Softcat's Martin Hellawell shook hands with all his employees, while QuantIQ's Stuart Fenton listens to music most of the day. We caught up with this duo, as well as eight other channel entrepreneurs, to find out what idiosyncrasies they feel are - or were - crucial to the success of their businesses
'Charity makes us happy: We've raised almost £100,000 in the last 12 months'
Entrepreneur: David Pollock
Credentials: Founder and CEO of Chess: 1993 - present
Quirks: Getting staff to rate management every quarter; charity events such as skydives and obstacle races
"My number-one focus as chief executive is to bring the people with me and that's all about engaging my people.
"We hold monthly one-to-ones with our people, where we measure their energy, attitude, performance and knowledge. This allows us to constantly monitor the temperature of both our business and our people.
"Employee-wide surveys are filled in every quarter, where our people score strategic objectives out of five, allowing us to monitor and measure our performance and adjust accordingly to improve.
"We also carry out monthly ‘Stand Ups' where a senior director gives a short update to motivate and inspire our people to champion our modern business.
"A key differentiator when it comes to culture is playing our part within the wider community. We encourage our people to raise money for charity by taking part in events such as skydives, 10k runs, obstacle races, dress-up days, cake bakes etc. I believe that if you play your part in the wider community it makes you happier in and outside work. I am proud that Chess has collectively raised almost £100,000 for charity within the last 12 months.
"This culture and engagement strategy led to our inclusion in the Top 100 Companies to Work For list for 10 consecutive years, and we were voted number one in 2018."
Click onto the next page for UKFast founder Lawrence Jones' quirks...
