Published by Sue Johns-Chapman
Published Date 28.03.2022 
We are so delighted that we have been shortlisted for Best Working Environment and Best Large Agency to Work for at the UK Company Culture Awards.
As with every business, our ways of working changed throughout the pandemic and following lots of internal discussions, we recognised that there was still a place for the office in our ways of working. However, the purpose of its use had fundamentally changed. Therefore, we began a project to re-design the space as a multipurpose office, with inclusivity at the heart of the design.
We have shaped the space to create a variety of different areas – quiet pods to facilitate calls, break out spaces for group meetings, a social space for people to have lunch together, hot desking space and a large presentation area for things like our quarterly updates. All of our spaces are accessible and we have a private, lockable area for activities like prayer or breastfeeding.
This was a collaborative project, and a vital part of it was listening to the needs of our people to create an environment that they wanted to use. As a result, we have people regularly using the space for a variety of different reasons!
We are also very proud of the culture we have created at Impression. When we surveyed our people to ask what words they would use to describe Impression, common answers were “collaborative”, “supportive”, “caring”, “learning”. These are the types of feelings we want everyone to have by being part of Impression.
We utilise an internal HR tool called 15:5 to pulse check every week how people are feeling, and use this as a platform to gather feedback. Instead of the typical annual review cycle, we have quarterly reviews and regular 1-2-1s to ensure the feedback loop is always open and we are supporting people on their career journey.
We have fully transparent job descriptions and salary bands and a Continuous Management Framework that serves to provide clarity on the expectations for each level. All of our salary bands are equal across the business, meaning if you are the same level as a colleague, you will be paid the same. We are committed to fair and equal pay.
We also appreciate the need to ensure we are regularly connecting as a business and sharing what is going on. We have a monthly internal newsletter, with contributors from across the company. We also have regular in person company updates every quarter, with a full company social afterwards. Alongside this, every month there is some kind of social, either a department social or an office social, to bring people together and build relationships. We firmly believe that if you build a connection with colleagues and with the purpose of the business, you feel happier in your role.
Alongside all of this, we also have an Impact Team, who have formed into three pillars: CSR & Sustainability, D&I and Wellbeing. There is a calendar of activities throughout the year which support the work of this team, and is all led by volunteers who feel passionate about these topics. Some of the initiatives include regular external blog posts to contribute to the wider conversation, internal audits, educational events such as International Women’s Day, and line manager training.
Our People Ambition is
“We believe that high performance deserves high reward. We want everyone to perform at their best but understand we are humans too, and sometimes things happen in our lives. At Impression, we want to make sure our people have everything they need to do their job well, and we will support our people to be their best self inside and outside of work.”
And this really resonates in the work we do to create a fantastic culture together. It’s a team effort and we all have a responsibility to uphold our values and work together to keep improving on things to make sure our culture is always a safe and inclusive space for everyone.
