I recently came back from leave to a whole raft of good news. However, the thing that really made my day was finding out we’d secured the Investors in People (IiP) Gold standard for the third time in a row.
I am often asked why we take IiP so seriously. My answer is simple: we are in every respect a people business. Our people determine everything about us from customer service to product innovation. For us, IiP is the ultimate external audit of how well we recruit, onboard, develop, motivate, reward and retain the high-quality talent essential to delivering exceptional client and delegate journeys.
Only a small percentage of organisations with IiP achieve the Gold standard. So, it puts us in a pretty distinguished club. However, is it just another piece of perspex and plastic to adorn a dusty trophy shelf? Or does it actually tell us, our clients, our delegates and potential recruits something about how we do business?
The answer is in the latest IiP report. The loudest message is that we truly operate as a values-driven business. And those values are the DNA that runs through everything we do. As a result, we are unashamedly ‘policy light’ – our values create a framework within which people are empowered to take ownership and make decisions as close to the client as possible.
That way of operating makes us incredibly adaptable and responsive. No amount of policy and process can prepare you for today’s complex, fast-changing, unpredictable and uncertain world. You need to react to the scenario in front of you and make great business decisions. Our values make that possible.
Winning our first IiP Gold award coincided with Chiumento launching its digital transformation strategy. Our commercial success since then isn’t a coincidence. Getting our culture right was at least as important to driving high performance as exciting new technologies, products and services.
Remote working relies ultimately on trust. Hence, we focus on outputs, not inputs. We know we can trust people who live our values.
Operating as a remote business also means you aren’t constrained to hiring people who can make the daily commute to location X or Y. As a result, we’ve been able to hire an amazing team of people who live in locations as diverse as Norfolk, Berkshire, Wiltshire and Surrey.
Going forward we will need to hire more great people who see our values as something they aspire to. People who relish the idea of taking ownership and accountability rather than being told what to do. Individuals who inspire, motivate and lead others, not manage and supervise them. The people who will take us on to secure our next goal – the IiP Platinum award in 2022.
If you think you’d like to be part of that journey then do get in touch. We are always interested in talking to people about their career aspirations. We have some exciting new roles in the pipeline and its never too early to talk to us in confidence about your aspirations.
‘IiP Gold: we’ve done it again’ was written by Ian Gooden, Executive Chairman, Chiumento Ltd. If you like what you’ve read why not follow us on LinkedIn and read all our future careers advice and musings on the world of work.
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