PEOPLE ARE ON cloud nine at this cloud computing company, the UK's best small company to work for. Cloudreach's mission is simple: “Make it happen.” Its 54 employees have voted it No 1 in its first year of entering the competition, with top scores in 25 out of our 70 questions. The London-based private firm, founded in 2009, helps businesses such as Liverpool football club and the Kempinski hotel group to move their systems and data to remote cloud by Amazon Web provision and Google. Henry Bell, the company's systems developer, explains: “It's such a new field, it's different from traditional IT firms. People are growing their skills, it's younger and friendlier and you don't have to work with a lot of inertia. We are not supporting a 20-year-old bit of software, but the Google and Amazon cloud.” People feel excited about where the organisation is going, scoring 98% positive, at the top of our list and the firm's best result. The company has doubled its staff numbers every seven months, and 29 new people started in the past year. The firm comes first in five of our factors covering all aspects of working life, and scores highest for Leadership (96%). It is led by the charismatic co-founders Pontus Noren and James Monico, who were advised by a founder of Google to “make your company a great place to work”. “People come to work for a company, not for a salary only,” says Noren. “They are looking for a place where they are happy, fulfilled, part of something exciting, and where people care.” Cloudreach wins our special award for Best Leader this year. One of their more unusual approaches is to simplify job titles. “In our management team and the rest of the business, we feel strongly about managing the political side to create a genuine meritocracy,” explains Monico. There are no “senior” or “junior” positions, says Noren, who is Swedish: “It creates almost stigma and false aspirations. People start chasing a title for the title's sake. We don't run a Swedish social system where everyone has the same salary. Salaries are set according to the value to the business, but otherwise the title is scrapped.” People feel they are fairly treated (95%, the top score) and are confident in their leaders, who truly live the company values (both 97%). Employees defined the firm's core values themselves: to respect the individual; promote personal growth; be easy to work with and to stay one step ahead — and now the business is run on these principles (97%). Last year everyone went to Lisbon for a “kickoff” meeting over a long weekend, and four awards were given to staff who were voted to have lived up to the values best. Christine Geocaniga, a project manager from the Philippines, values the freedom here. “They say: get your work done, be as efficient as possible, and go home,” she says. “There's diversity in terms of nationality and we have 16 or 17 spoken languages. There are people who are engineers but who have worked with cows, and I have this solid project-management experience but I do wedding planning on the side.” The firm spends more than £1,800 a year on each person's training, supporting more than half of the staff to take work-related qualifications. Four times a year the company holds Skunkworx, an extra day off to work on anything creative such as software that might benefit the firm. There is also a “builders' prize” for designing a physical object using 3D printers. There are breakfasts in the company kitchen every day, and “Cloudy lunches” to explore the nearby London restaurants (and those close to the Edinburgh office). Everyone has share options, which must help them to see a positive future here (97%).