First Central's a top 5 Achiever on the 2023 list of the UK’s Best Workplaces in Financial Services and Insurance™
Great Place to Work® (GPTW), the global authority on workplace culture and practice, announced our success in the Super Large Organisations category this morning. We’re thrilled! As we celebrate our 15th anniversary this year and reflect on the significant achievements we’ve enjoyed as we’ve evolved, this is a wonderful accolade. It comes after our gratifying results in GPTW’s overall UK survey as well as ranking a well-deserved 7th in the Wellbeing list and receiving 9th place for Women. It’s been a remarkable year.
GPTW carries out a thorough, research-backed Trust Index© survey to ask UK-based people about their experiences at work. It then analyses the responses of financial services and insurance employees to determine this Best Workplaces™ list. There are hundreds of questions, covering all areas of the organisation’s operations including strategic insight, flexible working, continuous improvement and change management. Comparing survey outcomes with a culture audit each company submits, GPTW can thoroughly analyse how employers’ perceptions of their offering matches up to their peoples’ reality at work.
The good news is GPTW’s findings mirrored our colleagues’ encouraging words: First Central looks after its people, its business and the future. We’re constantly looking to improve, and our people work together to give our customers and each other good outcomes. We’re truly committed to fairness for all, this award underlining the huge progress we’re making towards gender equality in the traditionally male-dominated financial sector.
Our Chief People Officer, Jo McGowan said: “This is a fantastic endorsement of our culture. It reflects the huge commitment we’ve made to building an engaged, thriving community where we reward ideas and nurture talent in all its varieties. Our people are key to our success. Every person, wherever they are, has a significant role to play and everyone’s proud of their contribution. This GPTW recognition means a lot because the award’s based on colleague feedback.”
The colleague experience is fundamental to First Central’s strategy; we work hard to make it exceptional. We also strive to be the team our customers and partners most recommend. We use our data ingenuity, our agility and our continuous improvement mindset to make sure every experience anyone has with us is the best it can be. 86% of our people agreed First Central's colleague experience is great compared to the 54% rating achieved by a typical UK-based company.
Michael Lee, First Central’s CEO, observed: "2023 is an exciting year for us as we celebrate our 15th anniversary. We’ve grown quickly since 2008 and fulfilled significant financial ambitions. At the same time we’ve always maintained our integrity, never forgetting our talented people embody our values, embrace our strategic vision and inform our accomplishments. We’re in a strong position and I’m grateful our exceptional culture’s been rewarded.”
Benedict Gautrey, Managing Director of Great Place to Work® UK said: “The Best Workplaces in Financial Services and Insurance™ list is created using the anonymous feedback from employees working in the industry about their workplace experience.
“Through our analysis of the 2023 UK’s Best Workplaces in Financial Services & Insurance™ data it’s clear to see that, overall, the firms in this sector have overwhelmingly responded to their employees’ desires for learning and growth opportunities whilst also prioritising people’s wellbeing and job satisfaction alongside business performance. It’s great to see so many examples of organisations making their workplaces truly ‘great’. A huge congratulations to First Central for making one of our most prestigious lists.”
