We were thrilled to be included in the Sunday Times’ list of Best Small Companies to work for, published last weekend. It is testament to the enormous success the company has enjoyed over the past year – and most importantly to the quality and dedication of everyone who works at nexfibre.
Since inception in December 2022, we have built our network faster than any other fibre provider and are on track to become the second largest alternative network in the UK in only our second year – putting us on track to transform the wholesale market and provide lasting national-scale competition.
This has been made possible thanks to our fantastic, engaged people, who come to work feeling valued and motivated. You – our people – are our biggest asset.
We’re immensely proud of what we’ve achieved in the last 12 months, but also how we achieved it.
We have invested a huge amount of time and energy in creating a culture where our people can thrive and be the best version of themselves. It is not only the right thing to do, but a prerequisite of commercial success. No business or organization can succeed unless they have a culture where people feel valued, safe and supported.
I believe our culture is a special one and makes nexfibre a great place to work. Everyone here knows they belong and has a voice, which is the bedrock of our commercial success. It is this culture that creates the conditions for collaboration and growth, which in turn leads to the progress and innovation which is at the heart of nexfibre.
One of the Sunday Times Best Places To Work
We recently received results from the ‘Sunday Times Best Places To Work’ survey*, and we are delighted to be recognized in the Top 100 Small Companies to Work For category.
Our people have told us they enjoy working here with 92% feeling fairly rewarded and recognised, 93% saying we care about their wellbeing and 95% proud to work at nexfibre.
We haven’t seen any attrition, and are a popular choice for graduates that rotate to nexfibre from one of our shareholder companies, Liberty Global.
We are constantly striving to be even more diverse in pursuit of excellence. Our gender split is 60% male and 40% female, which whilst we can do better, is well above average for a technology company.
To support this ambition we have introduced family friendly policies to allow time off for those moments that matter such as 6 months full paid maternity leave and 10 weeks full paid partner leave. We also included 12 weeks neo-natal leave, 10 days pregnancy loss and bereavement leave.
We believe that psychological safety and looking after mental health is key to an inclusive culture and our people are telling us they are respected and feel safe (97% for both questions).
We continually review and create a variety of carefully-curated initiatives to engage, motivate and reward our people, including:
- Financial, physical and mental health benefits
- Monetary bonus schemes
- Peer-to-Peer recognition programme
- Leadership coaching and mentoring with theMakings
- Manager development programme
- Social committee offering sponsored activities
Recognition and reward
We acknowledge the huge contribution our people make through our recognition schemes, which are linked to our behaviours:
- Open – diverse, collaborative and curious
- Fast – driven and pragmatic
- Simple – authentic and adaptable
We also invest heavily in learning and development. We recently launched LinkedIn Learning and formal development programmes for managers and leaders, including weekly coaching sessions from the team at theMakings. We also recently ran ‘storytelling workshops’ to help our people ‘bring to life’ complex concepts.
Office and remote working culture
Our people enjoy coming to the office and we promote weekly lunches, all company meetings and engagement activities. Our bi-weekly newsletter helps everyone feel connected.
Of course, we are not complacent. We are always looking for ways to better support our people and improve our culture, we listen and learn from our people.
I’m proud to lead the people strategy at nexfibre; we put people first and are passionate about recruiting and retaining the best talent, to develop them further and watch them grow. The exciting thing is that there is more to come. Our people have enormous potential and I look forward to supporting them as they grow, develop and push nexfibre forward to even greater success.
Holly Gill
HR Director