on the right track.
An important part of achieving certification was an employee survey that measures how connected and invested employees are with the company goals and values. I’m really proud of the positive response and employee’s recognition of our efforts as it’s a clear validation that our focus as a business on creating a positive, collaborative culture is working.
Coming on the back of last year’s Best Employer Award this really cements the work our team has put in to drive a positive culture and make sure we are indeed a Most Loved Workplace.
But this is not the time to indulge in too much self-congratulations - we will use this to hold ourselves to account and to ensure we continue to improve in all aspects of delivering an excellent working environment for all. And this is an internationally recognized standard, so we will also be working hard to earn international certification – as a global business ensuring we have a strong and positive culture everywhere we work is a clear priority.
Certifications and awards are a great way to reflect on the work you have put in and to have it recognised but the real achievement is being able to maintain and build from this point and become bigger, bolder, and even more brilliant. We march on!