Today is #EmployeeAppreciationDay so we spoke to our CEO, John Callachan about our workforce at DDC OS. Here’s what he said:
Any of us working here at DDC OS know how passionate you are about our people, tell us why?
Our employees are the difference between success and failure, to say they are crucial to the success of the business would be an understatement. Over the years of growth for our business, it is these people; those that we employee, their behaviours and how they set standards for one another that drives us.
I would say our employees are the lifeblood of our business, people make it worth getting up in the morning to go to work which is so important, especially as we spend most of our lives working. They deliver for us, they help us grow; for me people are everything and they are absolutely the most important part of our business.
What values do you think the employees bring to the company?
We recently reviewed our business values, and this process involved every single person in our business at the time. That’s so important because in a people-centric business like ours, it’s down to our team to deliver those business values, especially those such as excellence, integrity and respect.
We spend so much time at work, but our employees are a support to one another through the good and bad days and our people led business carries each other forward even through difficult times as we have experienced more recently.
What makes our employees different to other companies?
We don’t like to compare people against others, however we have a great family culture within DDC OS, the people that join us and stay, share those same values and ethos that the company has; which I hope stands us head and shoulders above other businesses that focus solely on the business outputs. The spirit among our colleagues is what makes us different; the employees have fun, commonality, and shared values with one another which makes them want to work together as a community.
What do you appreciate about the team the most?
Inspiration. I hope that I, and other people within our business, inspire; I know that I am inspired by people in our team. Our team make us want to be better people and give each other aspirations, for example one of our employees, Lesley; I don’t understand how her body carries her heart, it’s so big! She is always fundraising, volunteering, raising awareness for something – she always wants to help everybody with everything. How can you not be inspired by that?!
One of our values is Respect, recognising that our differences are what drive the success of the business. I have the utmost respect for our team. I have worked on and off with some of them for going on 20 years and every day they inspire me and keep me going. Just when you think our team can’t do any better, they take us by surprise, and they deliver even more. We have all sorts of people within the company each with their own personalities and traits and I appreciate that we are always inspiring one another to be the best version of ourselves and that’s the value within a team.
Describe our people in 3 words…
With my CEO, business hat on I would say Mentoring, Innovative and Professional are the keys words all of our employees epitomise. However, my human / colleague answer would be Courageous, Determined and Funny. These words are truly the key words that spring to mind when thinking about our employees and although this isn’t a particularly corporate answer, without these key characteristics I don’t believe that the other elements of our people’s personalities would be as successful. We are all human, we aren’t robots and when we show these characteristics to one another, we work together better, and it makes us more personable as a company. Fun is another one of our values; we must have a laugh… even if it is at my expense! We are all about team camaraderie.
To find out more about our business values, visit our Careers page
