Daemon named one of the best medium companies to work for by the Sunday Times.

We believe in creating an environment that brings out the best in our employees. Our culture is a key part of our ethos. So we’re very proud to announce that we’ve been named one of the best medium organisations in the Sunday Times Best Places to Work list 2024. 

This comes just a few months after Best Companies named us one of the UK’s 25 best technology companies, and one of the 100 best mid-sized companies across all sectors. All three lists are based on staff surveys, making them a great way to gauge employee engagement. 

We’re thrilled by the results but we’re not resting on our laurels. Building a workplace culture is an ongoing process, and there’s still plenty of room for improvement. Here’s why Daemon is a great place to work, and how we’re planning to make it even better. 

Read more: How Daemon is designed to be an amazing workplace

A ringing endorsement

The Sunday Times defines a medium organisation as one with 50-249 employees. To be eligible for the list, at least 50% of these employees need to complete a survey of 26 questions. Based on their answers, a company needs to score at least 70% engagement in each of the following areas:

• Pride
• Information sharing
• Job satisfaction
• Trust 
• Empowerment
• Wellbeing

We’re happy to say we passed with flying colours, with the Sunday Times praising several of our initiatives in particular:

“(Daemon)... makes its 130 staff feel part of the team with regular team lunches, a summer festival and parties. Personal development plans, a career trajectory and bi-monthly meetings with managers help employees track progression and spot opportunities for development. They also have flexible working, private healthcare, dental cover and 25 days’ annual leave.” 

Our Head of People, Jenny Locke, on how Daemon puts employee wellbeing at the top of the agenda

People-focused and culture-driven 

Our inclusion in the list didn’t happen by accident. The direction of our business is guided by five North Star ambitions. These are the basic principles by which we judge our success, and two are particularly relevant when it comes to the wellbeing of our staff:

People- We want to become the employer of choice for those working in our industry 

Culture- We want to turn every employee into an ambassador by being an amazing place to work

With these goals in mind, we’ve made a concerted effort to become as employee-friendly as possible. We’ve appointed a Head of People, Jenny Locke, and assigned every Daemonite their own people manager. As Jenny explains, this has allowed us to prioritise mental health in a unique way:

“Every Daemoite has a mandatory bi-monthly meeting with their people manager. This manager is usually not involved in their current project so can act as a neutral party, assessing their workload purely through the wellbeing lens. This meeting also includes questions about other colleagues' wellbeing, helping us spot warning signs at an earlier stage.  As far as I know, we’re the only company that insists on this kind of feedback.” 

Connect with Jenny on LinkedIn

Career development is another area in which we break the mould. We make a point of giving new Daemonites the widest possible range of experience, allowing them to discover what they’re really passionate about before deciding where to specialise. Our Head of Talent, Chris McKenzie explains how this works:

“Our approach to client engagement is designed to give new recruits as much experience as possible in a short space of time. They will have the opportunity to upskill, to try new technologies, to take on different challenges, and to work with different people from different parts of the business. It’s a crash course in all things Daemon, and it’s one of the things that makes us unique.”

Connect with Chris on LinkedIn

Plenty more to come

We’re proud of the workplace we’ve built, but we’re by no means finished. We want change to come from the bottom up, and this is where our working groups come in. These are small teams of employees tasked with improving a particular aspect of company life- be it diversity and inclusion, wellbeing or charity. 

From step challenges to grief awareness seminars, many of our most popular initiatives started life in these groups. In the coming months, we’ll continue to look to our employees for inspiration because, as Jenny points out, they are the most important part of the business:

“Daemon has a “People First” philosophy. A business is made up of individuals and, if you want to succeed, every one of these individuals needs to be thriving.”

We’re always keen to enrich our culture by recruiting the best new talent. If that sounds like you, take a look at our careers page to see what’s on offer.