An engaged and happy workforce is something to be celebrated at the best of times, let alone over the last year as we’ve all faced many unforeseen challenges. Best Companies recognize this and seek to acknowledge businesses that care about doing things right, value their people, and understand the value of a truly engaged workplace. 1E is delighted to announce that we have been awarded 2 Stars in the Best Companies Survey representing Outstanding levels of Engagement in the company.
What does this mean?
A 2 Star accreditation is Best Companies second highest standard of workplace engagement. Achieving a 2 Star accreditation takes a BCI score of at least 696.5, made possible only through an outstanding commitment to workplace engagement.
In addition to this accreditation, for the first time ever 1E has secured a place on the following coveted lists:
- Technology’s 50 Best Companies to Work For
- The UK’s 100 Best Mid-Sized Companies to Work For
- London’s Best 50 Mid-Size Companies to Work For
The action behind the accreditation
The onset of the pandemic brought about many challenges that have transformed the modern workplace. For example, research shows organizations embracing hybrid work, with 83% planning for long-term remote working. Furthermore, COVID-19 had an impact on employee engagement, with reports revealing that wellbeing had the biggest increase across workplace factors, when compared with pre-pandemic levels.
The changing nature of the workplace, a shift to hybrid working, and the significance of wellbeing were all top priorities for us at 1E as we sought to ensure that our employees were supported, engaged, and empowered despite the ongoing disruptions.
We’re delighted to have scored very highly in engagement and supporting our people over the past year. Some of the key ways we’ve been focusing on these goals include:
Diversity and Inclusion – Diversity and inclusion are very important to 1E and all our people are encouraged to participate fully in the organization, voice their concerns, and work together to improve the company. We have a flat organizational structure, meaning everyone is empowered to give their opinion about what we could be doing better. We have focused on raising awareness of issues related to diversity and inclusion. To continue to explore and encourage debate around the topic, we have invested in diversity and bias awareness training. This has helped spur an ongoing dialogue and build a new level of transparency and openness.
Flexible and Hybrid working – 1E has formally committed to a Work From Anywhere model in response to the pandemic, and made long-term flexible, hybrid working an organizational priority. This had many implications in terms of our company culture and how we facilitate innovation. Most importantly, it enables all employees to fit work into their personal lives, parents to work around their childcare duties and carers to continue to provide vital support.
To facilitate this new working model, the decision was made to move to asynchronous working so everyone is working in real time across different time zones, improving organizational agility. Now, cross-team and smaller group collaboration can continue without the need for everyone to be in the same room.
Our HR team also quickly implemented a menu of flexible working options that ensured innovation could continue unhindered by the pandemic. Through a more personalized approach to employee relations and work contracts, we’ve aligned employees’ core working hours to personal circumstances. This was particularly important for parents and carers who needed to take time out of their days to tend to other, more pressing responsibilities.
Employee Wellbeing – 1E is now much more focused on wellbeing as a company. And – because proper nutrition, sleep and exercise are critical at a time like this – we’ve worked with lifestyle experts who have shared knowledge and actionable tips with employees.
Onboarding and Talent Acquisition – We have fully innovated the onboarding and talent acquisition process over the last year or so, which has enabled us to successfully hire 71 people during the pandemic. Additionally, the introduction of a buddy scheme and the launch of an onboarding site has helped new hires interact with company information and tools asynchronously. It’s vital that we’re better positioned to assess people remotely and support them in their early days at the company.
Keen to learn more about what makes 1E officially an outstanding company to work for? Check out our feature on Best Companies site here!
