BY SARAH WARBURTON
Culture eats strategy for breakfast Equilibrium’s Head of Culture, Sarah Warburton, explains how Equilibrium achieves one of the best cultures in the country and why it’s so important to business “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” When Peter Drucker, the influential management consultant, said this, he was pointing out that, no matter how solid your strategy is, if the people executing that strategy aren’t in line with your culture, then that strategy will most likely fail. When all is said and done, the people implementing the plan are the ones who determine its success. We have worked hard to implement a culture at Equilibrium that is in line with our vision, purpose and values, which every member of the team gets behind. When we make decisions, we always ask ourselves, ‘is this going to make people’s lives better?’. If the answer is no, then we change the plan to ensure alignment with the values we hold as a team. Culture isn’t about having free beer on a Friday and a slide in the office (both of which are great of course), it’s about how our team act, how we work together, and ultimately how we treat our clients. Culture isn’t static; it’s fluid and requires communication and feedback from the team. Knowing what we are doing right and what we could do better is vital. Surveying the team regularly and the introduction of our Employee Advisory Board means that we are able to get direct feedback to ensure that our culture is relevant and supportive of our team. We are extremely proud that in our most recent staff survey our employee net promoter score was 99%, which means that 99% of those surveyed would recommend Equilibrium as being a great place to
work to their friends. To illustrate this further, our most recent happiness survey highlighted the importance of a well-thought-out culture and wellbeing plan with 100% of responses saying that they feel valued and that Equilibrium is looking after their wellbeing and cares about them. No mean feat during a global pandemic! But, equally, it’s no happy accident. Just like our client proposition, we plan our team offering carefully. Ensuring the right balance of fun, opportunities for growth and providing the right tools to do the best job possible are all important in the culture mix, alongside a massive dollop of communication. We know that we must invest in our team to keep them engaged, involved and happy so that they continue to provide a fantastic service to our clients. Ensuring people feel listened to, valued and treated with respect is key to the culture at Equilibrium and means that everyone acts with buckets of integrity and strives for excellence in everything that they do. Sure, mistakes can happen, but our team is empowered through our values and purpose to take responsibility for their mistakes, learn from them and do everything they can to ensure they don’t happen again. Just like the janitor who famously told President John F. Kennedy on a tour of NASA that he was helping to put a man on the moon, everyone at Equilibrium understands their part in the delivery of our purpose to one another, our clients and our wider community.
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