The culture of a business can have a ripple effect throughout every aspect of the organisation, its tentacles touching everything from recruitment and retention to morale and customer satisfaction. The decision to transform a business culture is therefore not one to be taken lightly, and the shift in perspective will not happen overnight. However, the results can be deeply rewarding, especially against an industry landscape where recruitment is highly competitive, retention is essential and high morale is the key to supporting happy, engaged customers. Ian Leeding, Managing Director of Samsic UK, looks at why it was important for the cleaning and security provider to become more people-centric for the business to move forward, and how it created a ‘family’ atmosphere that inspires people not only to stay but to do their very best.
Like many industries, ours is still feeling the reverberations of COVID-19 and Brexit which have certainly tightened the talent pool, making it harder to find the right people. Recruitment and skills shortages have therefore been a challenge.
Samsic’s culture had been successful in building a strong business, but there needed to be a shift in our perspective in order to tackle these issues.
One solution was for our business model to become more people-centric so that we could create 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 spent a long time defining our cultural map and began looking at processes that would support colleagues professionally as well as personally; enable us to listen to people more closely; give them space to express their views and create a family-like atmosphere where everyone was valued and understood.
The vision of the Samsic family is strong within the company and since becoming the Managing Director of Samsic UK in 2022, I have helped to steer the vision together with our leadership team. It encompasses the idea that we function at our best when we work together and pull together as one.
In shifting our company culture, a major undertaking was the relaunch of our Company Values, along with a brand refresh, which now feature throughout the organisation, including on the website and at all Samsic UK offices. They show our unwavering commitment to excellence, and help put our people first and foremost.
In drawing up the idea of a company culture where people are the main drivers, it makes it even more important 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. Therefore, it seemed natural to invest in a refresh of our recruitment practices, which saw the introduction of a standardised job requisition process and documented procedures and guidelines to ensure a consistent hiring process. A candidate pack was also provided to promote Samsic’s ethos and is helping to foster a diverse and inclusive workforce.
Ideally, you want people for the future who understand the business and what it can do for them. Introducing such steps is helping us find candidates who suit the company’s culture and embrace our ethos and drive.
Once you have hired the right people, investment in their future has to begin and our business model supports that. It means providing scope for training, progression, and promotion, not just as a strategic move, but as part of our company's culture.
Within our Company Values, one of our main pillars is people investment, as we believe our people are the foundation of our business. We also recognise the importance of growing our own talent as we strive to make colleagues feel valued and ensure their continued development. Therefore, expanding training and development has proved crucial in creating a pathway for our people so that they can see there are opportunities for improvement. Until people believe that there is a career for them in this industry, it is difficult to retain them. It means empowerment is essential in giving people the opportunity to learn, grow and have a career.
Through the introduction of toolbox talks, regular appraisals, surveys, and frequent meetings and communications, colleagues are now encouraged to discuss their professional and personal goals, and share ideas on how to enhance client services. Listened to, they are supported on an individual basis and in their career goals, while they are also encouraged to have a good work/life balance. It means, as a company, we can also outline potential advancement opportunities for employees who demonstrate proficiency and dedication through talent management, which can support the entire employee lifecycle to ensure upskilling and development for staff at all levels.
We have developed site-specific training and have two BICSc accredited training centres, plus a Learning Management System (LMS) which has more than 1000 individual courses providing training or management development plans. We continue to work to expand this platform which currently has 1700 active users, 39,000 completed courses, and 640 training modules.
By creating career support, people therefore have access to up-skilling programmes, step-up programmes, training and management programmes. 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.
Recognition is also important and our people are regularly acknowledged and celebrated for their contributions to both the business and its clients, including awards for excellence and long-service.
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.
As further support, we also offer English language classes to help individual development, and diversity within teams, and have appraisal systems with two-way dialogue to empower our people to meet their aspirations and nurture future leaders.
Company-wide surveys can also help in understanding colleagues better. One such survey led to the creation of the Samsic ONE app, having highlighted the need for improved communication. It is an accessible service, providing information and reports for clients, polls for all users, guidance and wellbeing initiatives, and training for service teams.
As part of our refresh of Company Values, we are also redefining our business roadmap for the next three to five years, and environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) is very much at its heart.
Our ESG approach involves everyone we work with, and throughout the business there is a real passion for this area. We are empowering people to make the decisions and deliver the actions which support our ESG goals - not just within Samsic but for clients and suppliers as well and deliver a more sustainable legacy for those who follow. We have also given people more of a voice in our charity work with the creation of an employee-led Charity Committee. Employees can now nominate causes, which ensures ongoing community support whilst also complementing our chosen charity, the Rainbow Trust.
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.
The processes and incentives that have been introduced are cultivating a positive culture and enhancing the personal and professional lives of our people, while incorporating family values means we can work with like-minded people who care about what they do.
Technology supports the human element of a business, but the human element is first and foremost and individuals enable us to deliver customer excellence.
Having an empathetic approach with clients and staff is therefore far more important than being profit-driven, and by putting people and culture at the heart of our organisation we are seeing increases in staff morale, performance, and retention while also offering a top-class service to clients.
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