Happy staff might say working for their company is like belonging to a family. But how is this defined?
“It means people feel content to belong, through good times and bad, and we all want to be a part of making the company bigger and better,” explains Phil Lewis, HR and compliance manager of Source Insurance, whose employees often profess to feeling like they are part of a family.
A family-like work culture engenders a sense of personal togetherness, shared mission and commitment to one another to achieve corporate goals as a team. Support underpins the dynamic, and individual recognition and value is bestowed on all workers who are part of the fold.
“If staff feel valued, they will understand that their work matters and will therefore (hopefully) give more to it,” Lewis continued. “As a company, we have always had a strong culture of valuing staff. Cash is something of a blunt instrument, so we have always sought out different ways to reward staff to show them that we value their contributions to our mutual success.”
Source’s staff engagement programme is extensive and the company’s ‘Source Community’ committee are constantly looking for new and inventive ways of improving staff engagement, some of these initiatives include ‘Beer o’clock’ on the first Friday after payday, where staff can sup on a glass of wine or beer (or non-alcoholic wine or beer for non-drinkers) to get them through the last hour of the week, and free fruit is delivered weekly for everyone to enjoy.
And alongside two major company parties a year, it has also partnered with Perkbox, an employee benefits provider, so staff can redeem over a hundred practical, recreational and salary-sacrifice perks including free spa days, cinema tickets and discounts on groceries and travel throughout the year, to help make salaries go further.
Lewis continued: “We don’t have any solid metrics in place that measure staff happiness and engagement; as a relatively small company (just under 70 staff), and with regular dialogue and catch-ups in place among team members internally, we like to think that we have a generally accurate feel for how staff as a whole feel about working for the us.”
After introducing a number of new employee engagement initiatives, including Perkbox – which incorporates a dashboard for monitoring staff engagement – Source is working hard to get in the 2016 shortlist for The Sunday Times Best Small Companies to Work For, having notched in at number 89 in 2014’s list.
“We like to use the competition as a means of carrying out an independent health check on the happiness of our staff.
“I’m confident that we’re making steps in the right direction, ensuring that our close-knit family culture is maintained and that people continue to enjoy and have a sense of pride in working for Source.
“Most certainly, the employee engagement programme has been enhanced by our partnership with a platform like Perkbox – I’ve been with the company for 12 years and I’ve never known our staff to get so excited. They’re really making the most of the treats, discounts and benefits available, enabling them to enjoy the simple things in life every day as part of the programme.”
