I spend a chunk of time interviewing at CTS, and usually come back to the same two questions:
Why would someone want to join CTS?
What do I enjoy about CTS?
My answer to the second question is simple: The culture. Articulating the culture of a business is tricky without someone experiencing it. Regardless, I’m going to try.
I am writing this post sitting in Liverpool Airport (a great way to avoid the pandemonium at Manchester) destined for Alicante where I’ll join the rest of CTS at our Company Kick Off. A yearly tradition disrupted only by a global pandemic. It’s more than just some ‘fun in the sun’, it’s a chance for a distributed team to spend quality time together, and get to know each other better. Alicante is one of the many reasons I believe people stay at love working at CTS. From beach sports like Tug of War, Volleyball and Crossfit workouts on the sand to a beautiful dusk walk to Santa Bárbara Castle, we will also share important information on last year’s results and our plans for the year ahead. Needless to say, a lot will be packed into our time away.
I’ve heard a rumour that the infamous Techstreet Boys may make an appearance after the one and only Rebecca Nevard took it upon herself to print t-shirts for anyone wanting one.
Beyond three days in the sun, what is it that people love so much?
The one thing that the whole team at CTS has in common, is that everyone embodies our values. Work ethic is tremendous, people set a high bar and aim to achieve it as a team and celebrate our successes together. There are no individual efforts, people pull together as a group and “Crack On”. I see it from sales to delivery and everything in between. Our legendary People Team strives to ensure people enjoy coming to work every day. Our account managers truly care about their customers and want to see the best for them. Our Delivery Managers want to see the biggest return on investment for our customers. And our technical teams ensure customers have access to the latest and greatest technology from Google and the cloud ecosystem.
Working hard requires balance, pushing too hard has a negative impact. We’ve all seen it and we’re not immune at CTS. “Appreciating Others” is critical, it can be a casual pat on the back or a more formal thank you and reward. Recognising good work is important and elevates people. They feel good about themselves and what they have achieved. Equally important is “Getting Involved”, when someone is struggling at CTS people inject themselves into the situation. They share the workload and offer help, often in situations they’re not entirely familiar with. People accept they’ll learn quickly and recognise that any help is better than no help. A problem shared really is a problem halved.
With all the work we need to ensure we allow time to “Try New Things”. We’re a rapidly growing business, new opportunities are a regular occurence. We aim to promote internally whenever possible and enable our teams to upskill in their chosen areas. We have leadership and management tracks. Programmes like Elevate give people the opportunity to learn more about leadership and running a business. We give people the space to innovate, we’re in the professional services space but don’t aim to flog our teams at 90% billability. We give them room to grow.
What else do people do with the extra time away from billability? A lot. Beyond unlimited holidays, we offer ten learning days a year that can be booked as time away from the day to day role. Flexible working; we have core hours but we care about the output, not the time at your desk. We won’t enforce that people come into the office, but we do encourage it, especially for the social interactions that come with being together like team lunches and fun activities. We can work from anywhere in the world for up to 90 days a year, allowing people to spend more quality time with their families abroad.
Beyond the work focus we can book Charity Days where we spend the day contributing to a charity of our choosing. We have an environmental board, are striving towards B-Corp certification and building more sustainable practices. Speaking of charities, post Alicante several of the CTS team will be running the Manchester 10K. Alongside them will be Ian Shepard, one of our GCP Architects, after he has run the half marathon in the morning.
Finally we have communities that anyone can join, ranging from Diversity Equity Inclusion groups to technical communities and everything in between with a focus on driving positive change across our business and society as a whole.
We’re a people based company. If you’re passionate about tech, and our values resonate with you, please check out our open roles, and get in touch!
