Our culture plays a huge part in our ability to deliver first-class digital PR, SEO and video production services (as well as a home for our colleagues’ wayward dogs). We care about our people, we want them to succeed, and we give them the tools they need to realise their potential.
So, we’re delighted that TopLine has been named one of the UK’s Best Workplaces in the annual Great Place to Work (GPTW) rankings. Charting sixth, we’ve entered the upper tier of the UK’s office environments – also earning the GPTW Wellbeing Certification. The exciting news follows our recent Investors in People Accreditation, valid till 2022.
It’s the culmination of a lot of hard work, and it’s great to be recognised for it. Here’s what some of that hard work involved.
A culture of open communication
At TopLine, we’ve always understood that our employees are our most valuable resource – and that our success is intrinsically tied to their levels of happiness, engagement, and motivation.
So we had the ‘radical’ idea to ask our team what makes them happy, engaged, and motivated. Not every initiative was immediately popular, but every initiative – from fitness socials to benefits packages – was improved by actively soliciting their thoughts.
And feedback is a two-way street: senior managers and business leaders aren’t shy about suggesting improvements in a sensitive and constructive fashion. Employees, in turn, have the opportunity to provide regular direct and anonymous feedback to line managers.
These efforts have paid off: we increased our internal employee satisfaction score by 15% within a single year.
A culture of fun flexibility
Flexibility is one of our watchwords, and for good reason: employees flourish when they’re able to balance the personal with the professional – never sacrificing the former for the sake of the latter. Our policy has always been that if you need to work from home, you can do so; that if you need to start at 7am and finish earlier in the afternoon, there’s no reason not to.
But while we encourage living a full, rich, and interesting life outside the office, we’re also keen to ensure that our colleagues form strong bonds with each other. Collaboration is key to great work. To this end, we hold regular team socials – which range from bowling to trampolining to the odd embarrassing karaoke night.
A culture of clear processes and policies
Okay, this might sound antithetical to the bit immediately above. But flexibility is at its best when it’s offered within clear structures – and with clear processes and policies.
We’ve made a real effort to align these structures, processes, and policies with our company values: positivity, creativity, and driven by data. This has improved the way we recruit (assuring good cultural, professional, and personality fit); the way we develop our team and provide tailored training opportunities, benefits, and opportunities; and the way managers and colleagues communicate, manage projects, and deliver for clients.
And once policies and processes are in place, we measure their impact with clear KPIs. If it’s not working, we want to know about it, and if it is working, we want to shout about it – and build on it.
At TopLine, we’re extremely happy to be recognised for investing in our people – and we don’t intend to stop any time soon.
Interested in joining a first-rate technology PR agency? Check our recruitment page for any current opportunities!