About Access Group

The Senior Leadership Team live and breathe the values of Access and everything they do is driven by this approach. They define the culture and lead by example in how Access should behave at work, as well as how the values drive the success of the company. From presentations, how they talk and behave in the workplace to how they work with customers and suppliers, the Senior Management Team lead by example and ensure the values are in the DNA of all that they do. Chris Bayne is a very open and approachable CEO. He takes the time to talk to everyone, no matter who they are or what job they do. When he is in any of Access’ offices he walks around talking to people, finding out what they’re doing and generally making every employee feel important. He is also open to suggestions from staff and is keen to engage, discuss and involve everyone. The CEO is very good at talking to people on their level and there is no air of superiority, just someone who wants everyone to achieve. Access has introduced both the Technical Academy for the development, support and consulting teams and also the Sales Academy for the sales teams. These schemes encourage training, development and the sharing of best practice. They look at it as ‘filling the tool bag’, so staff have the full range of tools available to them to excel in both their jobs and their careers. Access encourage learning and empower staff to find the training they require to improve themselves and the skill set within the company.

The Access Group use various tools across the organisation to improve team interaction. The company’s development teams all use agile development methodology, sprint sessions and also use their own and third party technology to reduce emails and improve communication. The company have also introduced video conferencing with BlueJeans. With more meetings taking place online in a virtual face-to-face environment there has been a cut in travelling between different offices. Most teams are also using Whatsapp groups to exchange quick communications and information. In addition to this staff have notes, upgrades and documents on The Access Group’s own Cloud Collaborate software, reducing large emails and ensuring everyone has the most up-to-date documents. Finally the marketing team use Slack for their communications, bringing all the teams communication together in one place.

Every year The Access Group runs Big Break, where all staff are given the choice of two days extra holiday or a long weekend in Spain with their colleagues as a reward for their efforts. The Spain trip is more popular than ever and this year over 200 staff members went on the company holiday, which offered an all-inclusive hotel and a range of activities and nights out. If you were to ask anyone in the company what is unique about this company their first answer would definitely be Spain.