Victoria Smith, executive coordinator at Cleveland & Co Associates Limited, explains why Emma Cleveland should win the Leader of the Year category of the Guardian Small Business Showcase competition:
Emma has two young children and so understands the issues of juggling a young family and work. She has offered me a flexible working arrangement whereby I can work from home and my hours are spread out across the week, so I can take and pick my daughter up from school. For those employees that work full time, Emma offers the incentive of a four-day week for hard work.
Emma wants to share the financial successes of the business with all employees and there are several ways that employees can benefit financially from bringing in new clients – for example, every time an employee engages a new client for a one-off piece of work, they are paid 10% of any profit made.
She runs her business very democratically and strives to operate a flat structure, whereby all employees are equal and job titles are avoided. All employees are encouraged to interview any new potential employees to ensure that they are the right fit for the business.
Emma is keen to communicate openly with her employees and always keeps us informed of business plans and changes. Employees are asked to contribute and become involved in key business decisions. When we were rebranding, we were asked what the business should be called and what qualities we wanted to focus on.
I believe that Emma is a fantastic example of a forward-thinking boss who values her employees and the contributions they make to the success of the business.
All entries which meet the competition criteria are published and our judging panel select a shortlist of the top three for each category. Winners are announced at an awards ceremony in summer 2016.
