After our recent success at the Glasgow Business Awards, where we won the Fair Work Award (1-50 employees), our founder & Chief Explorer, Colin Lamb, talks about why fair work is not just important at Connect Three but essential for Glasgow’s growing economy.
"Fair Work, is what is says on the tin really. It’s about creating a workplace culture and environment that allows employees to bring their best selves to work every day.
"Many business leaders we work with ask us 'how do you get teams and individuals engaged and how do you get discretionary effort?'. The answer for me lies within the 5 elements of Scottish Government’s Fair Work Framework.
"Fair Work covers working practices and policies in five areas: Employee Voice; Opportunity; Security; Fulfilment and Respect. These are the ingredients for for a fool-proof recipe of a highly productive culture.
"A few examples of our people practices are flexible working, no zero hour contracts, Living Wage accredited, Personal training budgets, Investors in Young People accredited, job buddying, capability matrix and learning plans, personal wellbeing allowance, investing in charities and helping young people flourish through work experience and internship opportunities.
"Fair Work is also about creating, as coined by Prof. Amy Edmundson, ‘psychological safety’ in the workplace. A workplace where you can speak freely without fear of being shut down and have the ability to make mistakes and learn from them. This learning focussed culture is where we start to see personal growth leading to increased engagement and productivity levels.
"Our company values help to promote and demonstrate this well. Be Curious, Be Bold and Be You. We encourage all members of our team to ask lots of questions, contribute ideas, challenge thinking (even mine!) and importantly bring their full selves to work each day - warts and all. We are all human at the end of the day and we need to understand our teams better. Utilising your people’s strengths and providing them with the right support will help them flourish.
"Connect Three are absolutely thrilled and extremely proud to have been awarded this special Business Award through Glasgow Chamber of Commerce (sponsored by RBS). It is a very important award for us that shows our clients and partners that we practice what we preach (being a people focussed consultancy) and gives us recognition internally for demonstrating best practice in what we do."
Here’s a link to the Fair Work Framework, if you are interested in enhancing your culture or looking to increase productivity through your people.