SEC Newgate secures Sunday Times Best Places to Work status

Culture is the magic ingredient that helps transform a good business into a great one. It is the powerful glue that secures loyalty, it is the fuel for the passion needed to consistently strive to be the best you can, and it is an invisible force that ensures everyone is committed to working together to deliver the optimum results for all stakeholders. 

That is why I am so incredibly proud that SEC Newgate UK this year again features in The Sunday Times Best Places to Work. 

It is a reflection of a huge team effort that has gone into creating something special that is the produce of years of commitment and hard work.  It is a product of our people strategy which is built on three strategic people pillars:  inclusion, growth and wellbeing.

Inclusion is about so much more than just accommodating people.  Yes, the best teams bring together different life experiences, perspectives and expertise because the alternative is one’s people are simply hired in the leader’s own likeness – you can’t have a team that comprises solely strikers; you need a goal keeper, the sport scientist, defenders etc.  For us, inclusion also means training which expands our team’s awareness and understanding of difference and values it through initiatives such as neurodiversity training for every employee.

To promote growth, we are improving our line management skills by investing in training on how to have difficult conversations, and providing resources and line management coaching and training.  Every individual has a personal development plan, identifying paths for progression and this is reflected in our impressive tenure stats.

Around wellbeing, one of the actions for 2024 was to replace our Employee Assistance Programme (‘EAP’) with a bespoke mental health support offering.  We wanted to be proactive when it comes to wellbeing and encourage people to get curious about their own mental health.  We partnered with Oliva which provides a customised toolkit to help our people and their teams to navigate life.  As part of it, every employee is entitled to 10 one-to-one counselling sessions or if they prefer, ten coaching sessions.

Then, as with all magic, there is that thing you can’t put your finger on – that people talk about when they interview here. The culture piece that can’t be replicated and sets us apart - genuine kindness and a will for others to succeed.

And everything we do is navigated by our north star, our core value of ‘respect’ - respect for ourselves, for each other, our clients, the work we do and the communities we work in. 

Of course, we are a long way from ‘perfect’ but this is a journey we have embarked on, and this recognition in The Sunday Times is an important milestone and endorsement of all we are achieving. What is key, is that we don’t just talk a good game, we actually do it and measure it.  Perhaps that is one of the reasons that when we have lost people to other agencies, an impressive number have returned when they discovered that the greener grass they had been lured to turned out to be astroturf!

Being true to our promises is reflected in our decision to go through the rigorous/arduous process of becoming certified as a B Corporation company – a process that took us almost three years to complete but is something that has definitely made us a better business and keeps us in check.

What this all means for our clients is that they have strategic advisers they can rely on, who are happy and motivated, giving them confidence the business will retain.  For our people it means that they are working somewhere that really does value them as individuals not just as human capital. 

So, I would like to say a special thanks to every person at SEC Newgate UK for their part in making it as one of the best places to work.  And a special thanks to Suzie Langridge for her leadership as our Head of People & Culture and her team for making it all happen.