This week we released our latest video on Culture and why having a good culture is important to us as a company. There is no checklist of what makes a good culture in business, so much of it comes down to what a person needs to make work an enjoyable and functional space, both mentally and physically. What works for one person may not work for another.
From the pivot of Difrent from a recruitment to Delivery company three years ago, we were committed to being a digital business that is all about its people and not just the technology because we believe this is how you keep people happy and satisfied in a job.
“When we talk to candidates to find out if they are the right cultural fit. We always start with a good conversation and get a grasp of them and their personality. At Difrent we embrace diversity and challenge the norm — everyone has creative good ideas and excitement for the work we do.”
Shannon Heffernan, Recruiter for Difrent
Our take on creating a conscious culture is based on emphasising and supporting diversity, accountability, mutual respect, empathy and cooperation. This builds care, transparency and trust between a company’s team members and its other stakeholders. We have a clear decision-making structure. With a regular rhythm of Management Board and Senior Leadership Team (SLT) meetings. Every employee knows that they can (and are encouraged to) shout about the work they are doing.
“It’s been great fun. I have genuinely never worked anywhere like Difrent. It’s an incredibly diverse group of people, distributed across various locations throughout the UK, yet every time we come together, be that via remote means (Slack, Hangouts etc) or in-person (our annual Summer/Xmas Party, client visits) you really feel part of the same organisation. There’s an immense amount of respect for every member of Difrent.”
Ben Cooper, Principal Consultant at Difrent
It’s well known that within the industry contractors are used to meeting certain deadlines and delivering special elements of projects. We value all of our staff, whether permanent or contractor, and see real importance in making everyone feel welcome when joining the team.
“I worked with Difrent on a really time-sensitive project — which isn’t unusual for my line of work. Where Difrent were different in their approach, was they made me feel welcome to meetings (to get a good fee for Difrent and the people), including the Town Halls (which in past contracts I was unable to attend as I wasn’t a permanent member of staff). This made me far more relaxed and definitely made me want to work harder to get past stucks.”
Rachelle Strange — Contractor
We take great pride in tailoring and planning thoroughly our onboarding process to all of our new team members regardless of whether they are contractors or permanent staff. For our permanent staff, performance reviews and clear objectives have never and will never be a ‘nice to do’, for the benefit of both us as a company and the individual. We don’t just want to know the ‘what’ but the ‘how’ objectives have been met.
In a nutshell, we recognise that more than ever employees want to know what the clear purpose of a business is. So we constantly exhibit that as an organisation through leaders and managers consistently and convincingly conveying our key messages, and being alongside team members to support their needs daily.
Originally published at https://difrent.co.uk.
