Strong leadership is important, and to lead successfully, a company needs a structure that takes into account different opinions, backgrounds, cultures, specialisms and ideas from across the entire organisation.
At business advisors and accountants, TC Group in Northampton, an Employee Board, made up of a diverse group of team members, is elected each year to represent the wider employee base and bring new voices and ideas to the table.
Chaired by Head of Brand, Creative & Culture, Chris Dell, the Employee Board is tasked with challenging management thinking and bringing first-hand experience to issues faced by the business as well as helping drive key strategic projects in areas such as People, Processes and Growth.
A flavour of the activities and projects the latest cohort have been involved with are:
- Leading individual ‘passion’ projects, encompassing mental wellbeing, DEI, apprentices and client experience, to name but a few.
- Attending board meetings giving members the opportunity to learn the leadership skills required to run similar meetings.
- Coordinating and promoting the company’s Values Awards.
- Being mentored and consulted by the Executive Board on key business decisions and policies.
- Developing and championing wellbeing initiatives across the business.
- Reviewing TC Group’s Personal Development Plan (PDP) programme, making sure all colleagues have a targeted, tailored, and motivating future development plan.
- Coordinating the company’s popular and motivational ‘Inspirational Speakers Series’ – speakers are both internal and external.
Chris said: “I’ve had the great pleasure of continuing to Chair the Employee Board this year and have enjoyed every moment of it. It’s fantastic to be able to champion and blend Exec Board strategic projects with Employee Board passions whilst aligning these to ensure they benefit not only our own teams across the business, but also our clients’ businesses.
“I think it’s been hugely insightful and rewarding for this year’s cohort. Seeing each and every member of the Employee Board grow and flourish though a wider understanding of the demands placed on boards at an exec level’s given them a wider appreciation of the challenges of running a progressive business in today’s ever-changing world.”
The Employee Board is just one of many people strategies that TC Group introduced some years ago to support its goal as a business. All of the Senior Leadership Team work in the open-plan office and willingly make themselves approachable. As a business, TC Group also shares company updates every four months, at quarterly business reviews (QBRs), which also presents a great opportunity for people to get together in person, ask questions and share ideas.
Stephen Watts, Managing Partner, said: “We’re a progressive business, one that doesn’t, or indeed shouldn’t, stand still. We promote having an ‘even better’ mindset to growth and actively welcome ideas and thoughts from our colleagues across the business.
“We’ve implemented numerous avenues for our people to share these and contribute, which includes the QBRs, fortnightly office huddles, suggestion boxes, office representatives, regular surveys, our employee board or the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) forum (launched this year), to name just a few.
“Why? Because we want to create an environment where everyone feels empowered, has the support to develop personally, where efforts are suitably recognised and make TC Group an enjoyable and rewarding place to work. We firmly believe this is the foundation for delivering an exceptional client service.
“As Richard Branson says ‘happy employees make for happy customers’.”
The thoughts of the latest cohort are key to explaining the reasoning and the success behind the Employee Board:
Kieran Oldershaw
Senior Surveyor
I joined the Employee Board to support my own development within the business whilst also trying to make an impact and improve the business for the team. I have a greater understanding of how our business operates on a strategic level and have worked within a fantastic team of individuals to solve various problems facing the business. I’ve gained valuable insight and knowledge from the senior leaders in the business by working closely with them to understand how they approach issues and deal with them collaboratively.
Rebecca Fitzsimons
Finance Executive
I joined as I’m passionate about people feeling happy at work, and I really wanted to make a difference. I’ve gained more confidence, especially when it comes to public speaking – I’d never have had the courage to do that before joining the employee board! My main project has been focusing on people’s mental health. The survey we ran and the podcasts have led to personal and vulnerable conversations that are really making a difference. We’ve just finished training 18 of our team as Mental Health First Aiders.
Sophie Penwill
Audit Assistant Manager
I wanted to be part of something that could make a real impact on the business and the team members. It’s been such a great learning opportunity, to understand how decisions are made within the business and to see how the senior leadership team deal with issues that are presented to them on a daily basis. It’s also been brilliant to be a part of introducing change requested by our wider colleagues. My main project has been employee recruitment and retention, and I’d like to think real change has come about because of it.
Jamilah Begum
Audit Executive
I joined the Employee Board to build better relationships with my colleagues outside of my service line. It’s really easy to just stay within your team but I wanted to put myself out of my comfort zone and build a larger network. It’s been beneficial to me since it’s given me a better understanding of how internal business decisions are made. It’s also given me the opportunity to venture well beyond my comfort zone, which has really boosted my confidence.
Rayna McNair
Employer Brand Executive
The culture and willingness to always want to do more is why I wanted to continue to promote the good things we have in our offices on the Employee Board. Coming from a functional team, I also wanted to come into this cohort with a different perspective. Driving our new DEI forum has been a real passion of mine.
Lewis Donovan
Service Charge Manager
I joined as I wanted to build better connections throughout the firm and gain a deeper understanding on how the company operated. I’ve gained a network of trusted individuals throughout the firm I can ask any type of question, too. This has helped me both in my personal and my career development. I’ve also gained an understanding on what it truly means to have an impact in TC Group and understand how hard our executive board works to make this a great place to work.
Stephen said: “I recall an early meeting with the current cohort where they shared their initial experiences on what being an Employee Board member had meant to them. There was some really powerful feedback around enabling them to have a stronger purpose, greater recognition and more interaction and knowledge of the wider business.”
Chris added: “There can’t be many businesses that have Employee Boards in place (I’d estimate it to be fewer than 1%) and this is something we’re immensely proud of at TC Group. It’s been an absolute delight to see the current cohort’s personal growth over the last year or so and they can be immensely proud of this and the value they’ve added across a number of initiatives that benefit the whole business.”
Find out more about TC Group on 01604 746760 or visit their website.
