Our Culture of Engagement

I’ve always thought of myself as the people’s princess of Goram & Vincent, other people know me as the person responsible for everything human. Being responsible for humans, rather than money or brands, means I can concentrate on wellbeing, development, relationships within the teams and how much coffee we have in the office at any given time.

I’ve never liked the saying ‘we are like family’ in a work setting, because I know how families can be and I’d like to think we have more boundaries, although I’m not sure the conversations during our daily stand up meetings would support that. A community of like minded people sounds, well a bit commun-y, and a bit too good to be true but it takes hard work to foster a culture of individuals who buy into a collective vision or goal.

Goram & Vincent is very proud of its Culture of Engagement. It all comes back to the team. 
We are only as financially competitive as the next company (humble brag) but for me it’s the stuff outside of the money that keeps people in jobs; to be a part of something meaningful, to be respected for what you do and to know you are making a difference. 

To support those things we prioritise 121’s, and have regular health and wellbeing check-ins – these may involve a walk and chat, discussing anything from personal physical/mental health, training opportunities or running through a bit of strategy or team dynamics, in the hope that each member of the team feels listened to and valued for their ideas of ‘how things are done around here’. 

We invest in new people before we are screaming for extra bodies. We have a solid onboarding process – Jon, our new developer hiked up a mountain with us before he joined us a week later! We train employees up so they can step into their role at a comfortable pace and encourage people to be in a place of ‘stretch’ – challenged enough not to be bored but also not in overwhelm. 

None of this is ground breaking but it works. The team is the most important asset we have and if they feel respected and trusted, they in turn will give it back in spades. And they do. I’m lucky, my job is easy, the team is fully on board and passionate about what we do.

I’ve never met a more determined, focussed group of people. Not one for tooting horns but sometimes you have to honk when you are proud of something.

---

Cheryl Franklin is Operations Director at G&V. For more information on our team culture, operations and processes then please get in touch via our contact page.