Brandwatch: One of the World’s Most Democratic Workplaces

This week, the WorldBlu Most Democratic Workplaces 2013 list was revealed and we’re pleased to say that Brandwatch have made the list.

The WorldBlu List aims to highlight organisations that offer their employees a free and democratic work environment.

The awards are based on a survey process, completed by an organisation’s employees, which evaluates an organisation along a ‘fear-based to freedom-centered continuum’ based on the WorldBlu 10 Principles of Organisational Democracy. Those who score 3.5 or higher out of 5 become certified.

51 organisations made the list this year, including many neighbours of our Brighton headquarters such as Propellernet and NixonMcinnes.

We’re chuffed to be on the list rubbing shoulders with some amazing organisations from all over the world across a range of industries such as technology, manufacturing, retail and services. The list includes organisations of 5 to 50,000 employees and is comprised of public, private, non-profit and educational institutions.

Here at Brandwatch, we certainly like to highlight the importance of freedom, democracy, equality and fun in the workplace. The WorldBlu list highlights our principle of Choice, using the example of our Funky Fridays initiative:

Every other Friday the product development team choose what they work on and who they work with, often researching new areas of interest or emerging technologies, personal project or ways they can improve their products which aren’t on their roadmap. At the end of the day the team gets together with the remote offices by video conference and have a show-and-tell, complete with clapping and laughter. As a result, over 20 Funky Friday projects have made it into the Brandwatch platform in the last year.

We are definitely a happy bunch here, with our every need catered for in the form of free drinks and snacks, Friday pastries, table football and social events.

Of course, it’s not just about the perks – Brandwatch is an environment where everyone has a voice and where collaboration, team work, individuality and new ideas are encouraged.

We’re expanding fast in multiple countries and the careful selection of new members means we are one big happy unified team (ok, ok, we’ll stop swooning now).

Our CEO, Giles Palmer, says:

“The Culture of Brandwatch is one of our crown jewels. But rather than lock it in a cabinet deep inside the internal vaults, we wear it on our sleeves. We prod it and poke it and worry that we aren’t working hard enough to evolve it; for us, and for all future Brandwatchers. We want every employee to benefit from our belief that together we can build products to help our customers, whilst also building a business that champions mutual respect, compassion and equity. Highfalutin words for sure, but if you don’t have lofty aspirations, why bother?”

Want to join the team? We’re hiring.