PEOPLE FEEL THEIR voices are heard at this IT firm, which helps its customers run call centres. This new entry to our list of top 100 Best Small Companies offers all 121 employees share options, making them feel they can make a valuable contribution to its success (a top-10 positive score of 93%) for this question. Chief executive Jonathan Gale won venture-capital funding for the private business in 2010, and it has since hired and expanded at a great rate. It supports 200 clients globally, providing everything they need to interact with their customers over the phone: call routing, queuing, monitoring and real-time data recording. Systems are cloud-based, and the firm “wraps” them round customer data rather than owning it. Its services, built entirely inhouse, now help customers in 40 countries on five continents. Since 2011, the organisation's mission has been to become the global leader in the provision of enterprise-class cloud contact-centre technology.The firm is based in Basingstoke, Hampshire, with another office in London. About two-fifths of employees joined in the past year, and a collaboration tool called Chatter keeps everyone updated, including new faces and people away on maternity leave. There is a general ethos that employees are able to take time off during family emergencies, illness or school commitments to relieve pressure and provide support. Any fathers among them also know that asking for such time is not frowned upon and does not reflect negatively on them. Personal Growth is the strongest area of working life (with a top-25 factor score of 84%). Software developers, the typical role, earn about £45,000 a year and rarely get bored (83%), thanks to the firm's commitment to write all its code. Employees have an average age of 35, all work full-time or compressed hours, and are expected to spend a day a month learning something new, with the help of an annual training budget of about £500 a head. Everyone comes together for ShipIt days, which are chances to design, build and test ideas before presenting them to the team. This kind of event is valuable experience for the future (90%), which feels like a positive one (87%). The firm anticipates further growth. There's a quarterly off-site briefing on targets and focus, monthly inductions, and a ski trip to Verbier in Switzerland to reward employees for outstanding contributions. People feel excited about where NewVoiceMedia is going (94%), and wouldn't leave tomorrow even if they had another job on offer (87%). www.newvoicemedia.com
