Last night BIG took home The Herald’s top employer award for inspiring employee culture and it’s safe to say that we haven’t stopped celebrating since.
There is a long-held saying at our agency, ‘BIG is about the people,’ and it’s 100% true. Ask anyone in the business (past or present) what their favourite part of BIG is and we can confidently say that almost every time, they will say the people.
Fostering a positive culture is at the heart of everything we do.
So, how do we offer such a supportive and well-recognised culture? We look after the little and big things. On the former, we offer free fruit every day, pizza every month and a free bar every Friday and these small touches are well received. However, going further than this, we also have a range of initiatives that support our team’s wellbeing and development.
From welcome gifts, a supportive buddy scheme, multiple social events, team building and fundraising challenges, to our internal badge reward and recognition scheme, we aim to cover as much as we can to demonstrate our commitment to our team.
Yes, we absolutely love rolling out all the fun initiatives for our team but it’s not just about the social events. A big part of our culture is our dedication to continuous feedback to our team and fostering their development.
Throughout the year we run a stacked calendar of lunch and learn sessions across the business, utilising the wide variety of skills and knowledge across the business with senior members of staff mentoring our junior staff. We have a programme of external training and offer funding for studying as well as paid leave for funded course exams.
To acknowledge the importance of peer-to-peer recognition, our reward scheme allows our teams to award badges to any colleagues for going above and beyond in their role. The badges cover a range of reasons including, personal developer, unsung hero, team player and many more. There are incremental rewards tied with the scheme, with the value of the rewards increasing with the more badges you receive. The rewards range from letterbox gifts all the way up to an overnight stay in a hotel or spa break. This year alone, our team have awarded 337 badges, 110 of these recognise those who have been fantastic team players.
Initiatives like this help foster a spirit of ‘team first’ and shine a light on those that do so much to drive our wonderful culture. We also offer everyone a day off for their birthday as well as a gift to celebrate the occasion. Plus, every colleague gets a half day off for Christmas shopping.
Supporting many of these initiatives is our dedicated culture club, who meet every month to plan office and company-wide events and wellbeing initiatives. Over the last three years we have increased our social budget by 53% to reflect the importance of work not just being about work.
This year, we asked our employees how they felt about working at BIG and the culture we create. An impressive 95% of our employees agreed that BIG’s culture creates a supportive work environment that challenges them to reach their potential and aid their career development. Further to this:
- 91% of respondents feel proud to work for BIG and would recommend BIG to a friend as a great place to work
- 91% of respondents can see a path for career development at BIG
- 91% of respondents can see how the new PDP system will support your career development
- 92% agreed that BIG ensured they had the tools to maximise their potential
We are proud that these results represent the highest satisfaction and engagement levels we’ve ever had from a survey, particularly given the challenges of moving out of lockdown.
One of the key metrics that highlights the importance of our team is our client satisfaction survey. During our most recent client review, it was revealed that more than 9 out of 10 clients are likely to recommend us to others, a statistic that has been underlined by our strong client referral network. This serves to highlight how focused our teams are on supporting clients and offering the best service possible.
Fundamentally, we believe that by nurturing a positive and caring work environment, living our values and being authentic to our brand, we bring out the very best in our people, enabling them to do great work.
It’s safe to say that we love our culture and the team we have at BIG. We have nothing but respect and admiration for the people who turn up and work their socks off at BIG every day. That’s why we place a positive culture at the heart of our business and why we are over the moon with our award win.
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