Challenges
Covid-19 is the main challenge facing all businesses at the moment, and Capito is no different. At the very start of the pandemic, they were on the frontlines, delivering hardware to hospitals as they struggled to cope with a growing number of patients.
Increasingly, they’ve been providing critical support to their customers in the charity and education sector too – providing the technology they need to facilitate home working.
But with hardware deliveries delayed, it’s not been plain sailing. “There were chipset shortages in China even before the pandemic,” Mark Gibson, Managing Director tells us. “Even if you had the money for tech, you couldn’t get your hands on it.”
Unsurprisingly, the virus has also put a strain on Capito’s internal culture – forcing them to find new ways to keep communication channels open and keep morale high.
“We’ve always been a team that gets together and celebrates success,” says Mark. He follows that with the question many businesses are asking themselves at the moment: “How do we maintain that?”
Solutions
Celebrating success
When Mark joined Capito as Managing Director, he made recognition a top priority.
“I wanted to recognise people – many of whom were long-standing. I wanted to make sure we were celebrating success, both individually and as a group.”
Perkbox was a key part of that mission. “We were looking to facilitate celebration, communication and teamwork,” Mark tells us.
He’d heard about the platform from a colleague at another tech company. “It supports my management style,” he says. “It’s something everyone can use and take advantage of.”
Being able to send shout-outs has helped the team maintain that culture of recognition, even during the pandemic. And Mark’s a big fan of the ability to add your company values to each recognition, poll and reward. “I want people to live our values,” he says. “The platform allows you to specifically reference a value when you’re giving some positive feedback.”
Getting creative with culture
The team at Capito have put a range of measures in place to boost morale during this time.
“Communication is everything,” says Mark. And that mantra underpins much of his cultural strategy.
Capito has embraced new and unique ways of keeping employees connected. There are the usual suspects like Zoom and Microsoft Teams, but some Capito employees are enjoying the fantastic Scottish scenery by taking their Monday meetings up a nearby mountain. Some are booking ‘agile’ desks for quick in-person catch ups. Others are popping into the office for a socially-distanced cuppa on the new outside picnic tables.
There’s even a ‘daily mile’ initiative that encourages employees to get up from their desks and go for a walk at 11 and 3 o’clock.
Those are just a few of the interesting, engaging ways the Capito team has found for keeping employees motivated, engaged and connected.
A call to arms
When it comes to their customers, Capito has gone above and beyond – really embodying the ‘we’re all in it together’ spirit that’s defined the best responses to the pandemic.
They saw an opportunity to act as an ‘honest broker’, sourcing hardware that wasn’t being used and putting it to good use elsewhere.
“We put out a request to our customers and partners,” says Mark. “It was a call to arms.”
As a result, many companies donated kit they didn’t need. Capito collected the hardware, wiped data, secured them, certified them, and installed fresh operating systems. “We had a great response from Scottish Procurement in particular,” says Mark.
Even better, they redistributed the technology to the companies that needed it the most at no cost whatsoever.
And the work doesn’t stop. “Now we’re racing to support the return of schools and higher education,” says Mark. “It’s very much business as unusual.”
Results
The response to Perkbox has been really positive and it perfectly complemented many of the initiatives already in place.
To help employees discover all their perks, the team have created a ‘perk of the week’ section in their company-wide Friday emails. And it’s working – the team have already redeemed more than 900 perks!
“Before the pandemic, the most popular perk was the free weekly coffee,” says Mark. “Now, it’s shopping discounts and takeaways.”
He credits the platform’s flexibility with the success. “Part of the attraction of Perkbox was the app you can deploy,” he says. “But there’s also a browser-based version. We have a wide range of employees – from school-leavers to grandparents. Not everyone has the latest smartphone. That flexibility helps you take the offers to everyone on the team.”
Giving employees different ways to access their perks has helped make Perkbox accessible to everyone, with 85% of employees logging into the platform.
Perkbox has been a big part of the recruitment process too – getting a shout-out in job adverts and new starter inductions.
“It shows we’re trying to do different things,” says Mark. “It’s not just about salary anymore – increasingly it’s about work/life balance.”
His approach is working. The team recently held a vote using Perkbox Recognition’s poll feature and Mark was chosen as Capito’s Unsung Hero.
“He’s always working really hard while never asking for recognition,” says Claire Hattie, Marketing Executive. “I think this shows that the team really appreciates his efforts in making Capito a great place to work, and Perkbox is a part of that.”
Perhaps that mindset is how Capito has turned a tough year into a success story. Whatever the future of the workplace looks like – we’re confident they’ll continue to thrive.
