I sat down with Raphy March, one of the members of our Executive Team. We spoke about Cowry’s commitment to fostering a positive workplace culture, supporting employee well-being, and contributing to social responsibility and sustainability through various initiatives and partnerships.
Could you tell us about some of the specific social initiatives or programs that the consultancy has in place to foster a positive workplace culture?
We believe in a blend of social and cultural practices that contribute to a positive work environment. Monthly socials, led by our junior team members, play a pivotal role in this, ranging from board game nights to interactive darts. We’ve found that social events such as these help to promote inter-team collaboration.
We also have our monthly payday pizza, recognising that funds might be lower as payday approaches, alongside our quarterly team breakfasts. Breakfast groups are determined by shared behaviours (such as emoji usage) rather than job titles, to foster social bonding and support our flat hierarchy philosophy; we hope to foster an environment where anyone, at whichever level in our business, feels comfortable approaching others.
Each quarter, we also hold open sessions, which are forums for employees to submit anonymous questions or feedback, ranging from simple requests like 'please only take one crumpet' to more complex issues related to company policies, career progression, or the company's future aspirations. Every question is addressed transparently by our leadership team, fostering an atmosphere of open communication and trust.
All of these initiatives have been instrumental in driving our recognition as a great place to work for two consecutive years by the Great Place to Work program.
Diversity and inclusion are important aspects of a positive workplace culture. Could you describe the firm's approach to promoting diversity among its employees and ensuring an inclusive environment? How does the consultancy measure the success of these efforts?
As behavioural scientists, one of the things that we often reference is a WEIRD subset. This acronym stands for Western, Education, Industrialised, Rich and Democratic.
The majority of the psychological research that's been done over the past 100 years studies a WEIRD audience, giving us only a glimpse into humanity’s cultural diversity. As a result, many programs focus on a small subset of people as such. So as psychologists, we know we need to extend beyond this, and in turn, we aspire to create a non-WEIRD business.
To help us achieve that, we need to have a team who come from different places and backgrounds, and who can offer a different perspective and insight into more of these cultural nuances. Which is why our business is 33% non-UK nationals. And that's growing all the time, because we think it's important to have and celebrate this cultural diversity within our business.
Because we're a business with so many non-UK nationals, one of the initiatives we've put in place for our employees is to have two weeks of remote working each year. In particular, we created this for those whose families are in a different country to work from anywhere in the world.
Lastly, we have a 50% female Exec Team, as well as an 80% female Leadership Team. We're really proud to have strong female leaders within the business, and off the back of that, we've been ranked as part of the Great Place to Work’s awards, the 17th Best Workplace for Women in the UK for small companies.
How do you reflect this within your recruitment process?
We aren't specifically looking to fill quotas. What’s really interesting is that when you hire one person for one role, it's really easy to hire the same person over and over again, and end up hiring into a mould. We’ve found that hiring in cohorts allows us to achieve more diversity because we can see a mix of genders, skill sets, cultural diversity, cognitive diversity and more within those cohorts.
We hire based on our values: Care, Integrity and Ambition, ensuring a unified team ethos. These were determined by our team. Since we're behavioural scientists, it wasn't just a case of ‘let's pick three things we feel represent us’. It meant lots of workshops, for us all to narrow down the criteria to three that we really believe are at our core.
Our interview process scores candidates against these criteria, with questions designed to probe for each value. Using this approach, we've been able to achieve an empowered and positive workforce that I feel really lucky to have.
The consultancy's recognition as a Great Place to Work suggests that it values its employees' well-being. What types of support or resources does the company offer to help employees maintain a healthy work-life balance? How does the firm address employee well-being, particularly in high-stress consulting roles?
We have a blend of different measures and initiatives in place to support people's wellbeing: Our three mental health first aiders within our own business, and others via our parent company. We also have a mental health initiative program in place, part of which offers our employees external therapy sessions should an individual feel they need some more support.
We also know that well-being isn't only psychological. It's also physical, and exercise studies have shown this time and time again. With this in mind, we also have a gym benefit where all of our employees have a heavily discounted Gymbox membership available to them, located just next door to our office. We also have a cycle-to-work scheme, for those who live further away and prefer to get their exercise in this way, where we offer reduced costs associated with getting a bike.
One of our key initiatives, particularly significant in the post-Covid era, focuses on ensuring that our team members are comfortable in their working environment. We've always championed flexible working arrangements, even prior to the pandemic. Our philosophy is to empower our employees with the autonomy to choose their work location, treating them as responsible adults in their work decisions.
Our default policy is office-centric, but we understand and accommodate the need for remote work, especially when it aids in concentration or mental well-being. We believe in empowering our team members to make choices that best suit their work style and needs.
However, we also recognise the value of in-person collaboration. Working together as a team and learning from each other is something we highly value, which is why we encourage our staff to come into the office for collaboration and social interaction when possible.
In the context of ESG criteria, how does the consultancy contribute to social responsibility and sustainability? Are there any specific social or community initiatives that the company is involved in, and how do these initiatives align with the firm's values and business goals?
Our parent company, VCCP, has a set of sustainability goals that we’re helping to work towards. These are around achieving net zero via waste and carbon emission reduction, and start directly in our office where we’ve created initiatives to encourage recycling throughout the business.
We also work on a variety of ESG briefs. For example, Keep Britain Tidy’s advertisement campaign to reduce the littering of cigarette butts. We've also worked with Tesco on their Bags for Life initiative, shifting people towards using their reusable bags as opposed to purchasing single-use, and working with Quilter and Tesco Bank to reduce the amount of paper waste for financial statements that are sent out in the post, encouraging people to make that shift over to paperless.
Alongside our client work, our consultants are given multiple days per year to step away from their work and volunteer for charities and organisations close to their hearts.
Lastly, we also work on pro-bono charity briefs each year as part of our Global Summer School. This program brings together 40 of the world's most promising emerging behavioural scientists to work on various charity projects. This is a chance for our team and summer schoolers to give back to the community, and practise the impact of behavioural science in a meaningful way.
To read more pieces around ESG and BeSci, download our latest On The Brain.