Software provider Cloudsoft has experienced accelerated business growth over recent years, now employing 34 members of staff, and is continually looking for fresh talent to join the team. In the current challenging job market for the UK technology sector, this means taking a proactive approach and making sure the business showcases its value to potential recruits.
Ross Gray, chief executive officer (CEO) of Cloudsoft, says: "Cloudsoft is a tight-knit team with a strong focus on inclusion, quality, and growth. We are continually learning, sharing our knowledge, and solving real-world problems. Our culture is underpinned by our core values: we take pride; we wow our customers; we give kudos; we do it right; we do it together."
Cloudsoft started to engage with Great Place to Work in 2021, gaining recognition as 22nd of 80 organisations on the Best Small and Medium Workplaces list, and the highest ranked Scottish organisation in the category.
Gray says: "We know from our impressive staff retention rate that the team is engaged and happy, and ultimately we wanted to find a way to shout about our fantastic culture and team ethos to help us attract the best talent.
"This led us to investigate independent accreditations. We discovered that Great Place to Work is one of the leading and respected accreditations in the UK, so we decided to go for it. We felt it would be beneficial to see how we perform as a business and, in a wider context, would provide feedback from an independent body so we could see what’s working, and where there is room for improvement or review."
The process was a relatively straightforward one, with Great Place to Work doing much of the 'heavy lifting', including shaping organisation-specific questions and contacting staff directly.
"I’d say the biggest challenge from an employer’s perspective is ensuring you achieve the 90% response rate within the two-week window," says Gray. "When you factor in team holidays and busy work schedules, two weeks isn’t a great deal of time. Happily, we achieved a brilliant response rate because we were upfront with staff about how we intended to use the information outlined in their responses.
"We were open with the team about the fact we were doing this, as we wanted to get buy-in by ensuring everyone fully understood what our goal was; to showcase Cloudsoft as a great organisation and to become more widely recognised across the industry."
This communication continued through all stages of the process, Gray explains: "We shared the results in our monthly company update and via regular staff meetings; the positive feedback from everyone was extremely encouraging. The team was just as proud as I was leading this bunch of talented people."
By the time Cloudsoft takes part again in 2022, it will have added 10 more members of staff. In addition, the business has reviewed its benefits as a result of the feedback received, and has introduced new initiatives, such as an electric car leasing scheme provided by Love Electric.
Gray concludes: "This is strong validation of the values that we live and breathe every day, and underlines that our people feel good about working at Cloudsoft.
"It’s a great idea. It’s not too time consuming, and although the results are anonymised, it gives leaders excellent in-depth feedback to help identify areas where you can improve as a business.
"Being named as a Great Place to Work is frequently brought up as a reason why new recruits want to work with us, and it has given our current team an enhanced sense of pride. We’ve also been able to use the culture audit to help us see if our team is performing well and reaching their potential."
