Best Employers 2021 winners’ story – Beckett Investment Management Group
We’re shining a spotlight on four organisations who won an award and accreditation from this year’s Best Employers Eastern Region. In this post, we’re looking at Becketts, an investment management firm offering independent advice, employee benefits and wealth management.
Becketts won the award for the best overall medium company, as well as platinum accreditation, at the Best Employers Eastern Region 2021 awards on Thursday 30 September.
What’s Best Employers?
Founded by Pure and psychometrics experts eras Ltd in 2012, Best Employers aims to help businesses develop engaging, inspiring and inclusive workplaces that bring out the best in their people. Organisations ask their employees to fill in a confidential survey that measures engagement, culture and values. The ones with the highest scores are then eligible for an award (based on their survey scores alone) and accreditation (platinum, gold or silver, based on their survey scores and extra evidence which our judges review). What makes Best Employers’ awards particularly special is that companies are judged by the people who know them best – their own employees.
More about Becketts
Beckett Investment Management Group has been helping clients make the right financial choices for over 33 years. They offer independent advice, employee benefits and wealth management to over 2,000 individuals and 800 companies across the eastern region, with 85 staff based in four offices. They’ve won several awards for client satisfaction, employee engagement and innovation. And they’re recognised as one of the top 100 financial firms in the UK by Citywire and Financial Adviser, an FT publication.
Why did they win?
Becketts scored particularly well in the employee survey. This is down to the way they create a sense of belonging, and nurture their staff’s desire to come to work wanting to do a good job. As an employer, they acknowledge that it’s their responsibility to give all their employees the chance to thrive and achieve their potential.
One way Becketts engage their staff is through communication – something that really came to the fore during the pandemic. This includes:
- videos from their MD to introduce important announcements or news, as well as a monthly staff newsletter and quarterly updates from the board, either in person or on Zoom
- staff clubs covering books, films and sports (among others)
- measuring employee engagement internally every quarter, and offering anonymous conversations between the team and the board to raise concerns, make suggestions and praise colleagues who’ve gone above and beyond
- regular team meetings, one-to-ones and appraisals
- using WhatsApp as a communication tool for urgent company-wide announcements
- having regular social events.
Learning and development also play an important role at Becketts. Because they work in a heavily regulated environment, it’s vital that their team members take professional qualifications. So they encourage healthy competition among their people to help them get qualified and celebrate every success. When someone new starts they talk to them about their aspirations, then give them training materials and support to get where they want to be. This includes regular one-to-ones, time to study in the office, mock tests and feedback, and paid time off to do their exams. During the pandemic, they set up an external mentoring scheme to help people continue to achieve their personal development objectives – even when they were working from home.
Becketts are well aware of the importance of having a clear reward and recognition strategy, so every member of their team is entitled to a bonus. They also reward staff who’ve been with the company for five, ten, 15 years, etc. And they’ve recently introduced an employee of the month scheme which lets people nominate a colleague who’s performed particularly well. They also run staff recruitment and client referral schemes.
Becketts are also passionate about looking after their team’s emotional wellbeing. For example, they send every team member on wellbeing training run by Suffolk Mind, include articles on wellbeing in the staff newsletter, and have a detailed wellness action plan and pre-commencement health assessment for new team members. They also offer access to online doctors, alternative therapies and mental health support.
Diversity and inclusion is another area where Becketts are working hard. They now employ more women than men (which is exceptional for firms of their kind in financial services) and are looking at ways to make sure women are better represented in their management team and the board. Alongside this, they’re engaging with their local community through charity work and have applied for Corp B status – a certification for businesses that meet the highest standards in social and environmental performance.
What did the judges say?
The judges were impressed with how hard Becketts work to fully understand employee engagement and commit to it at all levels of their business. This was shown by their exceptionally high score in the survey, as well as an impressive participation rate. The judges also commented on the effectiveness and success of their employee wellbeing, individual development, and reward and recognition strategies.
Want to know more?
You can see a full list of winners on the Best Employers website or read our article about the awards ceremony. And if you’re interested in taking part in the next survey in 2023, please get in touch.
Find out more at www.best-employers.co.uk.