10 Years, 40 Quarters, 520 weeks, 3653 Days

This month, Version 1 is celebrating being recognised officially as a Great Place to Work in Ireland for the tenth consecutive year. Great things really did come in threes for us at the 19th annual Great Place to Work? Best Workplaces in Ireland virtual awards on the 10th of March 2021 for three separate achievements: 

1. Being named a Top 10 Best Workplace in the Large Workplace category (in 6th place). 
2. For receiving the prestigious ‘Inspiring Award 2021’ for our Shadow Board programme at Version 1. 
3. Last but certainly not least – for winning a ‘Best Workplace Laureate Award’ for successfully maintaining our Great Place to Work status for the past 10 years consecutively. 

Reflecting on the 10 Years 

It’s at these significant milestones that I’m prompted to reflect on my highlights of the previous years and to share the significance to Version 1 as an employer, and to myself personally. However, I always find it difficult to quantify success in terms of years (and consecutive years particularly). 

Why? Well, it’s ingrained in me as a â€˜Version 1er’ with our unique balanced operating model (Our Difference) to view success (and any potential shortcomings) on a quarterly basis, to a quarterly rhythm.   

Our Difference 

What is our Difference? It’s our unique approach to achieving success quarterly across three commitments equally. These commitments are:

• Customer Success: Make a real difference for our customers. 
• Empowered Employees: Build an empowering culture and growing a strong organisation for the future.  
• Strong Organisation: Grow a high-performing, financially strong organisation of the highest integrity â€“ a strength that empowers our people and delivers customer success. 

We know that our greatest strength is balance across all three commitments to our customers, our people and our company’s financial performance. Those looking for a short-term result or an easier road might sacrifice one benefit for another, but at Version 1, we never will. We know that our greatest strength is balance across all three. This is The Version 1 Difference. 

Wired for Success 

When we discuss our balanced operating model with people outside of Version 1 such as our customers and prospective employees â€“ the reaction is nearly always one of surprise or curiosity as to how we could keep up the balance quarter after quarter – for year after year. Achieving equal success every quarter for our customers, our people and our organisation is what makes Version 1 unique, but it’s not easy. It needs a specific set of behaviours to deliver this success consistently: our Core Values. That’s how we ensure the 365 days in a year are navigated skilfully. Every decision we make is governed by six core values. They are simply stated, non-negotiable and ever present. 

• Honesty and Integrity 
• Personal Commitment 
• No Ego 
• Customer First 
• Excellence 
• Drive 

Our Core Values are not aspirational – they are real and lived, it’s how our people are inherently wired, and this is how we spot ‘Version 1ers’– as values cannot be faked. As our Core Values govern every single decision we make, from the smallest to the largest, we look for them when we are hiring. If you think your DNA matches ours and this sounds like the environment you need to thrive, we have plenty of opportunities of all levels available currently. 

40 Quarters of Dedication 

So, to go back to my point above about celebrating or viewing milestones in terms of years, or rather looking back over a year and planning for a year ahead, internally at Version 1, we deeply study how we can achieve success across all sides of our triangle on a quarterly basis. We treat each quarter with the same energy and dedication as if it’s a year in itself. If something goes out of balance, we have to rectify it by the next quarter. This isn’t easy and requires tenacity of the highest degree. It makes Version 1 a â€œGreat Place to Work Not an Easy Place to Work.”  

40 Quarters of Balance 

Our people operate to this sustained quarterly rhythm and when I’m asked what my highlights of the last ten years are – it’s the fact that our people have dedicated their time, innovation, creativity, analysis and energy to 40 quarters of balance â€“ which has been no mean feat â€“ but we believe it makes us a very unique place to work and a Great Place to Work for people who crave something very different for their career. 

So – to try to distill my highlights of the past 10 years as (an official) Great Place to Work, it’s only right to share with you what our people have ultimately enabled us to maintain across the three sides of our triangle over 10 Years, 40 Quarters, 520 weeks, 3653 Days: 

EMPOWERED EMPLOYEES 

• 87% Employee Engagement. In addition to our commitment to the programme of Great Place to Work Culture Audits and Employee surveys, we consistently measure Employee Engagement in quarterly surveys to understand not only if our people are satisfied but if they are engaged. We want our people to understand their role purpose, how they impact Version 1, to access upskilling and training, etc. Coordinating the efforts to result in these world-class scores requires unbelievable dedication across our organisation from our people. 
• 1400+ strong workforce. We are growing rapidly and hiring multiple employees on a weekly basis which will see us very shortly reach 1500 employees – and our people have been playing their part in hiring, welcoming, training and engaging our new joiners. From Buddy Programmes and Digital Onboarding to Virtual Bingo and Step Challenges – our people are making every effort to ensure every employee feels seen. 
• Over 50% CPD promotion rate. Over 50% of our employees moved up a CPD level last year, in recognition of their unwavering commitment to delivering Customer Success, Empowered Employees and Strong Organisation. 

STRONG ORGANISATION  

• €140 million in turnover in 2020. Strong financial performance enables operational excellence for our organisation, success for our customers and the resources to invest heavily in our people. With our financial performance exceeding its targets over the past year – we were in a position to do two things; firstly, to pay our employees our highest ever levels of profit share on a quarterly basis and secondly to invest even more in employee training, education, rewards, and promotions. 
• 3 global partnerships. The strong performance our people have been driving across the past 40 quarters has given us the resources to invest in our technology capabilities and enhanced partnerships with our three global technology partners: Oracle, Microsoft and AWS. 
• Our Innovation Labs. With the organisation going from strength to strength, we made the decision to continuously invest in our Innovation Labs. With a dedicated Innovation and Automation team, we use innovative tools and technologies to drive Customer Success and realise business benefits for our customers. 

CUSTOMER SUCCESS 

• A 98% customer retention rate. Our customers repeat their business with us year on year and time and time again it’s our people that are cited as the reason our customers keep coming back, with frequent references to our peoples’ Core Values called out in our Customer Satisfaction survey feedback. 
• 25+ year customer relationships. Our people go into business partnerships with a focus on building long-term outcome focused relationships and we are extremely proud that our first customer from 1996 is still with us. Our people have worked closely with major commercial businesses and public sector organisations across Ireland and the UK from when they were startups or had ‘green screen’ applications up to migrating whole data estates to the Public Cloud and implementing AI and chatbots today. 
• A Net Promoter Score (NPS) in the high 60s. We were overwhelmed at the end of 2020 that we hit our highest ever Customer Satisfaction scores. Despite all the challenges thrown at them, from minding children and home-schooling while working to being on the front-line implementing solutions for healthcare providers during COVID-19, our people ensured our customers’ organisations kept running, minimising disruption and losses due to the pandemic. The vision we set out a few years ago was to be a world-leader in customer success. I've been unable to find any consulting or IT firm with a higher net promoter score, so I do feel we're getting there, if not there already.

Our employees’ achievements above are just the tip of the iceberg and there have been many other moments over the past 40 quarters that I’ve been taken aback and left in complete awe of what our people have managed to achieve during a quarter.  

I want to give a huge thanks to everyone at Version 1 for making these achievements possible and for everything you have delivered over 10 Years, 40 Quarters, 520 weeks, 3653 Days. It’s hard to imagine what we will look like in another 10 years – when our 10x strategy has been implemented and we have ramped up all of these efforts x10 – which is a story for another day!  

I would like to finish up with a massive thank you again to our people, our customers, our partners and the greater communities in which we operate for supporting us in reaching this milestone. 

Tom