The resolutions that purposeful leaders have made for 2024
As a new year begins, we invited a global group of purpose-led leaders to share their take on what purposeful business will mean in 2024. Read on to discover how our clients are setting resolutions that go beyond personal aspirations, focusing on an employee experience which enables collective growth and drives positive impact.
Dora Hoffmann,
Head of people + Culture ultimate
Ultimate is a tech scale up which helps with the automation of customer service, based in Berlin.
What are you going to focus on this year to ensure the business purpose remains central to growth? Accelerated expansion or "hyper growth" is behind us. The primary objective for 2024, from a people perspective, is talent development and strategic retention to fortify operational efficiency. Our focus on retention extends to the organizational, team, and individual levels, with a commitment to building strong engagement strategies. These three elements are strongly connected but require personalized focus when it comes to building a people strategy.
What change do you want to see in the culture by the end of 2024? Our people strategy at Ultimate is built upon various pillars aimed at cultivating an exemplary company culture. However, each year, we deliberately select one or two key pillars to prioritize, shaping our focus for the entire year. Given that our overarching business objectives center around efficiency and that we are an innovative startup, we are aligning our people strategy accordingly. The biggest change I want to see is a shift towards a culture that prioritizes Continuous Learning and Development, coupled with a robust feedback culture.
What trends are on the horizon for purpose and values-led organisations that you want to engage with? ESG, ESG, ESG. However not so much of a trend, rather a must have, but when you say purpose and values-led organisations, that's the most important element and it's great to see that so many organisations value having an ESG roadmap in place.
Within designed and delivered a leadership development programme for managers at Ultimate, equipping them to lead well in a flat, fast-growth and dynamic culture. We also designed and facilitated a leadership retreat. You can dive into the detail via our interview with Dora on the podcast here.
Olly Willans,
Founder + Creative Director, Torchbox
Torchbox is one of the UK’s biggest independent digital agencies for non-profits, headquartered in Oxfordshire.
What are you going to focus on this year to ensure the business purpose remains central to growth? We're operating in a difficult business environment and it's testing us (and most other agencies). But that's the acid test of purpose-led (and employee-owned) businesses like ours: to stay true to your values even when there's a price to pay. Happily, we can harness the super-power of more than 100 engaged, entrepreneurial co-owners to deliver on our vision for sustainable growth.
What trends are on the horizon for purpose and values-led organisations that you want to engage with? Building owner sentiment, so all employees think and feel like owners and demonstrate the spirit of the business owner, is something that we will continue to focus on and nurture.
Within partnered with Torchbox on the evolution of their company values in 2023. You can hear Nikki de Vet in conversation with Torchbox CEO James Leavesley on the Within podcast here.
Amy VanHaren,
Founder,
pumpspotting
Pumpspotting is a community-based tech product that makes it easier for companies to create inclusive, feeding-friendly cultures. They are based in California.
What are you going to focus on this year to ensure the business purpose remains central to growth? My resolution as a leader in the year ahead is to keep us aligned long-term, celebrating the wins around values as much as our traditional KPIs and never shying away from decisions that hold true to the business culture we want to be building.
What change do you want to see in the culture by the end of 2024? For 2024 we redefined our values and aligned them with our success metrics to ensure that our efforts for growth in revenue and scale don't come at the cost of our core North Star of nourishing people. By putting a creative voice to our brand promises - from up but honest to transformational, not transactional to unapologetically pro-mom - we've brought energy and focus to the team, defining our culture and driving exciting results.
Within supported Amy as a founder to tell the story of Pumpspotting’s purpose, vision and offer - to help with funding rounds and get the business focused on how to scale impact. Amy tells her story on the Within podcast here.
Alan Cairns,
Chief People officer,
GoCardless
GoCardless is a fintech payment processing company based in East London.
What are you going to focus on this year to ensure the business purpose remains central to growth? For me, given we are driving a path to profitability, the single biggest focus is building an inclusive, high performance culture. This involves an investment in Lattice for setting goals, running performance oriented 1:1's and reviews built around coaching.
What change do you want to see in the culture by the end of 2024? Demonstrable evidence, through our key performance metrics, that we are living high performance daily.
What trends are on the horizon for purpose and values-led organisations that you want to engage with? The biggest for me is using engagement as a "one moment in time measure" and therefore focussing more on the employee experience and our measurable, real-time employee experience promises.
Within People has supported Alan and his team in designing a series of employee experience promises which articulate the ‘give and get’ value at the core of the GoCardless culture. The team is now working to make these promises measurable so they can show progress against each. Hear Alan’s story over on the Within podcast here.
Meredith Buchannan,
head of people + Culture, Covers
Covers is a digital platform that brings together expert insight and a passionate community to help sports bettors bet smarter. They are based in Halifax, Canada.
What are you going to focus on this year to ensure the business purpose remains central to growth? We’ve been through considerable growth over the last few years so I’m going to focus on uniting our team around our shared vision and values and surfacing up the ideas and experiences that will make us stronger together.
What change do you want to see in the culture by the end of 2024? We have a very strong team culture – this year we want to double down on what makes our team unique, play to our strengths, build stronger connections and establish new ways of working that enhance collaboration.
What trends are on the horizon for purpose and values-led organisations that you want to engage with? How to meaningfully connect teams in order to do their best work. We’ve gone from the pendulum swinging fully remote to (in some cases) swinging back to mandatory in-office. We’ve seen an uptick in tech to enable collaboration and also AI to accelerate output. I think the future is about finding the most meaningful ways for teams to connect so that they understand the business context, build trust, collaborate effectively, feel fulfilled and ultimately produce their best work.
Within helped the passionate folks at Covers refresh their values after an exciting acquisition, and bring them to life through the employee value proposition and experience. You can hear more from Meredith on the Within podcast.
Burke Pemberton,
chief financial officer,
Stok
Stok are specialists in sustainable built environments, based in California and Colorado.
What are you going to focus on this year to ensure the business purpose remains central to growth? Stok’s focus this year is prioritizing initiatives which allow us to deliver maximum impact to our clients while ensuring the team member experience is inspiring and engaging. Easier said than done! We’re working hard to simplify our systems while empowering team members to co-create solutions and best practices that foster personal growth and performance metrics aligned with our values and culture promises.
What change do you want to see in the culture by the end of 2024? The ultimate goal in 2024 is for each team member to see the importance of their role in the organization, understand their trajectory for growth, and have access to all of the tools and resources needed to be successful in delivering impact to our clients.
What trends are on the horizon for purpose and values-led organisations that you want to engage with? Many values-led organizations have tried to be all things to all stakeholders and have fallen short over the last several years due to mission creep. Purpose-led organizations need to focus on fiscal responsibility while keeping a laser focus on organizational purpose and mission.
Within People has worked with Stok on their culture and leadership for three years, most recently helping them leverage their employee experience as a key driver of an ambitious 5-year vision and growth strategy. Burke speaks to the Within co-founders on our podcast here.
Activate what inspires you
Feeling inspired but unsure about your next step? Without a clear vision of where we are heading, growth becomes unintentional and lacks meaning. Without the right context, growth quickly feels unattainable or unsustainable. When visioning with Within, we guide you to reconnect with what inspires you about the growth in your business and explore what success truly looks like for you.
Get in touch with us to embark on your journey and create a vision and context for growth that inspires your team to build toward something meaningful together.
