Sam Rowe, CEO of exhibition, event and experience specialists Ignition – with offices in Bristol and Indianapolis – explains why treating your employees as you would your clients pays dividends
Over the past few years, Ignition has won a number of people management awards, including being ‘Best Employer’ at the EN Elite Awards two years in a row, being named one of the ‘Best Places To Work’ in the MM&M Awards in the USA and as a ‘Great Place to Work in the UK’s Best Workplaces Awards. We’re particularly proud of this recognition. It’s confirmation of our earliest-days belief that we could create a company that behaved as well to its team as it did to its clients. We also value the length of time people stay with us – with nearly half our team with us for six years or more. This has major business implications too, from internal stability to reducing the time and money we spend on handovers, bedding-in and recruitment.
A lot of our team management skills arise from a loose family structure model, through which we create a relaxed workplace atmosphere with plenty of support, praise and recognition, as well as lots of communication, sociability and fun. In terms of my personal management style as CEO, I’m very hands-on. I like to be in regular touch with both people and the flow of information, ensuring my input can be both strategic and personal.
It’s a no-brainer that a happy company is more productive and creates a better experience for clients. Part of establishing that core contentment comes from a focus on teamwork. Our culture is open and collaborative and anyone can come forward with an idea. We’ve also learnt not to micro-manage. Personally – and this has definitely taken time! – I’ve learnt to be a pragmatist, rather than the perfectionist I am by nature. You have to trust people to do the job you employed them to do. Of course, people also have to be good enough to earn that trust too, making initial recruitment very important. We carry out really thorough interview processes, including written exercises, and we like to involve different tiers of employees in the process in recognition of the tribal feel of office culture. Whilst we don’t always get it right, we mostly do. Those that fall away are often the people who don’t fit with our company values.
We define those values as EPIC – entrepreneurial, personable, intelligent, collaborative – and these really ring true in the day-to-day. People outside the company often comment on how nice to deal with our people are, but we definitely have an ambitious culture too. People can be whatever they want and can move into other roles if that’s what suits their skills. Some people achieve what they want and stay with us just for that time period. For others, we’re pretty much a home for life. We’re happy either way.
Our fine-detail HR precepts are partly about caring about people and partly about being transparent, including dealing with any issues as quickly as we can – and always offline! We’ve evolved a wide range of HR initiatives over time, from a ‘Positive Working Policy’, which covers everything from flexible working and work-from-home days to a floating day for special personal occasions to ‘input days’ for continuing education, plus a paid day each year to engage with a charity of the team member’s choice. Special employee effort is recognised in a multitude of ways, from spot awards for going above and beyond to a monthly hero award and an annual 10% bonus scheme on completion of milestones. Other programmes include team-building events; a positivity wall that celebrates work achievements and random acts of kindness; Christmas parties and wellness boot camps, as well as a fortnightly ‘Rumble’, where the whole company gets together, depending on which office is hosting, for company news and presentations. As we also have an office in Indianapolis in the US, this is particularly important.
As a boss, you have to learn to follow the enthusiasm as well as the talent and to see beyond people’s immediate role, as well as keeping abreast of generational changes. If you don’t let people know that you recognise their potential and individual skill-mix, the resulting lack of recognition can be a huge potential demotivator. In our latest Employee Opinion Survey, 97% of the team agreed with the statement ‘I feel motivated in my present job’. To me, that means there’s 3% still to work on!
