At TopLine Comms, an award-winning digital PR, SEO, and video production agency, we understand that the people are what make the business run. If our people aren’t doing well, there’s no way that our business will do well, and that’s why we invest heavily in our people strategy and well-being initiatives.
In a competitive industry like PR, stress is unavoidable. However, we can choose how we deal with it. By ensuring that all of our employees are physically and mentally healthy, and looking out for them when they aren’t, we can get an edge on the competition. Nobody benefits from internal politics and sharp elbows: we know that a compassionate, considerate environment is what people need to do their best work.
We were honoured to be recognised by Great Places To Work (GPTW) with their Excellence in Wellbeing Award for 2019–2020.
What do you need to do to earn a GPTW award?
The process of pursuing a GPTW award begins with an in-depth culture audit and confidential employee survey. The audit involves explaining the well-being and other programmes that the company offers to employees, and how these are different from the competition.
The employee survey, which is called the Trust Index Survey, asks employees what they like and dislike about their workplace, in several core business areas. Both the survey and the audit cover topics such as celebrating and recognising achievements, the promotion of fairness and transparency, investing in a fun community and environment, and nurturing employee talents.
Our policies and programmes
At TopLine, we’re always looking for ways to improve our well-being policies. A crucial part of this is our monthly ‘stop, start, continue’ survey, where employees can anonymously voice things that they like and dislike. We have also dedicated an all-company brainstorm to look at the responses to our GPTW survey, which we have now completed two years in a row, to look at what we currently do well and where we need to improve.
One area that is consistently popular is our approach to flexible working. We allow employees to work any combination of hours that suits them, provided they’re online for the key business hours of 10am to 4pm. This lets people take their kids to school, pop to the gym, or do any number of other things that wouldn’t be possible if we restricted them to traditional hours.
Similarly, we offer employees the option to work from home two days a week. This doesn’t cost the company anything, but employees really value it and appreciate the flexibility.
We do our best to keep people from working too many hours and make a concerted effort to keep emails within business hours. The last Friday of every month is an early finish Friday, and employees go home an hour and a half early. We also offer hours for shopping at Christmas, and a late start for employees on their birthdays.
Another popular perk that we offer is our regular well-being activity outings – from yoga and laser tag to shiatsu massage – which provide us with a chance to get away from the office for a little while and relax.
We take mental health seriously in our office and work to destigmatise it. We understand that being open takes courage, and we do everything we can to support employees when they need it. This is also true of our compassionate leave policy.
We offer a learning and development budget for every employee which resets every quarter. Employees are free to spend it however they and their line manager see fit. This is a great investment because they bring these skills back to the company and can recommend courses to others, and we consistently find that investing in our employees in this way pays dividends.
A genuine commitment to well-being
We have worked hard to make TopLine a place where employees feel comfortable, happy, and healthy, and this is an ongoing project. We are proud to rank as a Great Place to Work, particularly in the category of well-being, and we hope this has given you some ideas to take back to your workplace.
Ben Beckles is a media relations consultant for TopLine Comms. He is passionate about promoting mental health and well-being in the workplace.
