A Company People Want to Work For – A Good Employer’s Journey

On average, an employee on a 35-hour weekly contract will spend approximately a third of their life in work. Whilst the economic climate and longer life spans mean younger generations are considering working beyond retirement, the current average is still a large portion of time spent in the workplace. As a result, we’ve started to see a shift in how people approach job hunting as they often prioritise wellbeing with an increased interest in selecting companies that demonstrate that they are a great place to work. In this blog, we will explore how we ensure our business is an attractive option when recruiting as we outline points 5and 6 of The Greater Manchester Good Employment Charter (GEC): Recruitment and People Management.

As a recap: Our Good Employment Charter series is based on its seven key principles. So far, we’ve covered points 1-4. Point 1 (Secure Work) in GEC 1 – The Principles We Live By, points 2 and 3 (Flexible Work and Pay) in GEC 2 – Achieving the Work-Life Balance, and point 4 (Engagement and Voice) in GEC 3 – Is it Good to Speak Your Mind at Work?

What is a great place to work?

Whether you’re looking at criteria for certification programmes (eg. Great Place to Work) or exploring research on what makes a good workplace (eg. the CIPD Good Work Index Report), points that frequently crop up as indicators of good or great places to work include but are not limited to:

• Effective leadership
• Ethical business practices
• Strong communication
• Recognition & rewards
• Fair recruitment practices
• Flexible work
• Training and development opportunities

What does the Good Employment Charter say about ‘recruitment’?

The GEC notes that fair and flexible recruitment practices help to improve morale and general wellbeing, increase diversity, and support a happier and more productive team. They can also help to retain talent, lower training and recruitment costs, and increase loyalty. It is also recommended that job adverts and policy documents make ethical business and employment practices clear, which in turn will help to demonstrate compliance in the Good Employment Charter assessment. In addition, it will also ensure the business is more attractive to potential recruits.

How does ‘people management’ support good employment practices?

We have included people management in this blog as we believe this is closely linked to recruitment practices, particularly when we consider how strong and effective leadership helps to create a workplace culture in which the team thrives, and people want to stay. Good people management requires consistently being open to employee feedback (and acting on it), being transparent, supporting career aspirations, actively encouraging diversity and inclusion practices (backed up by policies and training), and ensuring there are plenty of opportunities for the team to feel valued (we have explored this in previous blogs, but in particular GEC 3 – Is it Good to Speak Your Mind at Work which covers employee engagement).

Smith Goodfellow’s approach to a good place to work

It is important to us that our business continues to prioritise our employees as the workplace can have such a big impact on employees’ lives, wellbeing, and sense of stability.

Recruitment

If you’re considering working for us, we’ve summarised some of the key points on how we approach being a good employer during the recruitment process below.

• Recruiting managers have completed equality and diversity training. Fair recruitment practices/equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) are central to our recruitment process.
• Application is through CVs and covering letters, which are scored alongside a checklist of the job requirements to eliminate unconscious bias from the selection process.
• We try to actively encourage recruitment of a diverse workforce by explicitly sharing our people-first, inclusive culture. We do this by highlighting that we have an annual leave policy which includes gifting two additional days paid leave for preferred religious/cultural observance. We also mention the employee fund for training and wellbeing support in addition to the offer of supplying any equipment required to work.
• We have policies in place which help to improve our work culture, such as ‘flexible work’, enhanced maternity and paternity, as well as a training and wellbeing support budget. We also clearly stipulate the work hours for the role.
• As an ethical business, we are a Real Living Wage (as a minimum) and Living Hours-certified employer as we believe offering fair pay and stable work is essential.
• In addition to our team charity and local community activities, we have also recently introduced a policy in which employees can take two paid volunteer days per year. This means they can give two days of their time to support a community or charity initiative of their choice, without losing out on pay.
• All in-person interviews are conducted in a quiet, clutter free environment and we limit the number of interviewers to two in most instances (and no more than three) to prevent candidates from feeling overwhelmed.
• We design our interview questions to be clear and direct, avoiding abstractions and focusing on concrete scenarios and candidate’s skills, knowledge, and experience. We also ask candidates to provide examples of previous work where possible, as this is a helpful way for them to demonstrate their skill outside of the interview format. We allow candidates plenty of time to form and deliver their answers to our questions, reassuring them at the beginning of the interview that they can take as long as they need to answer and reiterating this, if necessary, during the interview.
• New employees are given a welcome pack before their first day that outlines key information so they can refer to it when needed. They will also be given an overview of the business and the various roles and responsibilities in the team on their first day.
• New employees will be matched with a key mentor who will help guide them through the work they are assigned in their first few weeks. We also encourage new team members to get to know the rest of the team and will direct them to different individuals to learn about our clients and the different kinds of work we do.
• We conduct a daily 1:1 during the first week of employment to check how new members are settling in and answer any questions. This then becomes weekly for the next month or so and will gradually reduce to monthly 1:1s with their line manager. We also hold an informal review meeting at the midpoint of the probationary period to discuss how they are settling into the role, clarify any expectations and address any issues, as well as offering the team member an additional opportunity to provide feedback or ask questions.
• We encourage new starters to ask lots of questions, take lots of notes, and explore our archives of work. The induction process is managed by the Director of Business Development who will continue to oversee employees’ wellbeing and development, supported by the identified mentor.

People management

In some ways, recruiting is the easy part, the hardest is creating a workplace culture that makes people want to stay for a long time. It has been a priority of the company’s leadership since it came under new management in 2010 to create a positive working experience for all employees. This is reflected in the continuing development of internal policy, staff benefits, and positive workplace culture. Some of the ways we have managed to retain employees for over a decade is by:

• Having clear organisational values expressed through our code of conduct, our internal policies, and our company playbook.
• Individual objectives are set on an annual basis, and these are chosen to reflect both the needs of the business and the aspirations and interests of the individual. We conduct annual appraisals with a 1:1 check-in six months into the appraisal period, to ensure objectives remain relevant and assess any support that may be needed to achieve them.
• During the appraisal process and ongoing performance management, we seek to identify opportunities to support aspirations for progression in addition to meeting the skills requirements from our developing organisational learning plan. Almost all our current team members started in entry level roles – usually administration – and have progressed into a variety of positions including digital and social media management, videography and associate directorships.
• Each team member also has monthly 1:1s with their line manager which gives them the opportunity to raise any issues, concerns, request additional support, or identify training. Line managers discuss anything that’s relevant with the management team to ensure the company is proactive in addressing feedback.
• All employees have access to an employee fund to cover training costs and all team members are encouraged to identify and pursue appropriate training in line with the needs of their role and their professional ambitions, to be carried out during paid working hours. The criteria for accessing this fund has recently been expanded to include wellbeing support, such as the Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) through Beacon Counselling.
• We gather feedback from employees through a variety of avenues, including annual staff survey, formal appraisal, 1:1 check-ins, digital suggestions box, and weekly team meetings. We specifically seek to understand whether they feel valued, supported, and invested in.
• As our team has grown, we have created role profiles that build in time for workforce management. We have an organisational induction programme, which introduces new employees to the team, office facilities, and culture, as well as our client portfolio and work. This is carried out over the first few weeks of employment, but we readily acknowledge the ever-changing complexity of our industry and client base, so induction is an ongoing process, and we actively ensure new team members receive the information and support they need through regular check-ins.
• Managers in the business actively work to protect employees from harassment and bullying. This is done through reinforcing our company culture in day-to-day practice, as well as through specific training. For example, the whole team recently undertook training focused on preventing sexual harassment in the workplace.
• As part of our staff benefits package, we sign employees up to the Perkbox employee reward schemeafter one year’s service, which offers free resources including a wellbeing hub, gifts, prize draws, discounts, and also has the functionality to send ‘recognition’ notes to each other. We also have a Cycle to Work scheme and an annual bonus scheme. After five years’ service, employees also qualify for private healthcare.

Is Smith Goodfellow a good place to work? – An employee’s view

In our latest staff experience survey – which is always conducted anonymously to encourage complete honesty – 100% of our team said they were proud to work for Smith Goodfellow and that they would recommend it as a place to work. Below you can see some of the individual feedback we received in the survey:

“Internally, SG’s values are putting their employees first, caring for their health, circumstances & wellbeing to ensure the team can work the best they can. SG works around their employees’ wellbeing and work-life while still ensuring the level of work is the most professional and exceptional for their clients.”

“SG has always offered me a safe and inclusive space to work, everyone is kind and interesting, management are amazing at ensuring everything we need is readily available. Couldn’t enjoy being a part of this team more!”

“Really love the attention on health & wellbeing and ensuring the staff have the correct items to ensure they’re working to their full potential without hurting themselves e.g. posture!”

If you’re interested in working for us, please see our current vacancies for available opportunities or submit a CV: https://www.sgpr.co.uk/who-we-are/working-for-us/

If you’d like to discuss any of the content in these blogs or talk about your own experiences with us, you can find us on these social channels: Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Threads.

Learn more about our history as a PR and marketing consultancy that specialises in construction.

DISCLAIMER: This is based on our experience and is not endorsed by GEC, nor does it offer any guarantees. Please view the Greater Manchester Good Employment Charter FAQs or contact them directly to discuss how your business can become a Supporter or apply for membership.