Building a people-first SEO agency

Reddico has recently been named as one of the UK’s top Best Workplaces (small organisations) for the third year running and Best Agency to Work For (under 50 people) in the inaugural Company Culture Awards

Culture hasn’t always been in the spotlight, but in 2017, a manifesto started to take shape – a vision of what a better Reddico could look like. Spearheaded by the directors of the business following team feedback, it was clear that change was needed.

Initially presented in early 2018, our manifesto was a combination of themes and ideas from some of the world’s most progressive organisations, inspired by books including Maverick, The Happy Manifesto, and The Great Game of Business – as well as visionary, Daniel Pink.

With a planned rollout over 9 months, those six areas included:

1. Job ownership, and giving people more control over their work and how they set goals.

2. Removing layers of management, control and approvals.

3. Putting full trust in the team to choose when, where and how they worked – with the principle that everyone’s different, and knows when they work best.

4. Becoming more transparent as an agency – sharing financial and more sensitive information.

5. Changing our recruitment methods, to bring people in who shared our values and could work in a ‘new’ Reddico.

6. A commitment to supporting our local community better – through donations, volunteering and other opportunities.

And with that, Reddico started to change for the better.

Armed with trust, freedom and responsibility, the team’s shackles were removed – people could deliver their best work in a way that’s right for them, and with the knowledge that they were being treated like the adults they are.

Much of this was trial and error – whilst our inspiration was taken from successful companies, we had yet to find an example where a business had combined everything.

As a result, some things worked really well. Some things needed to be tweaked. But throughout the process the team was included every step of the way – it was a transition everyone bought into and supported.

Today, three core values inform and underpin all our decisions:

We start with trust

We have the mindset of believing the best in people, and that our team will do the right thing. We communicate, we collaborate, we do what we say, and we give each other hard, honest feedback.

We support and inspire each other

We’re a team. We support each other and ask for help when we need it. We share our knowledge, inspire, and put others before ourselves.

We take on responsibility

We don’t shirk responsibility, but take ownership and deliver amazing results. We’re responsible for managing ourselves and our growth. We hold ourselves accountable and learn from our mistakes. It’s not about breaking boundaries for the sake of it and you need to adapt and change things as you grow. Over the last 12 months, we’ve started talking more about self-management, and our belief that self-managing teams can come together to create a better, more efficient, and more effective business.

But it’s not right for everyone – that’s okay. There are challenges with self-management, and some people would rather the traditional structure and setup that businesses have used for hundreds of years. But for us, we see this as the future.

Join us

If you like what you’ve read, and want to be part of Reddico’s journey as we redefine workplace culture, break boundaries and create a great place to work, we’d love to hear from you.

You can read more about how things work, including some of our unique perks and benefits and apply for open positions at reddico.co.uk – we’re always on the hunt for brilliant people.