Fostering a Culture of Trust, Collaboration and Passion for What We Do.

It took a pandemic to revolutionise how we work, how we measure value and how we support each other to get the right work/life balance.  I know this is the same for many businesses, it turned everything on its head and we will feel the effects for years to come. Our leadership team sat down earlier this year to ask ourselves what we needed in place to achieve the goals we set. As always it comes back to people.  We asked ourselves:

• How do we keep the momentum amongst the whole team to drive the business forward?
• How do we recruit and retain the BEST people for our business?
• How do we make sure our people have opportunities to grow?
• How do we make sure we are delivering innovation in our product development?
• How do we make sure we are delivering excellence to our clients at all times?

We spoke to numerous colleagues, friends, partners and peers. We attended webinars, listened to podcasts. We researched what worked in different business and sectors, and even different countries. We created a list of 50 items which we felt could really deliver against everything we had set out to do.

We looked at the benefits, and potential risks or challenges, to each item. We analysed the cost to the business versus the benefits each item could bring. Eventually we create a package of items which we felt would appeal to the team that we have now and the team that we might have in the future. We wanted to ensure that, as the business grew, we were able to provide the same opportunities, flexibility and growth across the board. At the same time, we didn’t want anything that would bring in too much admin or ‘management’.

Our values are Passionate, Dependable, Collaborative and Bold and we need to demonstrate these values on a daily basis throughout our network. Getting the right solution is about trust; trust in our team that they will deliver on what we have promised to our clients, that they are passionate about the work they do and the culture we are building in the business. They need to trust us to drive the business forward, to make measurable decisions based on actionable data and to have their best interests at heart in everything we do. We don’t always get it right (who does!), but everything we do is delivered with the absolute best of intentions and with a willingness to learn when things don’t quite go to plan.

So we start September with a trial of new working practices that include:

Working Life

• Unlimited ‘work from anywhere’ days
• Fully flexible working in terms of place of work: come to the office, work at home, we don’t mind, as long as you are in a safe and secure environment
• Flexible working hours which just have to be delivered over a minimum 4 day working week
• Access to home office equipment including chairs, screens, docking stations and accessories

Health and Wellness:

• Extra holiday days, depending on your responsibilities
• Removal of requirement to take holiday during Christmas / New Year break period
• Option to buy an extra 5 days holiday and spread the cost over the year
• Long service holiday rewards
• 2 wellbeing days
• Annual flu jabs
• Access to an online friend-in-need portal, offering support, guidance, counselling and advice

Growth:

• Increased, personalised annual training hours and budget
• Ability to be part of one of three collaborative groups, designed to drive the business, product and services forward, looking at Net Zero and Sustainability, Reward and Recognition and Gamification.

Gifts, Events and Recognition:

• 4 in-person team events per year
• 1 charitable volunteering day
• A Christmas gift from the business
• Peer-sponsored quarterly business culture champion award
• Peer-sponsored quarterly business skills champion award
• 500 points per year per person to donate to one or more members of the team to use in our Reward Shop
• Employee of the year award
• Ad hoc director-sponsored employee awards

We also listed another 14 items (which ranged from electric car leasing options, to shares in a wind farm, to contribution to internet costs, to annual health checks) which we have asked the team to vote on, so that we can look at the viability of the most popular items.

We start our 6 month trial on the 1^st September and everyone is going into this with the right attitude. We have assessed the challenges and how we need to ensure open, two way communication amongst the team. We need visibility of what people are working on, we need more collaboration across projects and clients, and we need to make sure that we are effectively planning the work we need to achieve each week. We want it to work, but it has to work for everyone: the team, the business, our clients, our suppliers and our wider network. Just having everyone in for the day to discuss this now means that everyone has agreed that they all want to come into the office to be able to work together at the start of each sprint. I love the culture and the team that we have here at Stream and I truly believe that this will actually bring more harmony, autonomy, accountability, growth and efficiency to the business.

We will provide updates on our journey over the next 6 months, but we are really excited to be taking this step towards a better working environment.