About Whitespace

Working hard and being nice to people is the number one value which the board is passionate about at Whitespace demonstrating this, even in small ways. The company organize a regular Friday bacon roll run, especially after hectic weeks or Thursday night awards ceremonies. With full participation in all fancy-dress events, the managing partners are committed to ensuring there definitely ‘ain’t no partly like a Whitespace party’. Aside from having fun, the aim of this is to be informal and approachable. In the previous office, they were the first to give up their desks and start hot-desking which they found was a great opportunity to engage with teams and individuals at all levels. Now in the new purpose-designed HQ, they have a base of desks, smaller than everyone else’s, which means they take the chance to hot desk round the departments throughout the week. Four years ago, to demonstrate the value ‘all for one and one for all’, they took the brave step of setting up a 360 degree process for all Whitespacers to rate their performance as a board. An independent consultant carries out 15 minute confidential interviews with every colleague. Topics include how it currently feels to be a Whitespacer, what they think of the direction of the agency, leadership behaviours of each board member and what grade they would give the board overall. Feedback is grouped into key themes to ensure individuals can’t be identified.

This Christmas will be Whitespace’s third charity fundraising campaign. In their first year, the team of Whitespace Elves sourced an arcade grabber machine, and worked out how their clients could control it from their own desks to program the claw to grab and deliver presents. For everyone who had a go, the company donated £1 to charity, but for skilled operators who grabbed and delivered a present, Whitespace donated £5. This all helped deliver real presents to kids who might not have received anything else. With thousands of site visitors and hundreds of participants, in only two days, Whitespace were able to donate £1,670 to Forth 1’s Cash for Kids charity appeal. In 2014, Whitespace started working with global charity Mary’s Meals and they realised that by joining forces, they could increase the impact of their Christmas fundraiser. The company gave Whitespace time for free and some Whitespacers also donated their own personal time out of hours. The result was the ‘One More for Christmas campaign’. The cost of a typical Christmas dinner is £16 per person. But for just £12.20, Mary’s Meals can provide food for a poverty stricken child in a place of education for an entire year. So Whitespace created a virtual Christmas dinner table and invited people to set a place for £12.20. In a month the company raised over £47,000 - enough to provide 3,300 children with a daily meal for a year. For Christmas 2015 Whitespace are planning to build on this success and reach a higher target.

Since 2014, every existing and new Whitespacer is given a copy of the ‘You Rule Book’. Written and designed by Whitespacers, it covers the company’s mission, vision, aims and values and it received a commendation at the Scottish Design Awards. Topics at the bi-monthly agency wide meeting are regularly linked back to the mission, vision and values and all briefs for any internal project or proposal must evidence how they relate to these three things. The values are embedded in the appraisal and 360-degree feedback process. It’s not enough for colleagues just to succeed. It’s how they succeed that is collated in feedback. Whitespace share their values with potential new clients upfront, and prior to pitches and tenders, they aim to arrange chemistry meetings to assess potential cultural fit. If Whitespace think a client will require them to work against their core values, regardless of potential financial value, they won’t proceed, and they have a poster in the bar meaning even on Friday nights, everyone is reminded they need to ‘work hard and be nice to people’!