J.R.R. Tolkein
When you walk in and the first thing you see is this sign...you know there is an interesting work culture.
Today's tour was at Innocent Drinks. I first heard about ID when I was doing research for the first Organizational Communication class I taught in England 6 years ago. ID is always on the Top 100 Companies to Work for list and I was intrigued. When I took students last time, it was smaller and had just been bought out by Coca Cola. Innocent Drinks was the only beverage company who had a contract for the London Olympics and as you can guess, they caught the attention of beverage giants. Like all good managers and buyers, CC saw what ID had was pretty amazing and didn't impose any changes...why break what is working, right? So, there is no visible sign of CC's involvement in the company and I was so glad to see that even though they have moved to a larger setting, the unique and quirky company culture has remained.
I had been communicating with Katie L (People's Champion) and as you can tell just by her title, it is a company that cares very much about their customers. We signed in, made name tags and I gave myself a title:
The banana phone still exists. You can call the number to Innocent Drinks and someone will answer or get back to you. All employees have this line and you could call 10 times in one day and get a different person...all willing to talk to you about Innocent Drinks.
As you can imagine, fruit themes are popular here. Check out this bench.
We were welcomed to select a beverage from the cooler before and after our tour. I selected pomegranates, blueberry açaí and it was delicious! As in Europe, fruit juices are everywhere and Innocent Drinks have very perishable drinks...no additives of any kind...just fruit.
One of the big initiatives that ID is working on now is a plant based product for bottles. Almost all of ID's bottles are made up of 50% recyclable material and because the product is so pure, it has to be contained in a good container. Also, when ID tried boxes, customers complained that they wanted to see the product. Use of glass has a bigger carbon footprint than plastic and plastic is easily and affordably recyclable here in the UK. Straws will be banned in 2020 so efforts to identify other ways to get kids drinks packaged is also important. Everywhere we have been in the UK has paper straws already.
When you walk in, the first thing you notice is the large kitchen filled with stack of eggs, smells of coffee and people getting their brekkie.
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| That is a large stack of eggs!!! And this kitchen is filled with toast, cereal and all kinds of materials for employee breakfast, lunch and snacks. |
When you walk in, there is a large bin filled with packages and as we stood there listening to Katie L, a young woman (Front Desk Princess) brought in a huge bag of new mail. Back early in ID's beginnings, fans would knit small hats for the bottles. This turned into the concept that would begin a huge charity function: The Big Knit. When asked to knit these mini-hats, the company puts them on bottles and sells them. For each one sold, they donate 25p to Age UK. Since 2003 they have raised over 2.5 million for this charity.
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| That's a lot of hats!! |
For you knitters out there, follow this link for patterns, and more info on The Big Knit:
Also, here is the best of the best!! I wish I could knit!
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| Lego Wall...for when you get bored or need inspiration. Check out the Tardis and of course, the Innocent Drinks logo. |
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| Space is always a problem. There are private, quiet, closed in spaces to take a meeting or work quietly. |
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| Even the vans look natural! Astroturf is part of all the flooring at ID. |
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| As you walk up the stairs, a timeline of the organizations landmark events is displayed and ALWAYS, there is a sense of that wonderful English/British sense of humor and snark. |
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| ID says they don't have an official Mission Statement, but if they did, this would be it. |
This wall of labels is created when people leave Innocent Drinks employment. They receive a gold bottle and get to put their personalize label on the wall. A good sign of a fabulous organization is when they celebrate their employees moving on.
In addition, they have created a wall of employees who have left the company and become entrepreneurs.
To go with the natural and fun vibe, these lights are on every floor. When the light comes on, the employees can open the windows and let in some fresh air. All is coordinated with the heating/air folks.
Other quirky workplace artifacts include:
Every year, the employees are ALL sent on a retreat. On this year, the company wasn't making very much money and yet they still did their environmental and camped. This year, they all went to Portugal!!
Overall, a perfect place to visit when studying organizational culture and free drinks too! Thanks Innocent Drinks!
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