So I'm just working out the week (read surfing the interwebs and chatting to my mates) and then I'm off.
I've got three weeks of "funemployment" then I'm taking my caravan and dogs to France for three weeks and then I start my new job at this place ...
Times 100, top SME to work for.
I can't wait ... I really can't!From Times Online
February 28, 2010
Softcat
IT solutions
SOFTCAT FOUNDER PETER Kelly says he is not interested in how much money his firm makes. "I just care that people are happy," he says. Kelly's utopian ideals were scoffed at when he set up his IT sales company in 1993, but going by Softcat's ascendant bottom line despite today's depleted market, the last laugh belongs to him and his dedicated team.
The me, me, me mentality that traditionally typifies sales jobs, where prima donnas win the day — and the commission — is conspicuously absent at Softcat. Here it is all about the team. "There's a massive sense of pulling together," says account manager Michael Watson. David Francis, a services partner specialist, agrees: "Everyone wants to do well for the company."
Kelly — by his own admission a "weird and eccentric entrepreneur" — entrenched a democratic ethic at the company's outset. While running the 17th mile of a marathon and pondering how to organise his newly expanding workforce, he had a light bulb moment: let them decide which team to join, rather than tell them where to go. It worked. And ever since, staff have had a vote on company-wide decisions.
Managing director Martin Hellawell might have had to tweak this process to ensure it falls the right side of anarchy, but the staff voice is certainly heard. Managers doing more listening than telling scored 92% positive in the employee survey — just one of Softcat's raft of top scores throughout all factors.
Team bonding does not finish at the end of the working day. Many of the young workforce — whose average age is 29 — socialise together, and that is even after all the entertainment laid on by the company. Top performers win trips to far-flung locations across the world as well as lunches at über-fancy restaurants such as Le Manoir Aux Quat Saisons. All those whose birthdays fall in the same month are taken out for lunch and get their birthday off as extra holiday if it falls on a weekday. Sweets and chocolates are frequently catapulted by senior managers through office air space towards their recipients.
Kelly, whose unofficial title is minister of fun, is the inspiration behind Softcat social stuff. When he retires in two years’ time he plans to appoint a "director of fun" — a sabbatical, board-level position for a Softcat employee with the responsibility for maintaining its culture.
Making work an enjoyable place to be and the consequent loyalty it imbues in staff is where the company pulls ahead of its rivals, as Hellawell explains: "What Softcat has to offer to the market is not unique. So the only way we can differentiate ourselves is with customer service. It's as simple as that. It's why we're successful. And we do that because we have staff who love Softcat."
www.softcat.com
