Personal Development

One of the original plans from our manifesto was to remove traditional management from Reddico. Often in the world of work, people are promoted into management positions based on their skills and experience – rather than how good they are at motivating, supporting, and coaching others. 

We decided to separate the two roles, and introduce coaching into the team. 

Coaching provides a space to think out loud about anything that’s on your mind. Coaches act as supportive sounding boards, and are encouraged to help people find their own answers. 

You’re able to choose a coach (from the people who have put themselves forward) and can arrange one-to-ones whenever you need them. This is there for your benefit, and you can self-manage these as appropriate.

You can choose a Reddico coach using this link.

We want the team to be able to grow themselves professionally and personally all year round, whenever the time is right for them. 

In the same way you’ll manage all other aspects of your role, you’ll also decide when and how often you take a Personal Development Day (PDD). 

There’s no maximum number of days you can take – it’s down to you to manage. Whether it's career related skills you want to build, or an opportunity to give back to your local community or volunteer for a charity, PDDs give you the chance to do whatever you like.

To help you map out your personal development, you may want to create your own Personal Development Plan.

There is also money available for training, giving you the tools you need to take your career in whichever direction you want it to go. 

There isn't a cap per person, however the overall department budget is guided by budget proposals submitted for the start of the financial year. The expenses section of the handbook provides more detail around this.

When using the training budget, it's important to factor in the advice process. It’s important for your team to be able to have input into whether they believe it to be a valuable training programme, and they may also be able to point you in other directions you haven’t explored.

Every six months we run 360 reviews, through our custom platform.

360s are aligned to our values, and the various behaviours you may demonstrate by living them on a day-to-day basis.

You’ll start by carrying out a self-review, before asking three other people in the team to complete one for you. These are all transparent, so you can access and read other people’s reviews too. 

360s are a brilliant opportunity to open up conversations with your colleagues and identify things that are working really well, and understand what could be even better.

Every year we carry out marketplace research against all the roles at Reddico. This is to ensure we:

• Pay our team accurately against the market

• Can update our in-house career matrices

• Don’t have a disparity in salary between two identical roles

Our latest marketplace research breaks down each department based on the type of role.

We have a tailored career matrix in place for most areas of Reddico, which outlines your career journey – starting from entry level through to senior. Each section is broken into tiers, and highlights the skills, experience and competencies you’ll need to progress. 

These career matrices are self-managed, so you’re able to work through them at your own pace – and in line with how you want your career to unfold. 

However, to tick something off on your matrix, you will need to use the advice process (included in this handbook). Following the advice process, you’re able to make your own decision. 

• SEO matrix.

• Content matrix.

• Development matrix.

Career matrix process

1. Make a copy of the relevant matrix. This is what you will work from. 

2. You self-manage your own career matrix – you're responsible for seeing what you need to achieve and how you're going to do it. 

3. If you feel you've reached the required standard, you would use the Advice Process. As the process says, speak to the people who are most likely to know. This could be different people depending on the task (and can also be more than one person). For instance, in the SEO team it could be people from inside or outside your circle. You want advice from the people who are best at a particular task.

4. Once you've taken advice, you make a decision on whether you think the section is complete, or you need to go away and work on any actions. 

5. Update your personal matrix with the Advice Process details (date / actions / outcomes). 

FAQs:

1. How do I set my initial benchmark? An initial benchmark is agreed after your six-month probation review, with your department lead. You’ll have access to the matrix beforehand, though.

2. How often can I use the advice process? You can use the process as and when you see fit. There are no windows / time periods to do it.

3. Does that mean someone might be asking me for advice all the time? A potential issue, but realistically that's unlikely to be the case. You wouldn't expect someone to gain enough experience to be coming to you on a regular basis.

4. What if I'm transitioning from junior to midweight, or midweight to senior? There is a separate process for promotions at Reddico, and is documented in this handbook.

5. Who do I ask for advice? You will know who it makes most sense to ask – in most cases, senior members of the team that you work most closely with. 

6. Can anyone help me with my matrix? Absolutely, it's not a case of isolation, but instead responsibility to manage the process. You can speak to people in your team informally whenever you like, and also utilise your coach to talk through options or put a plan in place. 

7. Why should I care about this? The career matrix is inherently tied to your career progression and salary. There is no mandatory requirement to progress through the matrix if you're content with your position and responsibilities. 

8. Someone has asked me for advice. How do I judge they're at the right place, so it's fair and consistent?  There will always be some level of inconsistency between how different people see things. However, if someone is asking for advice, the overriding question to ask yourself is: 'Does this person deliver X without supervision, consistently, and to the standards required at Reddico?'

9. What if I have a hybrid role, or want to transition in the future? If you have a hybrid role, you will need to customise a matrix that takes into account both (or more areas). If a marketplace research is needed for a new or hybrid role, please inform HR so it can be added to the annual review. 

Quarterly Objectives are Reddico’s goal setting system. 

Each quarter, everyone in the team is asked to set an objective for the next three months. This can be related to your department’s strategy, the wider company vision, or even your own personal plans. 

After choosing your objective, there is a consultation period to give the rest of the team an opportunity to review and identify any red flags. This prevents cross-over in work, and gives the wider team an opportunity to suggest any subtle improvements that could be beneficial. 

With 40 members in the team, we see Quarterly Objectives as an opportunity to drive 40 improvements to the business each quarter – that's potentially 160 every year.

Key Results are added into your department's planning sheet, and feed into a company-wide document.

At Reddico, salaries are adjusted in a slightly different way to what you would expect at a traditional business. We’ve introduced a salary panel, which was democratically voted for by the team. 

Twice a year (March & September), everyone in the team is able to apply for a salary increase (with a dedicated application form). The reasons for applying for an increase will include:

• The role significantly changing

• Your skills, and what you’re able to bring to the role, significantly changing 

• An increase in responsibilities as part of your role

You’ll also be able to use the marketplace research, and your career matrix, to help with your application. 

Once all applications are submitted, the panel reviews each application on its own merit, and can speak to other team members to help gain additional information. 

To ensure fairness in salaries, someone who hasn’t applied may still earn an increase in salary – adjusted in line with other team members. 

Each applicant is notified of the outcome by Reddico’s Managing Director.

Because of the way Reddico works, the promotion process is also different. This process puts more emphasis on the individual to push their career forward and be in a position to ‘self-promote’. 

There are three main areas to this: 

1. The career matrix: Detailed in this handbook, a career matrix provides all the information and knowledge someone would need to progress in their career. More information can be found here. 

2. Soft skills matrix: We also value everyone’s soft skills, and their ability to communicate, provide feedback, solve problems, and much more. For that reason, if you’re looking at a promotion (for example, from a midweight to a senior role), you would need to go through a period of reflection and self-evaluation, including the Myers Briggs test. This full process is documented here. 

3. Promoting yourself: Once parts 1 and 2 have been completed, you’re in a position to promote yourself. To do this, you would use the advice process (documented in this handbook) within your team. You can find more about how this works here.

At Reddico we’re committed to championing the team, and ensuring everyone has a fair and equal opportunity to apply for new positions within the company. We will also promote internally where possible, and interview candidates in-house before focusing on external recruitment. 

All new job positions are posted on our internal communications system, and we welcome internal applications for these.