If We Can, You Can

Author:

Fiona Cruickshank

Business:

The Specials Laboratory

Published:

10/11/2008 11:14:00

If I can’t create the right culture at work, everything will come to a standstill in some way, shape or form. There’s a simple premise; if you have the right product or service for your customer, you do it well. That’s a given. The thing that’s going to make us successful is not reducing costs or anything like that; it’s going to be how we do business, how we deal with clients, and how our people are at work. A high spirited workforce breeds successful business, and I genuinely believe that.

We try to instil positivism and enjoyment, a professional yet friendly place to work. It’s all about having a bit of a laugh, doing the business the way you want to, and treating everybody decently.

I can cite bits of work that we’ve done where the culture of our workforce has swung the decision between someone coming to put their high technology, high risk project with us rather than somebody else. Our people, not only will they do great science for them, but they’re also interested enough to go a little bit further to provide a better service because they’re quite happy at work and they can do it. That’s what makes the customer decide to trade with us.

We’ve got a few things that we do to create a good working environment. We have a birthday party once a month, and anybody’s birthday it is in February for example gets an invitation. The boardroom gets done up like a kids’ party with balloons and jelly and ice cream and it’s all really silly.

It’s about getting people together. Even if they’re moaning about what a load of rubbish it all is, at least they’re talking and having a conversation. We’ve also got company newsletter with all the latest gossip, we use an informal network, and I try to persuade people to pick up the phone as opposed to sending an email.

We celebrate any successes we have. When we hit a milestone in the financials, we threw a party, a booze cruise on the Tyne. It was a gesture to say thanks for all your hard work, now let’s have a bit of fun.