Jo: I've been in the mobility/relocation industry for about 35 years. And it's an industry that people may not know much about unless they've relocated or been with a company that moves people. We're ultimately moving people for our corporate clients from one location to another. It's highly complex, and we play a critical role in our clients' talent agenda.
Before I joined K2, I had been in the industry for over 35 years working for a couple of large relocation companies. I had decided to take a break, but was tempted back to the industry because of the K2 culture and brand, and the unique way in which the company delivers service excellence, and really looks after their people.
2020, of course, was a time when much fewer people were moving. But it actually was a great indicator of the business that I was joining. Nick, our CEO, and I sit on the board and help the business continue to transform and evolve and grow. Looking back to that time of Covid, when many organisations were unfortunately having to let people go, we were actually in a period of growth, irrespective of everything around us. But with such uncertainty in the world, it was challenging times and it was so critical that our teams felt that there was real honesty and trust across the organisation. We looked very much at trying to ensure that our communications at that time was authentic and transparent; we worked hard on making sure there were monthly town halls led by our CEO, including Q&A sessions, to share what was happening with our business, what challenges may lie ahead and how we could all make a difference – it was important that our people didn't have to second-guess or worry about things, they knew what was going to happen and they knew what we were facing, whether that was great or whether that was not so great. No-one has forgotten that time and how secure they felt knowing what was going on, when many people around them didn’t have that comfort.
So everything we do is about being truly honest and transparent so that people know that, even if it’s a challenging period, nothing's being hidden. It is so important we have the trust of our people because we are a people business, and our clients rely on working with great people who deliver great customer service. We pride ourselves on being the very best relocation management company in the world from a service perspective. And therefore, when you have an environment where people want to be at work, and they love coming into the office, and they pride themselves on getting great results and great relationships, it results in the ability to have very satisfied customers and clients.
A large part of our ongoing focus is: What are we doing for our employees? How can we make their day and their lives better? And how can we make sure that we're listening and doing what we say we're going to do?
If I look back, I think we recognised very early on that it isn't somebody else's job to look after culture. It's all of our responsibility. And therefore, we have pride and a standard that we're looking to achieve, and we can all hold ourselves accountable for playing a part in it.Jo: We're a people business — our employees are so critical to us and to the success of our business. And we always strive for an environment where our employees have real trust in the business. And as a result of that, they become true ambassadors for the organisation.
I would say 90% of everyone we hire, as we continue to grow, are referrals from our existing employees — and that really tells us a great deal about how and what people feel about the business.
We call ourselves 'the K2 family' — and it's not just a word, it is genuinely used by everybody who works here; really looking out for each other; being somewhere where people want to work. I think we're one of very few companies in our industry that has such a work-in-the-office culture. And that hasn't always been an easy thing to have. But the payoff is just tremendous! People feel like they're working alongside people they really know and can really trust, and feel that they can trust in the business. And, therefore, we're all on the same page, we're all on the same journey.
That is really important, especially when you're going through some more challenging times. The way in which we focus on culture is done very differently at K2, versus a lot of companies. It isn't run by HR. Yes, HR supports us, but Culture is actually owned by the business and the Board. We have ‘People and Culture’ as one of the pillars of our 5-year strategic business plan, which ensures culture is incorporated into everything we do; it's very critical for us.
Jo: Yes, and even on areas like employee turnover. Our leave rate is less than 4%. And sometimes when we talk about that, some might say, "so what?". But actually, it means so much! It means that we've got people in our teams who are passionate about what they do, and they really know what they're doing. They're very experienced. Clients trust them because they know them; our clients and customers have continuity of service delivery over years, which makes a huge difference; and all of that has a positive knock-on impact to our business and our growth. The fact that so much of our new business comes from referrals from our existing clients is testament to the relationships we have with our clients and the performance of our teams .
Above: K2 CEO, Nick Plummer
Jo: That piece around investing is so important, and it works both ways. One of our big mantras is to have the very best talent that we can. We want to attract, develop, retain the very best. They are our guiding principles.
We have our 5-year business plan, and one of the six pillars is 'People and Culture'. It's co-headed by myself and another board member (Richard Nunes). Our team (called the ELT) helps us with identifying those things that mean the most to our employees — the ELT is made up of 10 representatives from our offices around the world. That team helps us to drive forward the projects and changes that are needed, or that we've heard about from our employees.
One of those project areas, that has been a big focus for us, is ‘training and development’.
In fact, in our first Great Place To Work survey, which we did in December 2022, we were delighted with our overall scores! However, ‘learning and development’ scored a little lower than the rest of our scores. We took that data (myself, the ELT, and our marketing team) and created a plan for what we needed to do to change the perception about learning and development. As a result of this, within months of the scores being received, we put together a global learning and development team to focus on the professional development of our people. We also brought in support from the Matt Hampson Foundation (which helps us with personal development training). Finally, we created a global ‘One Voice’ Guide, to help ensure the tools are available for our people to continue to grow and develop.
At the following Great Place To Work survey, in December 2024, our survey results showed that the scores around learning and development had not just increased, but they’d gone on to be one of our highest scores!
In addition, during that two-year period, we had six secondments to client sites, 75 internal moves, eight professional qualifications obtained, and 50 promotions; quite some activity for a company 400 strong. I'm delighted to see the results of all that investment really pay off.
And It really shows that using survey data to affect change is really important. Because if you don't deal with what's in front of you, then it's never going to get better.
But we also now need to continue to maintain and enhance that whilst focusing on other areas. Investment in people is not always about being promoted. It's about breadth of learning and improving skills. And we want to make sure we're always facilitating that.
Jo: Yes, we wanted to make sure we were continuing to do what we said we would do; invest in our people. And we felt the best way to do this is to also help people feel rewarded financially for the work that they do.
So, in addition to bonuses, pay rises, and the regular compensation, we have a ‘Kinetic Benefit’ — this is a plan aligned with our Kinetic Business Strategy, where the business puts aside a portion of the profits every year, which is then shared with our employees. An award is made every September, and a third of it is paid out each year over the first three years. And then the next year's award goes on top of that, so one can see how it's like a building block of awards. By the time you get into year two and year three, you've got quite a nice pot built up.
Most importantly, our focus is on retaining our talent for the long term. And apart from the financial awards to our people, the Kinetic Benefit creates a fiscal responsibility within everyone at K2, and people genuinely treat spending K2’s money as if it is their own; with real care and responsibility. And it allows our employees to feel that they are actually making a difference every day, whatever role they're in — and the other great thing about it is that the same % is paid out to everybody; whatever role is performed, whether full time or part time, everyone is treated the same!
Jo: I'd probably start by saying never, ever compromise on the quality of your leaders.
We really do focus on ensuring all our people have the right qualities, including our leaders. We have a very flat structure and everybody interacts with everyone. Actually, if you came into this office, you would have no idea who was a senior leader and who wasn't. We have an open-desk policy — and that includes our CEO and our Board Members. This results in everyone working very closely with each other, creating a culture of transparency, honesty, approachability and collaboration.
Our business is also pretty complex, and sometimes things go wrong; but we have two things we live by strongly: "Because it's personal", and "Embrace failure". We want to create an environment where our people are not afraid to raise something that might be going wrong, and also feel comfortable raising an idea or suggestion that will help us get better. And it works really well at K2!
And our culture is summed up in something we call "K2 Q." The 'Q' doesn't actually stand for anything specific — but it’s an intangible behaviour… people will say, 'Oh yes, he's got K2Q', and it means that person really embraces who we are and what we're doing as a business. We're not perfect. If sometimes somebody maybe isn't demonstrating that 'K2 Q', then we will address it. We don't compromise, and we will work to get people on the right path.
I always say to my teams: never, ever compromise. If you know there's a little bit of a niggle and something's not right, address it. The sooner you address it, the sooner it can be fixed and then we're fine. But little behaviours that aren’t quite right, are like rotten apples in a barrel — it will spread quickly. So it's really important that we continue to focus on being the best we can and not ignoring something in the hope it will go away!
Jo: It really is important!
Our business is built on relationships, and there are genuinely strong relationships between our people. We know we work hard, we push for excellence all the time; always trying to raise the bar in everything that we're doing. So we do try and celebrate and have fun too!
Sometimes there are huge events where we've all gone off somewhere, and sometimes we just say 'Hey, let's shut off at 4:30pm today and just play a few games', or whatever it might be in each individual office.
We also have a K2 Foundation, which supports children in all our office locations. We often do fundraising, such as our Everest base camp climb, cycle rides, marathons, etc. - some of the things can be quite small — it’s just important to stop and take time to celebrate!
We also try to do a full celebration once a year of our Kinetic Business Plan, where we close the offices all at the same time, on the same day, for a whole day, to do team building or social responsibilities. People want to do it. They want to have down time, and it's nice to be able to just celebrate our achievements in a fun and relaxing way!
Jo: Do what you say you're going to do — because as soon as you don't, you lose that trust.
None of us are living in a fairy tale world. Things happen and you may be taken off course and you may not be able to do what you hoped you’d be able to do. But if you communicate it, are honest and transparent, your teams will be happy to go on the journey with you – and you’ll never have to worry that someone doesn't know what's going on.
Another piece of advice I always give is: Don't ask for feedback if you're not going to act upon it. That is worse than not asking for the feedback at all. Great Place To Work, for us, has been so instrumental. Our journey of focusing on our culture and our people can never stop. That's the point. You're never finished. You always need to continue to work at things. Otherwise you will go backwards!
And for all the reasons we've talked about, the major element of our success is our people. So that's why it's so important that we work at it. It's easy to say it, but you've got to work on it. You've got to face those difficult conversations. You've got to take the time and make sure that you do what you say you're going to do every single time. We're human. And people make mistakes. We should be able to say, 'You know, we shouldn't have done it like that. We need to learn from it.' That's all that people want.
Jo: We do! Our employees absolutely comment and talk around what's going on in the business. We have guidelines and policies just to make sure that people are using social media in the right ways, of course, like every company would have. Our employees endorse and post about events that we've done or other fun things.
I think it shows that there is good employee advocacy and that people are enjoying what they're doing, which is a great sign.
Jo: Cuture goes hand in hand with our brand. But it's about starting off with culture — what do you want to be for your people, and what are you looking to achieve? And then to try and build a plan around that.
Our branding has really developed so wonderfully over the last few years. Nick, as the owner and CEO, has been very clear on the direction of what it is we want to be. So every person can talk very concisely around what we are as a company, what our values are, and what our vision is. And I think that really is because that brand is so clear, internally and externally, so we can communicate that really well and consistently
That's the way to start. Those things — great culture and strategy — don't get built overnight. They get built on much work over a long period of time. But having that clear focus is a great start. Take a business plan, for example: it gets launched by companies and then no one remembers the name of it. At K2, we talk about it on a daily basis. It's around our people understanding what we are and us understanding where we want to go... And then it helps to build a journey. It doesn't matter if someone's been here two months or twenty years, they know what we're trying to achieve. That is so important because we're all going in the same direction, the same journey — and together, we’ll get there so much more easily.
Jo: Fortunately for us, this is something that's embedded in our leadership and it’s the forefront of everything we are and everything we do. We make a place for our employees and our culture; our 'People and Culture' pillar is part of our Kinetic business plan and it’s co-headed by two board members. It is always on our leadership and board meetings agenda and gets talked about daily.
Even with multiples business objectives, we make sure that our focus on people and culture is never lost, and that the business is always on the same page.
I recently presented our most recent Trust Index survey results to the board to say, 'These are our focus areas this year. This is where we improved, or stayed the same, and these are the areas we need to focus on' and so on. We set up a plan, the Board agreed to it. And then we implemented it and rolled it out to the business, along with a number of new initiatives. Again, it's about seeing action and accepting that if we don't listen and if we don't make it a priority to listen to our people, we will not have this environment in the future. It isn't something that we're just going to brush under the carpet.
I would say, just keep pushing it, get that buy-in from the people who are influential in your senior leadership, who may think, 'Is that important?'. Show the results of what it means to have good employee advocacy versus not. Because when people start seeing those results, like our client survey results (NPS of 82 equalling world class) and our low turnover, those all have such a positive impact on our business that you just can't ignore because it directly correlates to growth. We win our new business because we have a great reputation in the industry. And we can only deliver service if we have engaged and talented people who love doing what they do.