Flexa

Why Employees Love Impression

25th Feb 2022

Building an open, ambitious and inspiring workplace culture at one of 2022's most flexible digital marketing agencies.

"We continue to push boundaries, challenge ourselves, and strive to be better – both as individuals and as an organisation. We are people who uplift and support one another, and we provide opportunities for growth and development within our teams."

What's it like to work at Impression?

Right from the start, we’ve tried hard to make Impression a great place to work. And so far, so good – we’re really proud of the workplace and the culture we’ve created. We work hard, we learn a lot, and we have fun doing it.

We’re flexible workplace when it comes to things like working hours and holidays, and we do everything we can to make sure every member of the team feels happy and supported in their role.

As a member of our team, you’ll have the opportunity to work with some of the most exciting and ambitious brands around. You’ll use industry-leading digital marketing tools, explore new approaches and technologies and work with us to deliver the best possible results and most meaningful insights to our clients.

Our people are ambitious, and we want everyone here to feel happy that their career is going in the direction they want it to. To help people take control of their own development, we’re transparent about salary bandings, job descriptions and what’s needed to progress to each role.

We hold quarterly reviews and use the objectives and key results (OKR) methodology to help people define and achieve their objectives. We invest in a huge amount of internal training and have an additional training budget for each member of the team.

Our culture

We’re an ambitious team and we’re committed to being the best at what we do.

We work hard, we’re hungry to learn and we’re driven to continually improve and add value wherever we can. But we also know how important it is to step away from the desk from time to time. We choose and design our open-plan offices with lots of breakout spaces and areas to help you relax and unwind, as well as collaborate more effectively. For example, you’ll often hear people chatting about their projects and talking through any problems over a game of ping pong.

If you want to get away from your usual desk there are standing desks and sofas as well as other quieter spaces. This can be really handy if you want to get your head down with your headphones in for a couple of hours or need a change of scenery to help you refocus.

If you have any concerns or issues, at work or at home, there are plenty of sources of support available. These range from our 24-hour employee assistance programme to our Head of People, Zoë.

Our way of working

We believe that a hybrid approach to working unlocks greater productivity for our people and our business.

We balance the use of virtual, face to face and hybrid meetings with great success. Depending on your schedule and your role, you might choose to be in the office full time, or just a few days a week, our hybrid working approach supports everyone to work flexibly in a way that works for them. All our IT support is remote and we can help you kit out your workspace with Impression hardware. As long as it works for the business and our teams, we will empower you to work in an environment that best suits the activity.

That being said, our offices will remain an integral part of our work life. The role of our offices and the way they are designed will be more important than ever to enable collaboration, relationship building and connectivity to our culture. Both of our offices occupy hot desks to promote collaboration amongst teams and also cross-functionally.

Download our ways of working charter to learn more about our approach.

Pathway to success

We help you progress and develop your skills by putting in place the right stepping stones.

We want rising talent to stay with us and grow with us. We’ve got stacks of opportunities for you, if you want to explore them! That’s why we’ve created a clear Continuous Performance Management (CPM) framework designed to create transparency for those who want to progress and push to the next level.

Our CPM framework has been developed to show:

  • Clearly defined job progression levels across the organisation
  • Pathways for progression
  • What someone has to do to progress to the next level

Each job role has clearly defined expectations, and quarterly reviews allow for progression through levels, which are linked to transparent salary bandings, visible to everyone who works here

If you would like to learn more about how progression works at Impression, you can always ask to see our CPM Framework during your interview.

How we’ll support you

Work isn’t everything. Life outside of Impression is just as important to us.

Life can have a funny way of throwing unexpected surprises at us. So when curveballs or challenges come your way (even if they’re planned) we want you to know that we’re here to support and to do what we can to make your journey that little bit easier.

We have an extensive list of policies designed to support your health and wellbeing in and outside of work, these include:

Life Leave

Whether you’re dealing with a flooded kitchen, waiting for a mechanic at the side of the road or you need to support a family member with something important like going with them to a medical appointment, we’ve got you covered.

We provide the opportunity to take paid ‘Life’ days as and when you need them. They’re in addition and separate to your holiday days and are discretionary.

Enhanced Sick Pay

If you can’t come to work because you’re ill, you need to let us know so that we can support you and ensure your team can handle things in your absence, where appropriate.

Alongside statutory sick pay (SSP), we also support you with enhanced company sick pay, which includes your full salary for the first 40 days in any 12 month period and half salary for the next 40 days in any 12 month period (inclusive of any SSP due).

Pregnancy Loss

We recognise that pregnancy loss is a type of bereavement and want to ensure that affected colleagues get the support they need, including at least 1 week’s full paid leave to any colleague who experiences themselves (or alongside their partner or surrogate) pregnancy loss through miscarriage or termination of pregnancy.

Sadly, we know that pregnancy loss is more common than we think. As a result, there’s no limit under this policy.

Additional leave policies

If you would like further, comprehensive information about our range of policies (including Agile Working) at Impression, please contact our Head of People, Zoë.

Maternal / Pregnant Leave

As a pregnant parent, colleagues can take up to 52 weeks leave with full salary for the first 8 weeks and half salary for the next 8 weeks (inclusive of any statutory sick pay). This also includes paid time off to attend antenatal appointments.

This policy applies no matter how long you’ve worked here or how many hours you work.

Paternal / Non-Pregnant Leave

On the birth of a child, colleagues are entitled to paternity/non-pregnant parent leave with 2 weeks full salary including paid time off to attend up to two antenatal appointments.

Adoption Leave

In an adoption case or a fostering for adoption case, adoption leave is available for up to 52 weeks, including 4 weeks full salary paid leave.

Shared Leave (Including Adoption)

Shared parental leave provides flexibility to share the care of a new child with a child’s other parent during the child’s first year.

If both parents are eligible, they will be able to choose how to split the available leave and can decide to be off work at the same time or at different times.

Compassionate Leave

Losing someone close to you or learning that they’re seriously ill can be very difficult, so we want everyone to ask for the support they need and will always handle things as sensitively as possible.

Time off is the least we can do. But we’d like to go further than this, so colleagues are able to talk to their managers about what’s happened and agree what kind of support they need, including any paid leave.

Parental bereavement leave

We’ll give any parent who loses a child under 18 at least 2 weeks’ full paid leave – it doesn’t matter how long you’ve been with us.

This includes colleagues who experience a still-birth from 24 weeks, adoptive parents, foster parents, intended parents under a surrogacy agreement and anyone who looks after a child day-to-day.

Emergency leave

If something unexpected has happened that means a colleague needs to leave work to support a loved one, they are encourage to speak with their manager as soon as they can.

Emergency time off is usually for no more than a day - if you need a little longer to make arrangements for the support you need, further discussions with your manager can be had.

Our employer awards

Don’t just take our word for it, ask many of our colleagues who have helped us achieve fantastic awards for being a great employer.

Flexa verified

Flexa verifies truly flexible workplaces so that individuals looking for a genuinely flexible place to work can learn more about the companies offering that and the roles available. The Flexa accreditation is only awarded following an anonymous internal employee survey. In 2022 we placed 31st on Flexa’s ‘Flexa100’ list which includes the top 100 flexible companies to work for, hitting a flexible employer score of 92 out of 100!

Great Place To Work Certified UK Nov 2021 - Nov 2022

The Great Place To Work certification is based on direct feedback from employees, provided as part of an extensive and anonymous survey about the workplace experience across five dimensions: credibility, respect, fairness, pride, camaraderie. It is the largest survey conducted in the world in the field of corporate culture.

Just one last thing...

On a less serious note, take a look at our hilarious behind-the-scenes bloopers of our ‘Working at Impression‘ video below!
If you'd like to learn more about Impression and their approach to flexible working, or if you'd like to browse their latest opportunities, check out their Flexa Company page!