Whitespace
The tradition of clocking in and out of work has taken on a rather different meaning for staff at the Edinburgh-based design agency Whitespace. The collection of cuckoo clocks in reception isn’t there to remind staff of the time, but instead suggests this is not an ordinary office.
It’s a quirky little touch that shows Whitespace wants to create the kind of environment in which all 27 staff will have fun while they work. And, as Managing Director Don Galloway explains, it’s part of maintaining a contented – and creative – workforce.
“It’s important that our staff are happy in their work,” he says. “When people walk out the door, you want them to come back. But if the environment they are working in isn’t particularly pleasant, they just won’t. Basically without your staff, you wouldn’t have a business.”
Don adds that he and his fellow directors have always tried to respect staff and to treat them as equals. “We value the staff, and we are a very social organisation,” he says. “The directors will always socialise with the staff and there is no hierarchy – they work side by side, and I see them as colleagues.”
And Don says that supporting staff health and well-being through the Healthy Working Lives Award Programme has become a natural extension of that ethos.
Whitespace, which has already achieved the Investors in People award, became interested in the Award Programme after being awarded the contract to develop the Centre’s website. Don says the more they found out about the HWL aims and objectives, the more the company realised it would make sense for their own business.
“Although we assumed that we were a pretty healthy organisation, we saw we could do more,” he says. “As the company progressed, we decided to go for Investors in People accreditation, which we got. Getting through that process did give us a lot of assistance in helping to develop the company further.
“About a year later we were very grateful to win the contract for the HWL site. When we were looking through what they were doing, we thought ‘this is what we should be doing’.”
Don is now taking the company through the HWL accreditation and hopes that Whitespace will achieve the Bronze Award later this year. He says he has found the process of the bronze health and safety workplace assessment, with its three-step implementation plan, surprisingly straightforward to go through – and well worth the effort.
“When we started looking at the literature, we started to analyse what we were doing. As the MD, you think you are doing OK – up to this point it’s been fine. But then someone comes in from Healthy Working Lives and asks questions. One of the questions was, ‘do you promote healthy eating?’ and the answer was, ‘probably not’.
“It was suggested we could have bowls of fruit and we thought, that’s not such a stupid idea. If you get them sent in two or three times a week, something simple like that is not expensive. There are a number of things we are looking at. It’s not onerous and it’s pretty easy to get through – it’s actually common sense.”
While many members of the Whitespace team are already active through sports like running and cycling, the company has also decided to promote lunchtime exercise to help staff keep fit.
Don adds that the company is now more aware of their responsibilities in health and safety, for example, the requirement to display a smoking sign. As staff spend most of their time at the desks, the company has also invested in high-quality chairs to help prevent back problems.
The Award Programme has also encouraged the company to consider its impact on the environment, and Don says several measures have already been introduced to reduce waste and promote recycling.
Staff no longer have bins next to their desks, and so have become more aware of the waste they are throwing out, and they have also stopped buying in bottled water.
Don says he already sees the Award Programme as a key plank in the company’s plans to flourish in the future. “We have taken on people every year for the last four years,” he says. “The company has grown and will continue to grow, so it’s important that we get things right.
“Sometimes when a company expands, it’s about trying to keep control of it – not by being control freaks, but by making sure that people are happy.”
