Samsic UK has been going through something of a transformation over the past few years as we continue to put our people at the heart of everything we do.
Spearheaded by our Managing Director Ian Leeding, our culture change is bringing huge benefits for both our colleagues and the business. Rome wasn’t built in a day, but we are already seeing how rewarding such a shift can be, especially in its effect on morale, recruitment, and retention, while also recognising that it is the key to happy, engaged customers.
It is why we are delighted to announce that we are finalists in two categories of this year’s Business Culture Awards; the Business Culture Builder Award and the Best Talent Approaches for Business Culture award.
We have been told the competition this year has been fierce, so it is testament to the hard work of our teams that we have been shortlisted, with the winners to be announced on 13th November.
The decision to transform the culture of a business is not one to be taken lightly, however it was important for us to become more people-centric for the business to move forward.
Our culture had been successful in building a strong business, but there needed to be a shift in our perspective in order to tackle the continuing effects of COVID-19 and Brexit on recruitment, skill shortages and retention.
And so we decided to become more people-centric, creating a perfect synergy between a happy, well trained, and motivated workforce and the delivery of a first-class service which, in turn, would grow our market position.
We believe our people are the foundation of our business and so we relaunched our Company Values with people investment as one of the main pillars, focusing on recruitment, training and HR support.
Strengthening our recruitment processes was important because we need to find people who have the right cultural fit, who will embrace our ethos, and build long, solid careers. We believe that by recruiting top talent and investing in their training and happiness we can unlock their potential and empower them as our future leaders.
We also want colleagues to feel valued and ensure their continued development by investing in training, progression, and promotion, which is not just a strategic move, but part of our company’s culture.
We have therefore expanded training and development with site-specific training. We have two BICSc accredited training centres, plus a Learning Management System (LMS) which has more than 1,000 individual courses providing training or management development plans. We continue to work to expand this platform which currently has 1,700 active users, 39,000 completed courses, and 640 training modules.
It means people may join as a front-line operative but the opportunities are there to progress as we continue to focus on growing talent from the bottom up.
Colleagues are encouraged to discuss their professional and personal goals, and share ideas on how to enhance client services and are supported in achieving a good work / life balance.
Strong HR has been essential throughout our transition as we support equal opportunities, provide employee discounts and wellbeing schemes, and prioritise wellbeing and mental health, which includes a UK-wide Mental Health First Aider program, internally implemented nationwide. Supporting people in their personal lives is important, which saw the introduction of Wagestream, a salary access scheme, to provide support during the cost-of-living crisis, with 33% of employees now using this service to support good financial health. We are also an Accredited Living Wage Employer.
We are also empowering people to make decisions and deliver actions which support our ESG goals, while we have given people more of a voice in our charity work with the creation of an employee-led Charity Committee.
Changing to a such a people-centric culture takes time, and further initiatives are in the pipeline, but last year Samsic UK saw the average length of service increase by 10%, staff turnover within the first year has gone down by 11.5%, while the Employee Engagement Score has increased by 8.8% from previous years.
Happier and more engaged teams also have a knock-on effect and Samsic’s clients are also becoming more engaged with the Customer Engagement Score in 2023 having increased by 11% compared with previous years.
We are seeing a positive culture change and creating a ‘family’ atmosphere that inspires people not only to stay, but to do their very best, in a place where people are listened to, given space to express their views, and are valued and understood.
