Time Top 100 Companies to Work for 2010
Every Christmas Eve, people from Market Makers abandon their telephones to volunteer in a kitchen making festive dinners for the homeless. This is just one way in which the telemarketing and telesales agency helps its local community in Portsmouth, and the 71 employees give it a positive score of 75% for its efforts.
There are regular dress down days to raise money for good causes, while one team entered a dragon boat race last year to raise money for the firm’s nominated charity, the Anthony Nolan trust.
Paul Thomas and Henry Brathwaite, managing director and the operations director who founded the firm in 2004, offer their services to mentor students at the University of Portsmouth, while the company matches staff fundraising efforts.
Every month the directors give everyone an update on what is happening across the organisation, including sales figures and new work won. They also have individual discussions with employees to talk about their roles and ideas for the business, and are available to answer any questions all year round.
The firm gets its best scores for the sense of Wellbeing its people feel (an overall result of 76%). They don’t suffer from work-related stress (88%) or find work interferes with responsibilities at home (84%) – both top five results.
Market Makers offers everything from stop smoking therapy sessions to yoga and five-a-side football to help people stay fit. Employees themselves say their health doesn’t suffer because of work (90%). Senior managers truly live the values of the firm (87%) and people have confidence in their leadership (88%). They also regularly show appreciation for a good job done (85%).
People have a lot of fun with their teams (89%) and get a buzz out of working together (81%).
