For many organisations, employee engagement is treated as a complex, academic puzzle solved only by sweeping structural changes and heavy corporate initiatives. But for Registry Trust, a UK-based non-profit organisation, the secret to achieving the highest accolade in workplace culture was far simpler: stripping away the noise, focusing on the basics and giving people their voices back.
The results speak for themselves. After first partnering with Best Companies in 2022, Registry Trust went on a remarkable journey. They earned a 1-star accreditation in their first year, only to see it slip to a "One to Watch" status in 2023. Rather than panicking, the leadership team paused, listened to the data and put a strategy in place that sparked a meteoric rise: returning to 1-star in 2024, hitting 2-star in 2025 and clinching the coveted 3-star “World Class" accreditation in 2026.
"The things that have been put in place in the last three or four years have been quite standard stuff", reflects Sharmin Bokhari, HR Lead at Registry Trust. "Sometimes the small things can make the biggest difference."
Learning from the Dip: The Power of Transparency
A positive culture and great people have always been at the heart of what Registry Trust is all about – with a great blend of tenured, experienced colleagues and new, fresh perspectives ensuring the organisation’s success over the past 40 years.
When Registry Trust experienced an engagement drop-off in 2023, Sharmin was relatively new to the business but, with the support of the wider management team, she quickly diagnosed the issue.
The core challenge was transparency. Early survey data indicated a lack of trust in leadership, with staff feeling a disconnect between what was being said and what was being done. To bridge the gap, Registry Trust introduced regular, transparent communication.
"It’s about doing monthly updates, talking about key things, and explaining where the company is going without overloading them", says Sharmin. "We show them that we need them as individuals to get there."
This commitment to clarity was tested - and proven - during an internal leadership change over the last two years. While executive transitions often destabilise trust, Registry Trust maintained its upward engagement trajectory by keeping an unwavering focus on its core improvement goals and leveraging an internal successor and Executive Team who already understood the company's DNA. The proof is in the data: the organisation's Leadership score saw a massive 21% increase over their baseline and represents continuity of messaging from Board-level down and through the entire organisation.
Aligning Roles with Shared Goals
A highly engaged workplace requires people to understand exactly how their daily tasks feed into the grand design. Registry Trust achieved this through two cornerstone annual events: Kickstart and Connection.
- Kickstart (January): Aligns the entire organisation around the business objectives for the year ahead, celebrates past wins and invites individuals to bring forward their unique skills to help achieve those goals.
- Connection (Mid-Year): Reinforces collaboration across departments. "We discuss how we all connect", says Sharmin. "We are one organisation with shared goals. We can't work in isolation; we have to collaborate to achieve."
To solidify this culture of unity, Registry Trust restructured its reward mechanisms. They moved away from purely individualised bonuses to a collective system. When the business succeeds and employees deliver against their individual objectives, everyone shares in that success, fostering a genuine spirit of partnership and shared achievement.
Unleashing Growth and Prioritising Wellbeing
Two of the most striking triumphs in Registry Trust’s 2026 data are its scores in Personal Growth (up 14%) and Wellbeing (up 11%), both pacing significantly ahead of the non-profit sector averages.
As a non-profit, Registry Trust manages any surpluses carefully, choosing to reinvest heavily back into key areas; its people, data security, and technology improvements to name a few. Sharmin prioritises allocation of a robust budget for professional training courses for individuals, but she also looks at development through a wider lens incorporating collective training that meets not only our current priorities, but Registry Trusts future strategics aims. The company introduced cross-departmental work shadowing, allowing an employee in an administrative role with an interest in finance, for instance, to dive into real financial projects and map out a tangible career pathway.
On the wellbeing front, Sharmin tackled historical feedback regarding employees feeling unheard by establishing the Employee Engagement Committee (EEC).
The EEC became a direct vehicle for staff to pioneer their own workplace initiatives, ranging from in-office massages to monthly all-staff social events designed to protect their culture in a hybrid world where teams work together face-to-face in the office once a week.
Crucially, the organisation upskilled and engaged line managers to lead with empathy. Standardised, rigid monthly check-ins were replaced by meaningful, trusted one-to-ones. Managers now focus heavily on the whole person, offering flexible support for challenges both inside and outside of work. The strategy paid off beautifully, resulting in a 12% spike in the My Manager metric.
“An engaged and supportive leadership team are key to driving positive change across the whole organisation”, says Sharmin. “Ensuring every colleague has the support they need to be happy and successful in their role."
Reconnecting with the Community
For an organisation whose daily work is inherently tied to public interest, giving back remained a core pillar. When data revealed an opportunity to do more for the community, Registry Trust responded by introducing a paid volunteer day for every employee. Proving the staff's appetite for social impact, the initiative has seen an impressive uptake of over 50%.
Additionally, the company hosts an annual all-staff volunteering project, partnering with local organisations like Groundwork on environmental and garden initiatives, and offers corporate match-funding for individual employee fundraising and bake sales.
While tracking individual metrics like employee perception of giving back to the community is vital, the true turning point for the leadership team came when they learned to step back and connect their data insights into a unified strategy.
Seeing the Bigger Picture: The Power of Data Insights
For any HR leader, staring at survey data can easily feel overwhelming. Rather than letting the team get lost in charts and heatmaps, Registry Trust utilised Best Companies’ tailored data walkthroughs to find their focus.
"It’s useful for someone to actually talk through", Sharmin notes. "Sometimes, without that data walkthrough, you get so honed in on the smaller details and you kind of miss the bigger picture. It helped me realise where we actually did really well, rather than just worrying about minor pain points."
Crucially, these interactive sessions aren't just for HR; Registry Trust’s entire senior management team participates in the presentations. This collaborative approach takes the burden off HR to disseminate complex data in isolation and ensures the leadership team is entirely aligned on the strategy. Following these sessions, the insights are shared with the Board and across the wider organisation - proving to employees that their feedback is directly driving change.
The Road to World-Class
By treating the Best Companies data not as a report card, but as an actionable blueprint, Registry Trust’s senior management team has successfully unlocked a world-class environment.
For other organisations looking to move the needle on engagement during challenging economic times, Sharmin’s advice remains anchored in that trademark simplicity:
"Take a step back, don't overcomplicate it, and look at it through a HR lens to see what knowledge or foundational support might be missing. Listen to your people, do the basic things right and the stars will follow."
“We have taken the time to understand the organisation and its people, to leverage its considerable strengths and identify the simple steps that can make this an even better place to work. Connection across the Board, leadership team, and wider colleagues is strong and we have worked hard to attract, develop, and retain a diverse team which makes for a more inclusive workplace.”
“We’ve built trust by listening to the feedback and taking action, showing that every colleague’s voice matters. Our 100% survey completion rate is testament to this approach.”
