Building trust: what makes GBG an exceptional place to work?

At GBG, team engagement isn’t just a checkbox exercise – it’s a critical part of our business strategy, embedded into our culture because we know we grow when our people grow. I’m proud that we are defined by our inclusive culture and how we show up each and every day, but, most importantly, by placing our people at the heart of all our decision–making – big or small.

"We know we grow when our people grow."

This year we’ve reached a huge milestone in our mission to have and support the best and most engaged team in the industry: GBG has won the 2023 Gallup Exceptional Workplace Award (GEWA), recognised by Gallup for putting our team engagement at the heart of our business strategy and creating a trusted environment where our team members flourish.  

Running for nearly two-decades, the GEWA recognises and celebrates companies that have made engagement a cornerstone of their business and weave that commitment into their organisational culture. GBG ranks among the most elite organisations around the globe and is one of only two companies headquartered in the UK and one of 57 companies globally to meet Gallup’s rigorous industry standards. 

Julie Brookfield, Head of People, James Miller, Chief People Officer, Gemma Icke, Director – People Plan & Services, and Tabetha Taylor, Head of Talent, collect GBG’s Gallup Exceptional Workplace Award at the ceremony hosted in the US. 

"GBG has been recognised for putting our team engagement at the heart of our business strategy and creating a trusted environment where our team members flourish."

This is a testament to our incredible team members around the world who are key to our success. Their continued hard work and dedication has underpinned GBG’s evolution into one of the world’s leading identity, fraud, and location software providers.  

Achieving this significant milestone presents the perfect time to reflect on how we’ve brought our vision of having the best and most engaged people in the industry to life: 

Building a culture of trust: work when and where you want  

Everyone is unique and bringing together our different strengths and skills sets makes us more successful. Flexibility isn’t just a ‘nice to have’ in today’s world of work – it also makes good business sense. A ‘one-size-fits-all’ policy is not only unpractical but can limit success and progress through one-track thinking. On the other hand, empowering team members to work in the way that best suits them, pivots away from a culture of presenteeism to an outcomes and solutions focus that celebrates productivity and work/life balance.  

That is why we have built a culture of trust that empowers our team members to bring their best selves to work each day through our Work When and Where You Want (WWWYW) Policy. Our WWWYW policy ensures each of us can balance our lifestyle, caring for our families and for ourselves – whether that’s making time for the school run each day, working from a café that serves your favourite coffee or even extending a holiday to work from abroad.  

Since the roll out of WWWYW, hundreds of our team members have successfully worked in a fully remote world across the globe – from India to Ireland. It’s a win:win for the business and the team and it’s fantastic to see the positive impact of building a culture of trust – more than 90% of our people say they would recommend GBG as a great place to work.   

"Since the roll out of WWWYW, hundreds of our team members have successfully worked in a fully remote world across the globe – from India to Ireland."

What makes us tick: the power of ‘stay interviews’ 

While the exit interview is a well-established process within businesses, the ‘stay interview’ is still an emerging and developing trend but one we have taken advantage of at GBG.  

What is a stay interview? Quite simply, a stay interview is the opposite of an exit interview. Its aim is to get insight from team members on what motivates them, what they value the most and what they feel could be improved; all with the purpose of supporting them to stay.   

Holding ourselves accountable and putting our learnings into action is a fundamental pillar of how we’ve built a culture of trust at GBG. We are always working to improve our understanding of what makes us a unique and attractive place to work. This is a continuous journey, and our goal posts are always moving! Stay interviews empower us to continue to take positive steps forward on this path and ensures we are always workings towards providing and inclusive workplace for ALL team members. 

Learning never stops: mentoring & reverse mentoring  

Having been at GBG for over eight years myself, I know first-hand that learning never stops! When we advance as individuals, so does our company – so as our business accelerates, we always encourage our team members to try new things and grow.  

"When we advance as individuals, so does our company – so we always encourage our team members to try new things and grow."

Our mentoring scheme launched in 2021 and supports our team members’ learning and development by providing the opportunity to pair them with another team member outside of their immediate team to help develop their skills, knowledge, and network.  

This is available to everyone – new and established team members – and 100% of our executives take part as either a mentor or in our reverse mentoring scheme, where senior executives learn from less experienced team members about their unique experiences and continue to grow their knowledge of the business.  

GBG team members across the globe 

Be yourself: empowering our team to be their authentic selves 

We are proud of our global team and encourage team members to be their true, authentic selves because we like people just the way they are. A diverse workforce encourages innovation and widens our perspective, leading to a more successful, happier team and improved business outcomes.  

"A diverse workforce encourages innovation and widens our perspective, leading to a more successful, happier team and improved business outcomes."

However, we know that an inclusive, diverse culture does not happen by accident, it’s created through conscious and deliberate action and the choices we make as a team. That is why we built our diversity and inclusions programme, be/yourself, which is designed to ensure everybody feels comfortable identifying as their authentic self and has allies at the workplace.  

Our global network of be/yourself champions volunteer their support and lend their passion to our programme around the world and together create networking opportunities, provide training, manage events to keep our be/yourself belief and commitment top of mind as well as ensure our team feel engaged and listened to.  

We have also built partnerships with organisations who are experts in inclusion and diversity, including Stonewall, Tech Talent Charter and Women in Tech Forum, whose insight and knowledge helps us to build a workplace where all team members can be their true authentic selves and ensures we continue to always learn, grow, and evolve as a business. 

Interested in learning more about how GBG can make life work for you? Find out more about us and check out our latest role here.