Best Companies 2021 UK: Why is employee engagement important to us
Author: Sonia Older | Date published: August 23, 2021, UK | Read est: 5 min read
Best Companies UK – World class to work for 2021
The results are in! We are delighted to announce that Focus Group has been awarded a world class Best Companies accreditation – the highest level awarded by the renowned employee engagement specialists!
Our very own Joint MD of Focus Group, Chris Goodman, commented: “I’m absolutely thrilled. This means a huge amount to me – it’s one thing to be the founder of a successful business, but something quite special to do that with a team who love their job and the company they work for. Our stardust as a business is our entrepreneurial and ambitious culture…as we’ve grown, we have had to work hard to maintain that, while also protecting the family feel.
Making the 100 Best Large Companies list is recognition of the work we’ve done over the past 18 months to drive up our engagement levels. Covid presented us with numerous challenges but the strength of our employee community shone through and I am immensely proud of how everyone pulled together.”
One of the UK’s best companies to work for
From day one, we have always put our employees first in our mission to be one of the best companies to work for, recognising that our people are our biggest asset and need to be at the heart of everything we do.
Best Companies worked with us to provide valuable data and insights to facilitate positive, meaningful change that would further promote excellence in the workplace and ensure employees always feel valued and invested in. Maybe not the easiest of times to press on with such a task as Coronavirus took hold – but we ploughed on nonetheless!
A pulse survey highlighted areas we could strengthen, including opening-up more training opportunities and for line managers to be better supported. Other areas included reviewing salaries and bonuses, as well as diversifying our local charity work.
ATaking everyone’s feedback onboard, we have spent 18 months addressing areas highlighted in the survey, making Focus truly employee centric:
- We ramped up the communication of the company strategy, clarifying roles and goals!
- A performance management framework has been introduced to deliver consistency and fairness.
- ‘Focus Xchange’ was launched to offer employee benefits and discounts.
- The Focus ‘Learning Hub’ has been introduced, offering various development opportunities.
- Salaries and bonus schemes have been reviewed, and will remain under continual review.
- The ‘Focus Foundation’ was born, a new Reward and Recognition scheme.
- ‘The Wire’ was launched to better communicate company news.
- To reinforce our commitment to employee engagement across the entire business, we have appointed a HR, Culture and Communities Ambassador to ensure we always do our best for our employees.
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Why is employee engagement so important to us?
So why is employee engagement so important to us? The Focus Group Culture can be attributed as to why we have received a best companies accreditation; not only do we pride ourselves on our positive and honest leadership, but we have also created a progressive environment, as well as promoting a friendly, inclusive and supportive atmosphere.
We encourage social activities of all kinds, from parties to sporting events, team building and Learning Lunches. The wellbeing of our people always remains top of our priority list. Our in-house wellbeing committee work hard to ensure the health of employees both in and out of the workplace, having undertaken full Mental Health First Aider training and relevant e-learning courses.
Lastly, our over-arching ethos of working hard while still having fun prevails – the Focus Family works and seems to attract like-minded people!
Sonia Older
Brand & Campaign Manager
Sonia Older is the Campaign Manager at Focus Group and a highly experienced copywriter. She boasts over 20 years of experience in content marketing and PR across multiple industries, and is the key driver of content and PR for Focus Group across all UK offices. Away from work, Sonia usually swaps keyboard strokes for ski slopes in the Alps with her family.
