We’re Breakthrough Culture Award Winners – What Does This Mean?

We’re delighted to announce that we’re UK Breakthrough Culture Award (BCA) winners 2024!

“Great, another award, yawn.”

Yeah, fair enough – what’s impressive about paying for an award and then touting it as something special?

We get that, and so, too, do the minds behind the UK BCAs. Here’s a quote from their website:

“BCA is not a typical award. Prior to its inception, we did not value industry awards—or even the concept of an award anymore. Awards felt self-promoting and lacked real prestige. However, we did believe in promoting great work and achievements. We knew that the right award, done correctly could really help deserving companies actually stand out.

From the start, we set out to build a better award, more like a certification that we would love and fight to be a part of, an award that was transparent and made a true difference to the companies and people involved.

BCA is fully transparent, with a filmed judging panel whose decision is turned into a behind-the-scenes style documentary.”

So, what does this actually mean?

This means that an independent panel have taken the time to assess a wide range of marketing companies, assessing each on their individual merits and accomplishments, as well as the opinions of the people who work there.?

With over 5,000 companies assessed and 20,000 employees interviewed, winning’s kind of a big deal!

It’s so much more than just an award; it’s a reflection of the culture we’ve been building over the years at Catalyst. When Paul and I started this agency, we wanted it to be different. We knew what motivated us, what inspired us, and what made us give a s**t (and we knew what had the opposite effect).?

These principles have influenced every single decision made as Catalyst’s grown. Our biggest aim has always been to rid our people of the “Sunday night dread”, to create an environment where people want to work hard and succeed.?

This is why awards like the UK BCAs are so important. They recognise agencies that are making an effort to do things differently. This isn’t “just an award that appears one day, and forgotten about the next.” BCA is the leading certification for workplace culture research, highlighting the UK's finest and emerging workplaces. Backed by world-renowned talent leaders, and baked in deep research alongside Nielsen, to turbo-charge the adoption of growing workplaces across the UK.

What makes working at Catalyst special?

We don’t do free pizza, we don’t have a beer fridge, we don’t have bean bags, or grass walls; that’s just stuff. People won’t remember it or be inspired by it in years to come.?

Instead, we focus on people, culture and rewards.?

We want everyone at Catalyst to feel as if they “own” what they do; we want them to recognise the significant part they play in the success of the business, with even the smallest things (such as uploading a blog to a website on time with no formatting errors) making a big difference to the ongoing success of our clients’ marketing strategies.?

To incentivise this, we put our money where our mouth is – all client-facing employees, from graduates to seniors, are paid bonuses based on retention, split evenly across the team.?

If our people do a good job, clients stay. When clients stay, they’re rewarded.?

To us, it makes sense. For our culture, it’s invaluable. Everyone gets recognition for the great work they’re doing, no ifs, no buts.?

What’s next for Catalyst?

We’re growing, yes, but we’re also looking to attract the right people at the right time – people who want to build a career, work hard, get the recognition they deserve and help build something they are proud of. We say it a lot, but we really do want our people to shape their role into one that benefits them just as much as it benefits Catalyst.?

Attracting the right talent is a big challenge. We have made the mistake of hiring for skill-set before, but we can teach that, what we can't teach is drive, attitude, ambition and giving a s**t.?

So yes, there are lots of benefits to working at Catalyst, but the biggest benefit (in my humble opinion) is that it’s a bloody great place to work. We’ve got a fantastic team full of brilliant minds, all of whom are working hard day in, day out to deliver some seriously impressive results for our clients.

Thanks, Breakthrough Culture…

We’ve known for years that we’ve got something special at Catalyst. It’s great to finally have that recognised by a third party ??

So, we’re going to continue doing what we’re doing – putting our people first. For now, it’s time to celebrate – pub, anyone?