The Sunday Times Best Places to Work Series: 2. Empowerment

By Claire Penney, Account Manager at SWC Partnership, an international marketing agency.

“Human beings have an innate inner drive to be autonomous, self-determined, and connected to one another. And when that drive is liberated, people achieve more and live richer lives.” — Daniel Pink, bestselling author on business, work, creativity, and behaviour.

We all want autonomy in our lives – to be trusted and empowered to crack on with our work and do a great job. To be part of a company where you feel valued and can make and influence day-to-day decisions, as well as create and act on new opportunities – that’s the dream, right?

When the SWC team were asked to complete the Sunday Times Best Places to Work survey, powered by WorkL, towards the end of last year, we all answered honestly about the company we know and love, and when the results came through, we were blown away! SWC scored well over 90% across all metrics, including wellbeing, instilling pride and job satisfaction.

As we went through the full results together, we were excited to explore key topics in more detail. I put my hand up to look at the area of empowerment. SWC scored a whopping 98% for Empowerment, with staff strongly agreeing that they felt allowed and trusted to make decisions and had what they needed to do their job well and autonomously.

A quick Google will tell you that ‘employee empowerment’ means delegating authority and giving workers autonomy to make decisions and have influence within their roles. This involves not only assigning tasks and responsibilities, but also resources and support to enable employees to drive results that benefit the organisation.

So, what does that mean in reality and how is it manifested at SWC?

It means that when you’re empowered, you feel trusted to take risks and be ambitious. You feel completely confident in delivering. You can push yourself, your clients and customers, to be bolder – and to go further.

Internal team dynamics

When you have good management in place, you are able to grow as a team, as a business and most importantly, as an individual. At SWC, our managers ensure that they have oversight, give guidance and provide a helpful sounding board whenever needed, but team members are trusted to take the ball and run with it. As a European B2B marketing agency, we are encouraged to build our own relationships with clients and problem solve, ensuring there’s scope to make our own mark on accounts. There are of course considered parameters and processes in place to help navigate and guide the account management team, providing structure, whilst also allowing us to be creative and autonomous. In this way, SWC’s managers ensure we have the right balance of support and freedom. Ultimately, we are empowered to manage projects and create opportunities. There’s no micromanagement here – that is most definitely not how we roll!

We also regularly share learnings with one another, making sure we’re up to date on the latest marketing best practice, as well as emerging trends and tools. This guarantees we have the knowledge and the confidence to do our jobs really well and helps us advise our clients in the best way too. One way we all connect as a team and share knowledge is through daily scrum meetings, where every member of the team is empowered to have a voice, no matter how junior or senior. We also rotate the scrum master (the one who runs the session) weekly, which helps with presentation and time management skills, both crucial for client servicing. SWC managers also actively and regularly ask for feedback on the business. It’s viewed as a collective team effort, and they always include all feedback and value it equally. For example, in our last AGM the team were asked to give feedback on various areas of the business, resulting in a list of suggestions and ideas, many of which have already been actioned just a few months later, including an office spruce and putting together a charity appeal event. Crucially, our feedback is valued and listened to. This further contributes to the feeling of empowerment amongst the team at SWC. We have influence, and our voices matter.

We also make a point of celebrating one another – both the small wins and the big. Whether someone completed a training course, had a scope of work signed off, or agreed a retainer, the confetti canon is always close by! A celebrated, empowered team makes for motivated, ambitious individuals.

External relationships

When you’re empowered in this way, you can confidently deliver for your clients, and feel able to challenge their usual way of thinking. At SWC we love to ask questions and push boundaries – if we have an idea that we feel would make a client campaign great, we’ll voice it – and we have the internal platforms to do so. If we spot a tactical opportunity in the market – we’ll pitch it. Some of our best campaigns have come from pushing the envelope and urging our clients to step outside of their comfort zone. We love to help our clients to grow and develop. SWC’s mantra is ‘live, learn, evolve’ – we are always using this as our lense of focus, and we try to impart that same philosophy to our clients, everyday.

Confidence in management is key

Employee empowerment is directly linked to good management. SWC scored outstandingly in this area, and well over the industry and global averages:

When leaders trust their team, their team trusts them in return.

On a personal note, I can 100% attest to great management being key to feeling empowered within an organisation. When I joined SWC, one of the first things I noticed was how well our leaders managed the team. An engaged, inspired, motivated team doesn’t happen by chance. The ingredients we’ve talked about in this article take time and continued effort, and a commitment from managers to invest in their team. To value them, trust them, and be trustworthy in return. Since starting at SWC, I’ve built a great working relationship with my line manager, Stef Garner, Account Director. She has guided and supported me during my transition to agency life (see my recent piece on moving from client to agency side for that story!), as well as encouraged me to challenge myself, take ownership of client projects and relationships, share ideas and spot opportunities. I’ve developed more in six months working with her than I did in the three years prior! I remember only a few months in, I’d identified a few opportunities with a client team member. Stef trusted me to go ahead and run the call and pitch the ideas, getting buy in and progressing to the project stage. I felt trusted and empowered, and it was a great feeling. Milestones never go uncelebrated either – when I passed my probation a bottle of champagne and a heartfelt card appeared on my desk! Making your team members feel valued is worth its weight in gold.  

Stef is constantly looking to grow and evolve as a manager too. Many managers fail to support their team properly because they start to believe that they are always right. Stef is flexible, always there to listen, and never prescriptive. She recognises that we all have our strengths, and we can learn from each other. Stef is a great communicator, and allows me autonomy, whilst maintaining oversight. I know she trusts me, and I trust her right back! She empowers me in this way, and we make a strong team as a result.

And of course, it all comes from the top down. Our brilliant Managing Director, Simon Cristal, wanted to create an agency that was better than any other, and a great place to work. I’d say judging from the Sunday Times’ Best Places to Work survey results, he’s achieved that goal!

“Leadership should be more participative than directive, more enabling than performing.”
– Mary D. Poole, author

So how do you develop a company culture that inspires your employees to thrive?

O.C. Tanner, a company that improves workplace cultures, suggests using these simple empowerment strategies:

1. Delegate work and responsibility

2. Set clear boundaries and expectations

3. Ensure employees have proper resources

4. Be flexible

5. Focus on the end results, not the process

6. Include employees in special projects

7. Be open to input and innovation

8. Provide cross-training and learning opportunities

9. Give feedback and recognize excellence

10. Be consistent.

[Read the full article here].

The whole team at SWC are really proud of the results that came out of the Sunday Times Best Places to Work Survey – we know we have something special here at SWC. And most importantly, as an empowered team, we look forward to continuing to deliver great work for our clients.

If you’d like to work with an empowering marketing agency in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, or learn more about job opportunities at SWC, get in touch with Simon or view our vacancies here.