We are a fast-growth technology company, which requires innovation. Innovation only happens when you create the space for people to take risks and try new things. That only happens when there is psychological safety.

We foster this environment in the following ways:

1. Our colleagues are people first, not their job – we embrace the whole human, supporting lives outside of work and focusing on employee wellbeing.

2. We lead the organisation based on our values – behaviour is given as much, if not more, credence than skills / technical capability

3. We put the right people in the right places, with the right materials (systems / processes) to do their jobs. This one is a work in progress, and will probably continue to be, as our business is on quite the growth trajectory!

I think all companies can relate to the advantages / disadvantages of this new world. We have lower property related costs as we don’t have to provide a permanent office space for over 100 people. We can hire from further afield because we aren’t as geographically constrained – people are willing to commute longer distances for ad hoc meetings than they are for a daily trip to the office.

On a personal level, I love the flexibility that hybrid working gives me – I get face time for the collaborative working, but I get peace and quiet when I need to think AND I can put a load of laundry on or prepare healthier lunches when I am home… I think those advantages are not just appreciated by candidates, they are expected, and without hybrid working you can’t attract top talent to your organisation.

That being said, we have struggled with some aspects of remote working – it created silos that we have actively had to bridge, and we are having to put together regular (quarterly) in person all hands to better manage comms and keep cohesion (these are a lot of work to ensure that we get engaging content that makes people feel it’s worth taking a full day out of their work schedule, and we like to bring the fun too). We have found onboarding trickier remotely; the training has to be really well planned as the days of listening in at desk side / asking a quick question of the colleague next to you have gone – this is particularly noticeable for apprentices or people in their first roles. I think – regardless of our, or my, thoughts on it – that hybrid working is here to stay, so it’s now about making sure that systems, processes, and culture can work around that.

I’m very excited as we are upgrading a lot of our internal software – the company has been on a fast growth journey and, as is usual, we are a little behind the curve on investing in our systems. There is a lot of manual process required to deliver simple reporting at the moment, which will likely all disappear with the right systems in place – then we can focus on the real value add actions and watch this company grow even quicker! Bring on the BI 😊

I’m also looking forward to a couple of weeks in the sun in June with my toddler and his grandparents – that will create precious memories I will cherish for years to come.