Once again, we’re extremely proud to be named as one of the UK’s Best Workplaces 2021 by Great Place to Work. This is our sixth time around in the rankings, where we’re in at number 11 in the small organisation category.
After the year everyone has been through, this time the recognition means even more.
Especially as it’s based on feedback from across our team. The last twelve months have involved a lot of last minute changes to best laid plans, a lot of rapid-turnaround responses to unexpected events and a lot of adjustment to new ways of working as a fully remote team.
It’s been rewarding and challenging, if not always easy. But through it all, we’ve pulled together and helped support each other through the ups and downs and runarounds.
So as the world opens up, and starts to look something like normal again, we are genuinely chuffed that so many of our people say firstlight is a great place for their career. We certainly think so. The great range of clients we have, across so many sectors and industries, means life is never boring.
And as we delve through the wealth of insights derived from our Great Place to Work survey data, to see where we can do better and where we’re doing well, one thing in particular jumped out: The importance of fun.
Understandably, there may not have been an abundance of this at workplaces across the UK over the last year, in the context of so many grim headlines and difficult statistics in the news. But it remains an important part of successful workplace cultures. It helps in so many areas, from engagement and satisfaction, to the important ability to be yourself at work. It makes harder times much easier to bear.
I think at firstlight we take our work seriously, but not always ourselves.
So I’m grateful to everyone at firstlight for making the last year rewarding and enjoyable, even when the pressure has been on or the work has been a bit more unexpected. And I’m especially grateful to our brilliant social team, who have kept us amused, well fed, yoga-d and taking part in all kinds of weird and wonderful challenges together over the last year.
Who can forget the ‘fore-eggs’ pub quiz round, our pasta making masterclass or the now-legendary ‘snowcially’ distanced Christmas Task-Master Challenge? (I hadn’t anticipated needing to cobble together a Zoom-based Ron Weasley outfit in under 60 seconds, but I did my best.)
Fun has helped us through everything this year, and I can’t wait to see our team in real life again soon for more of it.
Here’s to fun, through good times and bad.
