After the recent IoIC Live 2014 conference, we had just too many interesting points to take away from the speakers – so we made series of blogs, one for each speaker.
This is our final blog of the series with Helen Ives, ‘People Director’ at Peer1, who discussed her company’s approach to engaging its staff and business culture.
Smarter approach to the ‘E’ word
Peer1 have created a working environment for their employees that is fun and creative – including an indoor slide, office dog, a fully stocked bar and pool table. As you can imagine many references were made on Twitter to offices such as Google’s, famous for its quirky designs and features for staff.
Drawing much debate from the room, attendees asked about the commercial value of Peer1’s offices. Some attendees were also concerned, especially following a discussion about introverts vs. extroverts, that the social elements of working for Peer1 would put introverts off.
When asked about how their offices and company culture affected the people they recruited, Helen discussed their workspace being a useful tool for dividing those who would fit in with Peer 1. When invited for an interview, applicants are taken around the offices, including being offered a go on the slide – their attitudes on this tour make it clear straight away if they could fit in with this sort of environment and Peer 1’s company culture.
As Helen says:
‘You might think it’s a gimmick but it’s [their office space] a symbol of our culture and our values.
The whole environment is designed by our people and we’re now asking our people to design their working environment across the world. We say ‘This is your space, this is your home at work.’
And she had many examples of her employees going above and beyond in their jobs for their clients. One such instance was when their client, British Red Cross’ server’s service went down during a natural disaster, Peer1’s people worked through the night doing technical work that Red Cross’ employees should have been working on – helping them through the difficult time.
From a business point of view, Helen puts their successful employee engagement score, which went up by 15% in a year, and increased UK revenue which is up 151%, down to their company culture, fun workplace and methods of engagement.
Look for yourself at this recent video showing Peer 1’s employees and their new Southampton Office.
Our IoIC Live 2014 series
Some of the best bits from Twitter #IoICLive14
A slide in the office? And a pool table, bar, putting green, dogs… http://t.co/uUUjQn5nVg #ioiclive14
— Institute of IC (@IoICNews) May 2, 2014
Musical chairs: a look at employee engagement and seating plans http://t.co/AhHX4VjUeD #ioiclive14
— Sally (@sallypl1) May 2, 2014
Why do you trust people to have a bar in the office? Because we trust them and they are adults @PEER1 #employeeengagement #ioiclive14
— Katie Marlow (@ktmarlow) May 2, 2014