Best UK companies to work for

 

What’s one of the best companies to work for in the UK’s secret to a happy workplace?

 

When one of our users, Cosatto, a baby goods manufacturer in the United Kingdom, was named one of the best companies to work for in the UK, we were impressed.

When I saw that their Employee Mood KPI is 85%, it was clear to me that it was well deserved.

I had to know; what’s the one of the best companies to work for’s secret to a great workplace?

 

Best Companies to Work For

We spoke to the Cosatto employees to hear more about what they think makes Cosatto one of the best companies to work for.

We wanted to learn what has helped them earn the reputation as one of the best UK organisations.

I spoke to Shelia, the Associate Finance Director, Steve, the Operations Manager and Mark, the Product Development & Technical Director.

Shelia has been working for Cosatto for 10 years, Steve for 18 years, and Mark for 13 years.

They’ve all been with Cosatto B.C. (before Celpax) and A.C. (after Celpax).

Although Cosatto has perks for employees (and awesome perks by the way, check out more great work perks here), when speaking with the Cosatto team, this didn’t seem to be the reason why it’s one of the best UK companies to work for.

What stood out to me about our call was how often they all repeated that happiness was a natural part of the workplace.

“Happiness is one of our values here, it’s integrated the company,” said Steve.

 

Happiness at one of the best UK companies to work for

“It’s important to Andrew (the Cosatto CEO) to measure happiness and to have engaged employees;” he continued. “Happiness is part of our scorecard.”

Whereas some of our users begin their journey to a happier workplace with the Celpax, Cosatto started first with implementing the value, then began to measure.

Happiness is an overarching value throughout all departments at Cosatto.

When I asked about whose decision it was to install the Celpax, who oversaw the initiative and who checked the results most often, Shelia, Mark and Steve all answered, “Andrew”.

 

How to build a great team at work

“I never feel like someone isn’t listening to the Celpax results. I also know that Andrew is checking in because he shares the results on a weekly basis,” said Shelia.

It’s one thing to say “Happiness is a value here” but without reinforcing the message, it doesn’t mean much.

Values at Cosatto are encouraged with a top-down approach.

It starts with the CEO and trickles down to every team member at the company. The effort to promote employee engagement in the workplace is real.

One of the ways happiness is encouraged at Cosatto is by not having a specific time or place to discuss the office mood.

I know what you’re thinking- wait, isn’t that the opposite of what you usually say to do?

“We don’t have a specific meeting to discuss the Celpax results,” explains one of the employees.

“Results are shared weekly but we discuss really at any time. There’s a monthly all-hands meeting where we might discuss or we also have one to one meetings with direct supervisors and department managers, we might talk about how we’re feeling there as well.”

Sounds like a manual to “How to build a great team at work”!

 

Open Door policy

Some of our users find that having a time and place to discuss the Celpax results works for them, and they see results that prove this.

If this works for your company, then keep doing it!

However, in the case of Cosatto, having a transparent, Open Door policy to discussing your mood and why you might be pressing red or green has resulted in them having a stable mood KPI, around 85% green.

I once worked at a company that rented a hot dog cart for all the employees and I thought that was pretty cool.

But Cosatto’s perks put that to shame.

If you checked out the link above, you know that they have a slide in the office. A slide! Way cooler.

However, one thing that struck me was that the employees said they had never tried to correlate the results with any of the perks (i.e. special occasions or company parties to boost morale at work).

Most of our users find that “experimenting” with different strategies, initiatives or efforts and then looking at the dashboard results to see how they have been affected to be helpful. I.e. Do the Waffle Fridays boost morale at work?

In Cosatto’s case, having happiness as a value and it being so integrated into the company means that these aren’t necessarily “experiments” but just part of the company’s natural functions.

The big secret?

While Cosatto may have a few small peaks and a few little declines, overall their stable mood results prove that taking workplace happiness seriously and ensuring it’s part of the daily functions and core values works.

Cosatto’s results show that the title of one of the ‘best companies to work for’ in the UK is well deserved!

In fact, they are also one of the best European companies to work for

 

 

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Hey there! I’m Alex, marketing specialist at Celpax and I love helping to create Best Companies to Work For. We’re a for-profit helping workplaces improve employee morale with simple tech tools. Be sure to follow Celpax on Twitter, ‘Like’ us on Facebook or hey, check us out on LinkedIn.