BUSINESS
Millie Green of MDHUB sat down with Josh O'Riordan Managing Director at Brightec to hear more about his role and how he has fostered an award-winning working culture for his team
The future's Brightec When Andy Ferret, Founding Director of Shoreham-based app development agency, Brightec, took a 12-week sabbatical to help himself recuperate after 14 years running the agency, Josh O’Riordan stepped into his shoes to run the company. Now in his tenth year at Brightec, Josh is the Managing Director. Known and appreciated for his work ethic and his boundless energy and countless hobbies, we asked how he managed it all. “I love learning new things, which is probably why I have so many hobbies. I have had to learn to slow that down over the years. Nowadays, it's more about aligning the other things I do to personal values.” This includes volunteering alongside his wife at their local food bank, and competing in strongman competitions.
There are always wobbles and worries that bubble up when someone at the top of an organisation leaves, even temporarily. Josh worked with each team member to support them through their individual experience. Regular check-ins and making himself available to talk were paramount to ensuring everyone felt supported. For his part, workgroups with MDHUB provided Josh a safe place to ask questions and share concerns in a confidential and supportive environment. The invaluable, outside perspective of other business owners asking candid questions was an essential part of Josh’s support system. The workgroups have also proved an unexpected source of inspiration for Brightec.
I love learning new things, ❛❛ which is probably why I have so many hobbies ❜❜
Josh has worked hard to encourage his team to maintain a healthy relationship with work. The company recently won Best Employee Development Programme at the Company Culture Awards for an incredible career framework developed by its Head of Engineering.
Josh described how the framework allowed people to know where they were at in their career, how they could move to the next piece, how they could support them in doing that and what they would need to learn. This great initiative has proved a brilliant tool for employee retention and goal setting. When Andy Ferrett announced his desire to take a break, Josh had to be
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ready. To prepare, they took not just the practical steps of handing over regular duties and establishing procedures, but also ensured that Josh had adequate support. He invested in executive coaching with Steve Boon, a trusted advisor whom he met with regularly to help make sense of, expalin and process the changes in the company that the team were going through.
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Josh explains, “He helped me get the team through that, and it helped me understand what my strengths and weaknesses were as a leader – and ultimately face them head-on and improve myself.” Executive coaching isn't the only support Josh has benefitted from over the last few years. Phil Green from MDHub has played a vital role with Brightec, acting in a non-executive capacity to bring real wisdom and experience to help shape the company's future and structure, and Josh has loved working closely with Phil. “His unique ability to bring together financial expertise, personal connection, and wider context has been invaluable.”
“One of the things that we've taken in is that every working group session ends with a happiness score, out of ten. For instance, ‘how are you doing at the moment?’
“We’ve taken that concept and created a Slackbot that asks all of our staff that on a daily basis.” This sends a daily report to Josh and Brightec’s People Operations Lead, Caz, who monitors levels and checks in with employees. This helps the senior leadership team maintain a better overview of the team’s happiness. Josh is excited for Brightec’s future. “We have staff who are actively volunteering for charities. Over the next six months, we're rolling out a scheme where everyone has three days where they can do that – fully paid.” Brightec continues to develop its clients’ award-winning apps, such as