The trophies have been given out, toasts have been made and the canapés have been eaten. After four fantastic global events recognizing the work of organizations and individuals across the cloud industry, the Digital Revolution Awards 2023 season has come to a close.
Throughout the Digital Revolution Awards 2023 events, we saw many outstanding winners take the stage, receiving a round of applause for making a positive impact on our world through cloud technology.
Now it’s time to shine a spotlight on some of those worthy victors and showcase the fantastic work that made them winners in the Digital Revolution Awards.
In this Meet the Winners blog, we’re getting to know the winner of our Best Google Cloud Partner to Work For, CTS.
We were looking for a truly outstanding organization to take home our first-ever Best Google Cloud Partner to Work For award: a well-rounded Google Cloud partner with a laser-like focus on all elements of their employee brand.
Our winner would be a company that could demonstrate excellence across all the pillars that make for a great place to work: inclusivity, CSR and sustainability efforts, a focus on employee health and wellbeing, professional development opportunities, and an active approach to talent attraction and retention.
And as our judging panel discovered, CTS certainly fit the bill.
As the largest Google Cloud practise in Europe, CTS helps organizations do big things with the Google Cloud platform. They’re also committed to doing big things within their business, driving progress throughout the industry, and empowering their employees to reach their full potential.
A certified B Corporation, CTS uses the nonprofit’s framework to build a culture of respect both internally and externally and continuously improve how it treats its people, its community, and the environment.
In 2021, the company established its DEI strategy. Not content with ticking tokenistic boxes and chasing statistics, an approach was built from the ground up to focus on meaningful inclusivity and tangible change for everyone across its workforce.
One of the first results of the strategy was the creation of an internal DEI Board, and the launch of DEI Workshops. Voluntarily attended by almost three-quarters of the workforce, these workshops have helped raise awareness of DEI issues and inspired valuable conversations around these topics.
Further aiming to foster a culture of openness and inclusivity for all at CTS, the DEI Board has since launched several impactful initiatives, including gender neutral parental policies and extended paternity leave.
The company also gives its employees the trust and autonomy to work in a way that suits them. With a flexible, remote-first working policy and unlimited vacation offerings, CTS employees are empowered to do their best work on their own terms. This approach has helped net the company an impressive retention rate and has seen turnover drop 5% annually for the past two years. It’s also earned them a spot on Flexa’s list of the 100 most flexible businesses in the world.
In addition to inclusivity and wellbeing, professional development is another element of the employee experience that CTS places much importance on.
Promoting self-guided learning and development, CTS offers employees ten paid “Learning Days” every year. Employees are encouraged to use these days to attend conferences or community events, prepare for exams, or look into new ways to develop their skills. With 93% of employees feeling supported to develop themselves, and 200 professional Google Cloud certifications earned to date, the company’s commitment to constant upskilling is evident.
All these initiatives are clearly having a positive effect: a recent colleague satisfaction survey found that 94% of CTS employees felt they could be themselves at work, with 99% stating they would recommend CTS as an employer to a friend or family member.
The company’s increasingly progressive and inclusive working environment is also helping it attract new talent from all walks of life, with 51% of its hires in 2022 coming from under-represented groups.
Our judges were particularly struck by the breadth of initiatives put forward by CTS in its efforts to make the company a great place to work:
“CTS’ diversity and inclusion focus, their professional development, flexible working, and the referrals stuck out to me.”
“CTS are just head and shoulders above. They really, really are. There was something I really liked about the way they’re attracting a diverse talent pool.
“What grabbed me was the focus on meaningful inclusivity rather than ticking boxes. I loved the openness of that statement; it spoke to me about the kind of mentality that they have and the people that they are.”
“I’m so tired of hearing people saying that it’s hard to do and they’re just not seeing the right number of candidates come through. We’ve got to try harder at this stuff. So the fact that they’ve got that is just amazing. It is possible and they are doing it.”
We spoke to Charlotte Lavelle, Google Partnerships Lead at CTS, about the win.
“I’m quite blown away, to be honest. I know what we do is great as an organization, but to be recognized is a really big deal.
“What went into our entry for the Best Google Partner to Work for award was talking about what we do for our employees, what we do for diversity and inclusion, bringing different people from different backgrounds into the tech industry, overcoming all those barriers, but also just making it a really, really fun place to work.
“It’s just really recognition of the hard work that the team has put in, and something to say ‘do you know what? All the work and the stuff we talk about really makes a difference’. So it’s been amazing and I’m so proud of the team.”
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