'Our upside-down management is the key to success' - Chess CEO

David Pollock tells CRN how Chess' upside-down management style helped it to be voted the UK's best workplace

It's common practice for the senior management in any organisation to appraise their staff periodically over the course of their careers. In fact, it would be odd if they didn't.

What is less common is when that power is placed in the hands of rank-and-file staff, who are asked to score their company and their bosses.

What might seem like an outlandish model to some is the norm at comms VAR Chess, where employees are regularly asked to boldly rate the performance of their employer and sugar-coat nothing.

The model at Chess is pioneered by CEO David Pollock (pictured), who declared it the key to Chess being named the best place in the UK to work by the Sunday Times.

"It is called upside-down management," he explained.

"We're constantly getting analysis back from our people telling us how we can do better, and you have to listen.

"We try to run this place as flat as we realistically can and we're always engaging with our people."

Pollock founded Chess 25 years ago above a coffee shop in Cheshire's affluent Alderley Edge, but the firm is now a very different beast to the one born in 1993. The CEO has steered the VAR through consistent growth and lifted it to a revenue of over £110m. The coffee shop has been swapped for six sites across the UK.

But despite the growth in headcount and revenue over the last quarter of a century, Pollock's belief in upside-down management remains as strong.

Broadly speaking, the model sees the typical managerial pyramid flipped on its head - putting junior staff at the top and senior management at the bottom.

These employees are given a greater say in how the business is run than they might usually be, and are encouraged to make recommendations rather than wait to be told what to do by their bosses.

The theory is that these employees are at the coalface and interacting with customers more than senior executives, and are therefore better placed to advise on client-related issues.

To put this theory into practice, one-to-ones are held at Chess every month, with employees asked to score the company out of five across different areas of the business. This includes rating the performance of their managers.

Pollock said the structure creates a democratic atmosphere within Chess, rather than a dictatorial structure that would see the CEO hand down instructions.

The result of this is that staff feel confident and valued - qualities that are likely to filter into their relationships with customers.

"It's the power of the crowd," Pollock explained. "If you've got 600 people telling you what you're doing wrong or what you can do better, it's easy decision making.

"It's all about listening to your people because they have the best ideas; they're doing the job every day. If you're not listening to them and you're sitting on high, it's a disaster."

Pollock practices what he preaches and is held to the same standards as every other Chess employee. Just before speaking to CRN, the CEO himself had just had his own appraisal with one of Chess' directors and was given advice on how he can improve.

The important thing, Pollock said, is that employees are encouraged to give negative feedback where applicable, and are not scared of the repercussions of doing so.

He explained that staff are more comfortable providing constructive criticism because they know that Chess will not retaliate.

"If somebody scores something ‘poor' they don't get castigated, we go and talk to them and ask what we're doing wrong," he explained.

"Invariably the people who are bold enough to score something you're doing as a one or a two [out of five] are exactly the people you want to talk to, because they care. You shouldn't hide bad reviews, they should almost be celebrated because you know what you need to sort out. You need honesty."

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'Our upside-down management is the key to success' - Chess CEO

David Pollock tells CRN how Chess' upside-down management style helped it to be voted the UK's best workplace

Best workplace

The model is endorsed by Chess' employee base. Earlier this year the VAR was crowned the top UK workplace by the Sunday Times' Best Companies to Work for in 2018.

The 18^th annual edition of the research saw Chess beat off competition from 799 entrants to take the coveted top spot, rising one place after finishing second in 2017 and 2016.

"Of all the awards we have won as a business, this is the one I'm most proud of," Pollock said.

The desire to keep up employee morale stretches beyond business structure, with Chess laying on a host of events, activities and benefits for staff, including running clubs, gym discounts, mindfulness training, yoga classes and self-defence training.

Pollock prides himself and Chess on the steps it takes to create a positive environment for the company's employees, but in return he drives them hard. He meets every new starter as they join and holds a "15-minute chat where they are told what is expected of them".

If staff are struggling then the firm strives to help them, but what it doesn't put up with is lack of effort.

"No one rocks up to a job wanting to be an average employee - they want to be a great employee - but if they do, they can go and work for someone else," Pollock said.

"We're not an easy company to work for and if you're a duffer you're gone; you won't survive here because we don't put up with people taking the mickey.

"We don't just brutally fire people, we explain to them that their performance is not at a level that is acceptable and we give them chances to improve, but if fundamentally they are a slacker they can go and work somewhere else. Nobody wants to work with somebody who is lazy and when they look to their leaders they want them to do something about [lazy workers]."

The bible

Chess underpins its philosophy with what it refers to as its Blueprint - an 11-page document that outlines the VAR's ethos.

The Blueprint was first published in 2005 amid an aggressive M&A drive that would see Chess acquire 50 companies in 10 years.

During this period Chess was placed in both the Sunday Times' Tech Track 100 and Fast Track 100, while Pollock himself won multiple entrepreneurial and directorial awards.

But the CEO was conscious that this period of intense growth posed a threat to Chess' people-oriented culture.

"In 2005 we knew the business was going to grow and that we were going to buy other businesses," he said. "I was concerned at that time that we might lose the very friendly culture when people came on board.

"We put together a document that we call our Blueprint for Success, and it sets out the business that we wanted to create. It's really about building a modern business that puts the people at the heart of its decision making."

By his own admission Chess hasn't always got its acquisitions and integrations right, but having a culture where employees have the confidence to voice their concerns has made these situations repairable.

"Businesses aren't perfect," he admitted.

"We've bought something like 100 different businesses over the last five years and we've cocked some things up; we will continue to cock some things up, but we try not to do it again and again. We aspire to do a great job every time, but we don't always because that's what life is like.

"But if you love your employees they'll love your customers, and then you have a successful business. The whole basis of growing the business has been set out with that in mind."