The 18th annual Amazon Growing Business AwardsAre back with a bang on 30 November, but before then we need your help to determine which business will take the coveted Employer of the Year prize home.
We’ve got a shortlist bursting with innovation, achievement and drive to put staff first and foremost. In this article you get to hear from ChameleonAbout why it feels worthy of the accolade, but make sure to check out the other seven companies vying for your vote before making a selection.
The Chameleon Employer of the Year pitch
To be the best company in your sector, you have to have the best people, and you have to make the experience enjoyable and rewarding. That’s why we ripped up the rule book for recruiting. We ignore “university name dropping”, instead hiring people with edge, intelligence and passion.
There is no one “Chameleon?, and we are not robots. We operate through three principles real ways of working that pervade what we do:
- Think big and inspire always looking for new ways to solve client needs and do brilliant work
- Devoted to business all of our people focus on delivering great business results for clients, but also business success for our own company
- Passion for people because we all must respect each other’s difference, learn from one another and work together to deliver a great work environment
These principles embody Chameleon, and every single one of us lives and breathes them in their own way but for the benefit of the whole company.
We believe in rewarding our people and making every day at Chameleon interesting and fun. We recently redesigned our office, having moved to a great new location in London Bridge. We have introduced hot-desking, free food and drink, unusual workspaces (such as our garden shed), large amounts of greenery and a culture that encourages people to be measured by outputs rather than presenteeism.
Our people initiatives this year also include:
- Giving responsibility for running the business to a wider management team
- Running internal Training Tuesday events, where we have guest speakers and activities ranging from watching the London Philharmonic Orchestra rehearse to a creativity presentation from a toy maker
- Offering our best performers the opportunity to work from our partner offices across the world
- Offering everyone £100 a year to spend on personal development so long as it has nothing to do with their work
- Company charity activities raising £4,000 in the year
- Hotly contested bake offs and chilli?growing competitions
- Impromptu BBQs and themed pub crawls
- Taking the whole company to Athens for our Christmas offsite
- We also gave 15 per cent of our profit in bonuses to reward our team for their excellent work and commitment
Key stats
Staff retention: 93 per cent in 2015
Staff New Promoter Score: +77.8
Diversity: 12 per cent of workforce from an ethnic minority
Equality: More than 60 per cent of our management team are female and 50 per cent of our total workforce are female
And there is one more important point: we know we can’t keep good people forever. Our staff retention rate is very high, but occasionally people do want to leave to look at other opportunities and experience new challenges. This is inevitable and we actually welcome people looking to make positive career and life choices. Chameleon is more than a single person, single client or team. It is consistently evolving and a company we hope all of our people, present and past, are proud to be a part of.
Have a look at the other Employer of the Year shortlisted businesses:
Make your vote count by picking your favourite for the Employer of the Year category at the 2016 Amazon Growing Business Awards below.
