Culture breeds an award-winning work environment

When looking for a job that makes you truly happy, there are many factors to consider, from employee perks through to a good pension scheme. But what are the key elements for building the most desirable workplace?

According to Mirus IT Solutions, a good work culture creates a great working environment, which is “the main reason people love going to work”.

The Milton Keynes-based IT solutions company has around 108 employees, of which a handful are field-based, and aim to create a workforce filled with happy employees through a range of initiatives and the values they possess.

Having been recognised as the ‘Best Company to Work For – Sub £50m Turnover’ at the CRN Sales & Marketing Awards last year, it’s clear the Mirus team are doing something right.

They were nominated because of their “dedication to provide the best workplace experience for their staff, with evidence of impressive benefits, clear investment in its people, and some very strong testimonials.”

So, what’s their secret? Pippa Loveridge, Head of Marketing, Mirus IT Solutions, explains:

“The more people enjoy everything that they get at work, then the happier they are, therefore the happier the business. It’s generally about the culture, we’re always pro-actively promoting what it’s like to work here.”

As part of building a positive work culture, Mirus regularly hold a range of activities such as fun days, dress-down days, and cake sales. They also have their own football, rounders and netball teams.

The Mirus office is open plan, described as “huge and vibrant”, and designed to encourage employees to talk in person instead of on the phones. This is all part of the plan to create a better working atmosphere and culture.

Pippa commented: “The culture breeds a better environment. With the culture that we have and the people that work here, we delight our customers better because we can only make customers happy when we are all happy in our role”.

With a small portion of employees working remotely, it can be difficult to maintain an inclusive culture.

Pippa explains how Mirus has overcome this.

She said: “Even though we have the field-service team, we still do stuff with them as a team. We organise events like going to Escape Rooms, mountaineering and going out for dinner. We like to do lots of things to make sure the teams socialise with each other.”

On top of the fun activities that Mirus regularly holds, training programmes are offered to all employees to help assist them with their progress in the company.

“We offer lots of programmes to assist our staff with their growth through the company, such as our apprentice and accelerator programmes. Not only do we assist them with completing their apprenticeship, but we then accelerate them through from a Level 1 to a Level 3 Service Desk Engineer,” Pippa explained.

The list of perks continues, as the company also offers: 10 days of training each year, free use of the on-site gym, free parking, free financial wellbeing advice, and much more.

According to Pippa, all of these benefits help to promote a better place to work.

When asked what is key to creating a positive work culture, she concluded: “The culture has to come from the top, down. The senior management team can’t just say how things should be in a workplace, they have to have those values themselves. That’s something that we definitely have here.”