24 January 2018
Egos are not present within our business, and that’s a real feature.
– Business Kick Off 2018. Doug Sawers, Managing Director, SD Worx UK & Ireland
As a Business Development Manager, I am often invited to most company events. Certainly anything client or prospect facing, and usually internal gatherings
too. The SD Worx Business Kick Off 2018 was no different. Hosted in Manchester over the course of 2 days, we had a packed agenda and over a hundred
colleagues in attendance, all ready to be WOW’ed.
Events such as this present a unique opportunity to the business and the individual. As a business, we are able to communicate to a wide population and
present a united front. We’re also able to ‘gee up’ the crowd and get people excited for the year ahead - to reflect and learn from last year, and
motivate them for the future.
As individuals, we are reminded that we have a wide range of colleagues across the UK, and the world, all performing a variety of tasks to support us as
we do them. The opportunity to network and meet new people is real, and has a tangible benefit.
Let me tell you about a few of the people that I met...
I’ve spoken to him a few times on the phone, and even more via email, but we’ve never met face to face. Bumping into each other during a break, we talked
about a recent client interaction we had, and how he thought we might appraoch the situation. It lasted all of five minutes, but what we covered could
have taken 6 emails and three missed calls over a week. I also found out he’s a Rangers fan... so you win some, you lose some!
This was his first conference with SD Worx, and I remember thinking how daunting it is at first, but how quickly you realise what a great environment and
culture SD Worx has. It was great getting to watch a new member of the team introduce himself and be introduced to so many people, and I’m sure he’s
going to be a great sucess.
I sat next to her in the evening at our black tie dinner. One of the SD Worx core values is Passion (see our INSPIRE values here),
and it’s great to see someone like her exude this value in her work. Knowing that it’s people like her who’ll look after my customers reassures me
even more in my message that SD Worx is the best managed service provider in payroll.
She is easily one of the most appraochable FD’s i’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. On day two of a conference you’d be forgiven for expecting the senior
leaders to be off working or on conference calls ‘running the business’. She and I joined SD Worx roughly at the same time, she’s always been increbily
approachable and engaged. You don’t get many FD’s like that!
She is a payroll executive based in Manchester, who has supported me on a number of managed payroll opportunities. We briefly said hello to each other
at the bar on the first evening, but I was delighted to have her input on a project I was working on day two. She is another one of our illustrious
colleagues being recongnised as a 2017 Colleague of the Month, and I’m delighted to say I’ve nominated her at least once last year!
There were lots of other people I met (old and new!) who i’m not going to menton here, but suffice to say I know they’ll take no offence. As an SD Worx
employee, this event really got me excited and pumped up for 2018! We have a great set of products,
and a wonderful service to compliment it. More importantly it is backed up by some great people.
I really enjoyed meeting all these wonderful colleagues and friends, and truly believe that my colleagues will help SD Worx deliver an amazing 2018. Colleagues
who help us get a 97% customer retention rate. Colleagues who help make SD Worx one
of the best companies to work in, and a truly enjoyable place to spend our time. It’s made possible by the great people, and as Doug said at the end
of day two:
Egos are not present within our business, and that’s a real feature.
– Business Kick Off 2018. Doug Sawers, Managing Director, SD Worx UK & Ireland