View from the top: What is our culture like at Neo PR?
“A little nonsense now and then, is cherished by the wisest men.”
A homage to Roald Dahl, in the month of his 102nd birthday, that nicely summarises our culture here at Neo PR.
Having recently celebrated our listing in the Real Business top 25 SME culture leaders 2018, company culture is something we feel passionate about. Why? The answer is simple: because a powerful company culture improves productivity, performance and inspires commitment. So why not have fun (and a little nonsense) along the way?
According to Chris Dyer, author of The Power of Company Culture, three things underpin a successful business legacy: a great working environment, employees who embrace the company vision and having a committed business leader.
Well, no-one would question the latter! From making himself available 24x7x365 for our clients to being our BBQ chief and head disruptor, there are no bounds to Ash’s commitment. But how can growing businesses make sure they continuously share their vision? And arguably more challenging, how do you define a “great” working environment?
Here at Neo, we’ve put in place regular company ‘All Hands’ to share business performance, important updates, and to provide an opportunity for everyone to ask questions. We also use the employee engagement and feedback tool, TINYpulse, on a weekly basis to pose questions on everything from company vision, ways we might improve service delivery, and peer 360 reviews, to canvassing thoughts on company perks.
Openness and transparency is hugely important, as is making sure everyone in the business feels like their views are valued. These forums are a great way of giving everyone a voice.
So what about the great bit? While subjective, in my opinion this really is about understanding your team. With the majority of us in their 20s and early 30s, offering flexible working is quite a big thing that we introduced earlier this year. Equally, with a fair number of working parents, the flexibility we offer with our ‘Parents in PR’ value statement is something everyone appreciates.
And of course, it’s also about the nonsense. It’s about the quarterly socials (water-balloon fights, anyone?); Bake-Off sweepstakes; food challenges (lots of them!); daily walks with our office dog Sam around the field outside the office; the occasional lunchtime brain-teaser; and our monthly pub Fridays, where we dish out the Wellington Boot prize for the team player of the month.
So how would I summarise our company culture? To conclude with another quote from the amazing Roald Dahl: “It’s impossible to make your eyes twinkle if you aren’t feeling twinkly yourself.”
