{"id":342,"date":"2011-04-01T13:57:33","date_gmt":"2001-01-01T01:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/inswwdev.azurewebsites.net\/au\/insights\/uncategorized\/insentra-a-great-place-to-work-without-the-fluff\/"},"modified":"2023-08-07T04:54:15","modified_gmt":"2023-08-07T04:54:15","slug":"insentra-a-great-place-to-work-without-the-fluff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.insentragroup.com\/gb\/insights\/not-geek-speak\/business\/insentra-a-great-place-to-work-without-the-fluff\/","title":{"rendered":"Insentra: A Great Place to Work \u2013 \u201cWithout the Fluff\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

You want your pick of top talent, and when you\u2019ve got them, you\u2019ll want to make sure they stay put \u2013 for long enough to make a difference anyway. For that, you know you need to be a great place to work. Simple. But what exactly does that mean? Well \u2013 if you\u2019re thinking about kitting out your office space with beanbags and ping pong tables in your efforts to look \u2018hip and happening\u2019 \u2013 you\u2019re way off the mark. That\u2019s according to Ronnie Altit, c0-founder and managing director of Aussie tech company,\u00a0<\/span>Insentra<\/a><\/strong>. He calls that \u201cfluff.\u201d<\/p>\n

For him, creating a really great place to work runs deeper than \u201cgadgets and toys.\u201d Recently ranked 8th out of 50 in the\u00a0<\/span>2016 Best Place to Work Study<\/a>,\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>he\u2019s probably worth listening to for some tips and advice. Here, Ronnie tells us exactly what his issue is with these \u2018fluff\u2019 initiatives and what he\u2019s doing instead to appeal to the talent.<\/p>\n

So there\u2019s no fluff; but what\u00a0<\/span>do<\/em>\u00a0<\/span>you do to promote a positive workplace culture?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u201cInsentra\u2019s focus is really on the people instead of gadgets or toys. We focus on making everyone feel valued and safe to try different things without any fear of retribution. One of Insentra\u2019s key values is celebration. We have a philosophy of \u201ccatch someone doing something right\u201d engendering a sense of pride and achievement amongst peers for doing a great job. This is emailed to the \u201cAll Staff\u201d mail list. This recognition is then reiterated in the Managing Director All Hands Monthly meeting, and the staff are rewarded in many different ways:\u00a0 Financially, Flexibility with working hours, Weekends away, just to name a few.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt Insentra, we specifically screen out candidates who have \u201ctall poppy syndrome\u201d. We seek to hire and build high performing individuals who take pleasure in the success of their peers, not profit from their weaknesses. It will not benefit your business if the staff members are taught to compete with one another. No two people are comparable, and each brings different specialties to their position. \u201cBeing the best you can be\u201d is welcomed and encouraged. In six years of being in business, this approach has proven to foster teams of high performers each seeking to assist others to deliver the best of themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the problem with \u201cfluff\u201d initiatives?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u201cWhen Insentra started, we did all of those things \u2013 we had the break out area with a couch, bean bags, X-Box, Foosball table etc. and guess what? They just weren\u2019t used \u2013 and not because they feared the perception it would create. We have fostered a culture of \u201coutput not input\u201d i.e. we measure success based on what is delivered rather than the process of doing so. When you have created a workplace where everyone is doing their ideal job, there is no need for the generic distractions of toys and armchairs. Excellent people who are treated in an excellent manner will deliver excellence by default.\u201d<\/p>\n

How do you know what employees really want?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u201cWhat employees want is the first thing we try to find out, before they have even been hired. Learning what someone wants helps to determine if they naturally live the values that are consistent with the values that are at the very core of Insentra. The hiring process is the foundation of maintaining the culture that we have.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe ask questions such as: \u2018What excites you? What motivates you? What frustrates you? Describe the best team you have been a part of and why? What would be an ideal work environment? What do you do for fun? Describe the best company you ever worked for.\u2019<\/em>\u00a0<\/span>One of our primary questions in an interview is \u2018if you had a white piece of paper and could design your ideal job today and in the future, what would it look like?\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe do this to ensure that the role we hire someone into will provide them as close to their ideal job as possible and also seek to understand if we can help them achieve their longer term goals with a view to providing longevity of employment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why is it so important to nail the company culture?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u201cNailing culture is critical \u2013 in fact there is little that matters more. If the culture is nailed then the rest takes care of itself. Our business is only as strong as our culture and we have taken that seriously since day zero. We know by taking care of our employees they will do the same for our clients and each other. At the end of the day, if the culture is poor there is no business, there are no profits, nor will we attract or retain the right kind of talent.\u201d<\/p>\n

What do you think is the biggest mistake made by other workplaces?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u201cNot getting to know your employees and really valuing them: why would they value your company and their role if they are not important and don\u2019t feel important to you? This is one of the fundamental reasons why I believe in focusing on our team first, foremost and unequivocally. Insentra always focuses on making sure employees feel safe, trusted, & empowered. Their happiness is the key to unlocking outstanding work. It all starts with the creation and maintenance of a work environment where people feel trusted and safe to try different things with no fear of retribution.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your strategy to ensure you continue to climb the ranks?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Our focus is on maintaining and growing the culture that has got us this far. It is clearly a successful business model that cares of all our employees and clients. Our workplace is a totally open plan environment where communication is encouraged \u2013 the executive have desks in and amongst the team, keeping their fingers on the pulse and being accessible at any time to assist in removing roadblocks \u2013 which I see as their primary internal responsibility \u2013 to make it easy for our team to do what they do best and help them to do it better. By this time next year, we plan to be bigger, better, and higher on the GPTW list.<\/p>\n

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Read the original article here ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You want your pick of top talent, and when you\u2019ve got them, you\u2019ll want to make sure they stay put \u2013 for long enough to make a difference anyway. For that, you know you need to be a great place to work. Simple. But what exactly does that mean? Well \u2013 if you\u2019re thinking about… Continue reading Insentra: A Great Place to Work \u2013 \u201cWithout the Fluff\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":343,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insentragroup.com\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insentragroup.com\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insentragroup.com\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insentragroup.com\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insentragroup.com\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.insentragroup.com\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18707,"href":"https:\/\/www.insentragroup.com\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342\/revisions\/18707"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insentragroup.com\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insentragroup.com\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insentragroup.com\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insentragroup.com\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}