Good employers are in the news. There’s the gasp-inducing lushness of top stateside technology firms where on-site gyms and games rooms are just some of the delights that pepper their campuses, to the point where some Google employees have reportedly set up home in camper vans, dodging night-time security teams and living at their workplace for weeks and even months at a time. One even saved enough money to buy his own house.
Back home, there are UK companies with a long history of offering workforce goodies, on a more modest but – for the times – unprecedented scale. Probably the best known is John Lewis, much praised for treats for staff – or partners, as they’re called – which include subsidised holidays and meals, as well as a terrific profit- sharing scheme. For some employees, where the occasional biro swiped from the corporate stationery drawer or an honourable mention in the online newsletter are as good as the perks get, the thought of a pampered existence with bosses who can’t do enough to make the 40 hours a week you are on their premises a bliss-filled experience seems like a distant dream. Some companies are still deep in a recession mindset, legacy of the time a few years back when employees were simply relieved to have a job at all, let alone one with a boss so delighted to see you that he or she showered treats on you, like benisons from above.
It’s a different story in our area however, which is, it’s fair to say, as close to a Shangri-La for employees as it gets. So mouth-watering are the feel-good staff treats sprinkled on the more humdrum aspects of working life that they’d make almost anyone contemplate retraining just to take advantage of them. And this isn’t a new phenomenon. As they’ll point out, with admirable restraint, when it comes to staff perks, some companies here have been out-Googling Google for decades. At Cambridge Consultants, a local product development and tech consultancy firm – and one of the key players in the story of the ‘Cambridge cluster’ – free meals were offered from day one, points out Alison Hughes, head of HR. “It’s quite funny when you hear this hype and you think we’ve been doing this for years.”
Just one of the reasons – along with a comprehensive healthcare package, performance related bonus scheme, active social club and a million pounds annually invested in staff training – that the company has achieved a coveted place in the list of The Sunday Times 100 Best Mid-Sized Companies to Work For. The dedication to looking after employees seems to be paying off, with staff turnover at less than 5% a year. Similarly thoughtful touches infuse other workplaces in our area, like the regular deliveries of fresh fruit to staff at biotech firm Abcam, which also organised a week packed with bicycle-themed events during the Tour de France. It sounds delightful, like being treated not as one element in an effective transaction – my time for your money – but as an honoured guest with a host who can’t do enough for you, bar tenderly placing a goodnight chocolate on your turned down pillow at night (though it’s a fair bet that some company, somewhere round here, is doing that too).
A cynical boss, however, might ask what the point is. Could one-upmanship be at work, allowing firms boasting rights about the quality of office life, from their snooker table to the snooze room or range of locally-sourced, organic snacks, all bigger and more fun-packed than anything their rivals down the road can offer? Perish the thought. As the old adage has it, ’tis better to give than receive. At Cambridge Consultants, says Alison Hughes, there is a strong ethical dimension – as well as a practical one – underlying everything the company does. When the company first colonised the empty acres of the Science Park, there just weren’t any handy sandwich shops to go to. But there was more to the decision to provide free meals than that.
“It just felt like the right thing to do.” And, as you’d hope, doing the right thing also confers economic advantages. In our area, brainpower is what makes businesses successful. When you’re after the best people in a competitive market, showing you care is the key to making them not just join a company in the first place, but stay. Maya Bullen, group manager at CB1 Business Centre is in no doubt that creating a place people enjoy working is an essential factor in the organisation’s success. Good pay, fun outings – including a recent summer event involving lunch, punting and going out in the city – are all part of the mix, helping to create a committed workforce who really care.
‘When you’re after the best people in a competitive market, showing you care is the key to making them not just join a company in the first place, but stay’
“Our centre managers are always thinking of ways to improve the centre and worry if things aren’t quite going the way they’d like them to. If you’ve got a member of staff like that, it’s worth investing in and that’s a very valuable asset to the company.”
The glue that binds The Møller Centre at Churchill College, a residential management training and conference centre, is equally notable for the strength of the glue that binds the workforce. Delivering bespoke leadership programmes that help organisations develop and motivate their staff, the Centre is a dab hand at practising what it preaches. Tim Hill, its marketing manager, was a former client won over by the Centre’s star quality – notably the staff energy and enthusiasm which ensured that all the Centre’s events ‘run like clockwork’.
Support, advice and training all help contribute to the can-do atmosphere, together with a range of well-being benefits that include free meals and an annual flu vaccination programme, massage sessions and use of a gym, tennis courts and extensive running trails through 42 acres of lush parkland. The Møller Centre can also be spotted taking part in sponsored events out of hours – and getting staff together off-site is a big feature of working life in our area. Phrases like ‘team building’ and ‘corporate bonding’ can strike terror in the heart of anyone whose previous experiences include Ricky Gervais-style assessments, with a boot camp feel, supposedly designed to tease out leadership qualities against the clock. While these may well have their place, firms in our area are increasingly opting for activities that are less obviously designed to hone killer instincts and geared more towards promoting company well-being.
Tine Roche, owner of the Cambridge Cookery School, is seeing a steady rise in the popularity of events designed to release employees’ inner baker or pasta maker. While the thought of swapping boardroom for chopping board can create an initial frisson, the success of the end results, coupled with the ambience of the venue, results in a heart-warming camaraderie. The events allow people to “shake loose”, comments Tine Roche. ‘Smiley’ chefs help everyone – including complete cookery novices – to produce food to an undreamed of standard in friendly environment, while bonds forged here can be enduring ones.
“We know groups that email each other on the anniversary of their course,” she says. Equally successful, although very different, is the chance to scale the heights quite literally at Go Ape (nearest branch, pun intended, at Thetford), which reports a similar sense of cooperation when companies indulge in a spot of recreational tree climbing as people with a fear of heights are encouraged to overcome their nerves by their colleagues. Free meals, flexible working hours and benefits that at Cambridge Consultants even include counselling services – not just for the workers but for their families, too – it all sounds perfect.
Too perfect, you’ll hear the odd naysayer growl. Don’t all these perks have a slightly desperate air? The cell is still padded – even if it’s upholstered in silk. Recently, there have been stories of terrified staff at one very high profile US firm expected not just to give 100% in official working hours but be prepared to sacrifice every second of their free time too – all on the altar of company prosperity.
So, so wrong, say our area’s top flight companies. Put bluntly, happy employees work more productively. These days, it’s not about building prettier cages with better gilding but creating an atmosphere of liberation, where people work effectively together not because they have to, but because they want to and the 24/7 culture cuts both ways. It may be fuzzy edged, work and play can blend into each other, but that’s the way everyone likes it.
As Grace Sellmeyer, who works at Abcam, explains, knowing that that caring feeling emanates from the top down makes you go the extra mile in return. “They keep us happy so in turn we put everything into the job. It’s one of the best places I’ve ever worked.”
