What is it that gives a company its identity? For some, it is the clients it has on its books; for others, the leverage it has within the sphere of thought leadership. For K2, it is ‘Q’.
What is Q?
To put it simply, Q is K2’s soul. It is the way in which we invest in our people through training programmes and reward and recognition schemes. It is the emphasis that we place on protecting and enriching our culture through astute hiring and employee events. And it is the effort that we make to maintain and increase connectivity between our twelve offices through collaborative work and the use of MILO. Q makes us both a family and a Great Place To Work®; without it, we wouldn’t be able to deliver on our ethos of ‘Because it’s personal’.
Our people offer further explanation:
“Q is a quality that is very difficult to define because it manifests itself differently in each member of the K2 family. It is commitment, passion, fearlessness, kindness, friendship, stoicism, openness, understanding and selflessness, to name just a few. It is something as small as a colleague who makes you a hot chocolate to help you push through a tough afternoon, and something as big as a manager who values your success above their own.” Nick Plummer, CEO
“It’s hard to capture the true culture of any company and put it into words. We stopped trying – we simply called it Q, and when you know, you know. Joining us won’t teach you Q; it’s something you’ll already have. But when you arrive, it’ll flourish.” James Marshall, Global Marketing Director
“Q is the complete absence of ego in the team when it comes to getting a project over the line. Everyone pulling together to hit that deadline, accepting each other’s support and ensuring that credit is equally shared because we all worked equally hard.” Guy Hadlow, Graphic Designer
What is the power of Q?
The power of Q can be felt both internally and externally. As mentioned above, Q is what makes K2 employees a family as opposed to a workforce – as one employee commented in the Great Place To Work® survey, “The culture doesn’t feel forced; it genuinely feels like a second family.” But the impact of Q isn’t felt only internally. Q characterises everything that we do, from the way that we collaborate with our partners to the way that we provide our clients with a uniquely personal service offering. Therefore, everybody that we engage with feels the benefit of working with a team that is committed to going above and beyond, every single time.
How do we celebrate Q?
We celebrate Q through a quarterly reward and recognition programme. Each quarter, employees are encouraged to nominate colleagues for a Q Award, which recognises the contribution that they have made or are making to K2’s culture. Once the nomination window has closed, the Executive Leadership Team select one global winner and nine regional winners from across K2’s twelve offices. Each winner receives a monetary prize to expense on an activity of their choosing.
Winners are encouraged to choose an activity which helps to support their wellbeing – a class of some sort, a spa package or an experience day, for example. Wellbeing is a big part of the K2 culture, sitting front and centre within the People & Culture pillar of KINETIC, our current strategic business plan. Reward and recognition initiatives enable us to show our people just how much we value them – as we stated on Employee Recognition Day last week, “We truly believe that our people are our greatest asset.” As the latest addition to K2’s reward and recognition offering, the Q Awards provide us with a unique way of proving this.
