Having fun has always been a goal of ours at Novacroft. It just makes sense that if we enjoy our work we’ll be more positive and productive. It’s a tricky thing to measure though, so we were intrigued to see what we’d learn when we interviewed team members, confidentially, as part of the research for our new induction presentation.
We wanted the presentation for new starters to give a very real picture of what it’s like to work with us by using honest quotes from our team, so we asked people to describe their experiences and the things that make the biggest difference to how they feel. The most striking thing was that just about everyone connected Novacroft with having fun.
Some people talked about particular events, like our pizza days, fun runs and fundraising, evening socials, celebratory cake days, Christmas parties and awards ceremonies, but mostly they spoke of the fun elements of everyday life at work. The laughs, the camaraderie and the upbeat approach that make people feel happy and energised day in day out.
We’re really pleased to know fun is a reality at Novacroft. Because while having fun is one of our six values and we take care to try to embed it into the business, the bottom line is you can’t force it. It has to come naturally. Instructing people to Have Fun is obviously never going to work, it’s about managing to create an authentically lively and enjoyable culture.
We owe a lot to our founder on this front. As one of our partners neatly put it, Debra is someone who, ‘As well as having a good moral compass has a really good sense of humour’. She has definitely set the tone by showing people how much she values humour and having fun. More than this, though, she encourages everyone to just be themselves.
I think it’s probably this combination of example and empowerment that’s helped us create a naturally fun culture. Interestingly, it became clear from the interviews we went on to do with clients for the new presentation that they see the value of this as much as we do. This quote sums it all up for me:
The team at Novacroft is great fun to work with and I really feel their passion for the business.