Background

The Write Impression (TWI) is a specialist in public relations, marketing and commercial copywriting, formed in 2007 by print journalists who sensed change was in the air. In January 2015, Kate parted ways with her business partner of several years, primarily due to a complete clash of values which had resulted in frustration, reduced engagement, and poor culture across the business. She wanted to be able to empower her stakeholders, provide opportunities, inspiration, and enablement but when the company started to lose key staff and clients because they were unhappy, Kate knew she had to take action. The challenge she had was in rebuilding the culture of the business, making space for investment, and understanding the pathway she needed to take, and the resources she needed to get the business there. All this at the same time as getting them out of the red and into the black!

Approach

Kate invested in a business coach specialising in values and engagement to develop the skills she needed to develop a resilient programme. The same consultant worked with her and her team using 360-degree feedback tools to understand what her people needed to help them thrive. Focus was placed on how they saw the brand, delivered the services, and the values that were important to them. They talked about how they wanted to work, what was important in their home/life balance, and how they saw their roles and careers developing. This was an intensive and lengthy process with the following highlights:

• Every member of the team has an ongoing individual personal and professional growth programme.
• They have flexible work weeks without a fixed start and finish time, and no-one ever works more than 35 hours a week.
• They always pay a full salary to their intern staff; all of whom have stayed on with TWI after completing their degrees.
• Every member of staff has comprehensive private medical, dental, and optical care.
• They have regular professional mental health and wellbeing training, with additional funded support for anyone who needs it.
• They have monthly funded creative breakfast meetings at the local pub, weekly team support sessions and monthly funded team outings, for example, afternoon tea or a day at a beach hut.
• Bring your dog to work is encouraged!
• They have quarterly strategy days somewhere nice, where they build and review the business strategy together.
• They all support charities at work including MS-UK, Dementia Adventure and Cancer UK.
• They collaborate as a team, with a culture of empowerment and ownership, where everyone understands their value and career path. Every project they work on, every decision that is made, is as a team.
• Kate is so proud that they support each other as they face their own challenges. In the last three years they have faced serious illness with cancer, ongoing IVF treatment, bereavement and personal mental health issues and they have pulled together to make it work.
• Fun Friday was introduced, where if you feel you have worked extra hard and completed what you need to do, you can either stay home, come in for half a day or take the day. It means there is flexibility to go to the hairdresser, visit a relative or just have a lie-in!
• Every year, she likes to say thank you with a paid-for trip for her team. They have been to Dublin and Portugal, and last year was such a good year, they went on a five-day all-inclusive trip to the Canary Islands.

Outcome

Now the values-based culture is firmly embedded in the business, they have clear measures of the difference it makes to the business on a commercial and personal level. You can have a great culture AND be profitable. The business has become more profitable year-on-year with a values-focused strategy at its core. This strategy has proved that people can be enabled, happy and work sensible hours for a sensible wage and still make money for the business. Some of the key outcomes for the business have been:

• Of a team of nine people, they only recorded two sick days in the last year.
• People don’t leave them, and staff report that they value the culture of the business above anything else. Two staff have been with TWI since Kate started the business.
• Their last two hires came to them based on the culture they saw from their social media presence. Both took a small salary cut because they wanted to work somewhere with a strong people culture.
• Following the move to flexible working, productivity went up by 30%.
• Their clients value their culture, and they have many long-term contracts going back years.
• 95% of their work comes through recommendation.
• They have a team and personal coaching and mentoring programme for all staff.
• They have a stress and resilience therapist who works with the team on group sessions and one-to-one support.
• In appraisals (the most recent in May 2020), every team member rated the business as ‘outstanding’ to work for.
• Every staff member has a personal development programme and is able to present their learning to the team at the monthly insight sessions.
• Turnover has increased by 25% year-on-year, with the most significant growth in 2019/20.
• The strength of the team, and the loyalty and passion they have for the business has enabled them to pivot effortlessly to remote working during Covid-19.
• The business has a clear purpose and values set, created and shared by the whole team. Kate doesn’t believe this should be static, particularly after the last few months, so they are currently working with a values coach to further imprint this into their culture.

On a personal level, Kate measures the success of the investment in culture by the incredible feedback she gets from staff and clients. They are known for being loyal, honest, and hard-working and that is what wins them business and grows relationships. Kate is so proud to hear that people love their jobs, feel valued and supported and TWI is testament to the fact that you can have a commercially successful business while acting responsibly and ethically.

When Kate is not running TWI, she is also a non-executive Director at the Colchester Business Enterprise Agency (Colbea), where she has been volunteering for more than 15 years, supporting and mentoring new businesses. She is also an ambassador for the IoD in Suffolk, where most recently they have been supporting businesses through Covid-19 with advice and signposting. On National Bosses Day she clicked on to LinkedIn to see a video that her wonderful team had created about her and posted on social media channels. Little touches like her ‘Best Boss’ award that sits on her desk and the canvas they had made for her reminds her every day what a great culture they have built.