Can you remember your first day at a new job? It can be hard learning the ropes, finding your place, making friends, feeling welcomed and valued.
That’s why at Purple Lime we are focusing on ‘teamship’, an inclusive way forward to help all of our employees love their jobs and therefore increase their productivity.
Starting our journey
First off, we realised that as lovely as all we are, no single one of us is an expert. Our ship needed a rudder to ensure our various requirements were taken on board and for that we worked with business coach (step forward Nigel Scott of ActionCoach and take a bow).
He helped us decide on goals we could all get behind. These included regular social events, supporting personal charities, offering flexible working, ensuring continuing personal development for every employee.
Over the past few months we’ve really worked hard to make these happen and have already held team away dates and out of office socials.
The ability for team members to suggest charities is already up and running (more on this soon!) and one team member took advantage of our new flexible working policy in order to work from home. He needed to be on hand for tradesmen finishing off his new build property. With another employer, previously this might have required him using annual leave.
Deciding on ‘rules’
Once we had our goals set for our vision of the workplace, it was time to agree on our day-to-day essentials – or boundaries.
We call these company rules (although you won’t find them in any HR policy).
They are the glue that holds our work/life in balance. Any new beginner should be able to take one look and know exactly how they can play their part. We came up with these as a team so there is complete buy-in across the team.
They are:
- To ensure full contact details are taken for every phone call, we hate keeping customers waiting and lost or incomplete messages simply will not do.
- To respect those colleagues who are on the phone and to think about volume control in the office.
- To ensure we share files both internally and externally in the safest manner and how go about that.
- To take advantage of our new core hours of 10am-4pm to beat the rush hour traffic or simply to spend some quality time with loved ones.
Full steam ahead
While the reception to these rules has been brilliant and our team is very much on board, at Purple Lime we recognise our ship is still in full sail and occasionally we will need to change course or look to new horizons.
A huge part of this way forward is the theory that any and all of our staff can play their part (and we salute those who have volunteered to be ‘go-to’ fonts of knowledge).
More to the point, we want to welcome suggestions although, as a team, all staff must agree unanimously to these suggestions for them to be put before the directors.
While directors will have the final say, the company genuinely cares that staff love their jobs and the directors will do all they can to support this ethos.
Essentially, Purple Lime believe we all have something valuable to say and together we can steer our ‘teamship’.
Why not give our ‘Meet the Team’ page a click, and perhaps put a face to a familiar voice or simply find out a bit more about our team.
From our areas of expertise to hobbies, you can see exactly who you’re dealing with.
It’s also the place to find our individual direct numbers and email accounts and don’t forget you can always say hello to the team on social media!
We’d love to hear from you!