DJS Research - Review of the Year 2022

14th December 2022 06:34

A huge thank you to our clients, respondents, suppliers and staff

2022 – it's been one heck of a ride! We’re looking back with a huge sense of pride at all we've achieved...

We went into the year being named as one of the ‘fastest growing individual agencies’ by the Market Research Society in its MRS Research Live Industry Report 2022, and with over 30 new hires across the company. The MRS league table 2022 figures revealed the we had grown 22% on the previous year!

From surpassing our financial targets, to launching our first Partners' Charter and winning an award from the Employee Ownership Association (EOA) for delivering good engagement just over a year after becoming employee-owned, we've had an incredibly strong year, which was topped off by attending the MRS Awards as double finalists in the categories of Agency of the Year and Best Place to Work.

Read on to get the full scoop on an epic year, or sit back and watch the video...

Finances: we've had a record-breaking year!

After twenty years of organic, and often double-digit growth, we have continued to strengthen, and this year reached a pinnacle, recording a record company turnover.

Despite the challenges faced by the industry during the pandemic, our latest financials show a turnover of £7.1 million. The growth has come from existing relationships as well as a number of new clients and contract wins and has been organic, with no external funding or mergers.

Our new figures represent a return to double-digit growth compared with our previous year and builds on the growth we achieved pre-pandemic.

Our latest figures (£7.1M) are an increase of +34% on 2021 figures and +12% on 2020.

Read more here

We have launched our Behavioural Science Research Unit

In 2022 we set up our own Behavioural Science Unit. Combining an understanding of our cognitive biases with the adoption of a more inquisitive mindset means we can often arrive at counterintuitive and unexpected answers to the problems plaguing the business world. Behavioural Science-inspired solutions embrace this and provide access to a much larger solution set than otherwise would ever be considered.

Research Director, Alex McCluckie is heading up the department and is ready to help you understand more. He has also written a series of articles to introduce the area:

Read more about our Behavioural Science research offer and how it can help your business here

We celebrated one year of being employee owned!

On a sunny day in September, we invited people from across the business to join us for a day of fun and celebration close to our Cheshire HQ to mark our first anniversary of becoming employee owned. Staff travelled from far and wide (Glasgow, Exmouth - and even Spain!) to be a part of the event.

It was great to see so many familiar faces as well as plenty of new ones across all departments — DJS is growing!

We created our first ever Partners’ Charter

Our first anniversary also gave us the opportunity to share with our company partners our first ever Partners’ Charter – a document for all of our staff detailing everything there is to know about employee ownership. The booklet includes things such as the company structure under employee ownership, ownership breakdown and governance, as well as highlighting our core values and vision for the future. It's also packed full of photos of our DJS team; the very heartbeat of the business and who the Charter is for!

Indeed, our Charter is also a special document as it began its journey to existence in our Employee Voice meetings – with EO Voice representatives sharing with us what their teams would like to see included.

We won an EOA Award for ‘Delivering Good Engagement’

On Monday 3rd October we attended the 2022 Employee Ownership Association (EOA) Annual Conference where we were welcomed to the stage as EO Stories winners in the category of Delivering Good Employee Engagement.

Our entry showcased how since becoming employee owned, our engagement activity has already delivered opportunities across the business, as well as highlighting how communication has helped build a deeper understanding of EO. It also shared how Employee Voice has given us an effective two-way engagement process which helps our partners feel comfortable sharing their thoughts, feedback and ideas.

“We are extremely proud and delighted to have won the employee engagement award from the EOA", said our chairman and founder of DJS Research, Danny Sims.

“Engaging staff in the employee ownership journey is a such a crucial part in building a successful employee-owned business, and winning this award is confirmation that we have started off well. It provides further motivation to continue engaging with our partners to help us embrace all of the benefits that employee ownership has to offer.”

Read more about the conference and our win here

We were announced as double finalists at the MRS Awards 2022

We were finalists in two categories at the prestigious Market Research Society (MRS) Awards: Agency of Year and Best Place to Work. The MRS Awards are held annually and celebrate the very best of the market research industry and the talented people who work within it. We took a team of 10 from across all departments to the awards which were held at Old Billingsgate, London, in early December. It wasn't to be our night this time, but it was an honour to be finalists and we have plenty of fresh ideas for the future!

We listened to staff even more via MyDJS and EO Voice

Listening to our staff continues to be central to all we do at DJS Research and in 2022 we believe we've heard their voices louder than ever. We regularly consult our staff partners about various matters via our EO Voice council and through our annual MyDJS engagement survey.

This year’s survey results were very positive and suggest that our partners are really starting to understand and engage with employee ownership and feel like partners in the business.

The 2022 survey revealed nine out of 10 DJS Partners are proud to work for DJS Research, with 93% saying it is a good place to work. The survey also found that 91% of employees believe that we care about their wellbeing and 97% feel trusted to do their job well. It also revealed that nearly all of our staff (99%) are happy about our new EO status!

We saw many new reports published and making headlines

It’s always great to see the research we work so hard on published – and this year there have been several key pieces making headlines including the multi-country study by M&C Saatchi World Services, examining the impact of marketing on breast milk substitutes on infant feeding decisions and practice; the Water Matters Customers' View on Water and Sewerage Services, and the Youth Social Action Survey.

Have a further look:

November 2022: Multi-country study examining the impact of marketing on breast-milk substitutes on infant feeding decisions and practices: commissioned report (M&C Saatchi World Services)

June 2022: Water Matters: Household customers’ views on their water and sewage services 2021 (CCW)

June 2022: The Youth Social Action Survey infographic (Canal & River Trust)

April 2022: Scottish Charity & Public Surveys 2022 (OSCR)

February 2022: Digital Self Service in the Public Sector 2022 - COVID 19 and the future of DSS (GOSS Interactive)

January 2022: Digital Self Service in the Public Sector 2022 - Performance and Perceptions of DSS ( GOSS Interactive)

January 2022: Digital Self Service in the Public Sector 2022 - Approach to DSS (GOSS Interactive)

You can see more of our published research here

We are continuing to expand our team across the UK

This year we have continued to grow, following an exceptional 2021, and have welcomed to the team a further 22 new starters across all departments and expanded our remote worker network. We have also awarded 12 promotions and overseen 4 internal transfers, as well as enrolling researchers on the MRS Advanced Certificate in Market and Social Research and facilitating further training for team leaders.

A Leadership Team with various working groups has also been set up in 2022, responsible for developing and improving various aspects of the business and our offer, and all staff can contribute and come forward with ideas.

We have a new office in Leeds city centre

Five years after setting up our first Leeds office, we have moved premises and are now situated in the heart of Leeds city centre, 18 stories up!

Research Director, Helen Menzies said of our new place:

"The Leeds team are really enjoying our new city centre office. We are all benefiting from hybrid working but many of us choose to come into the office several days a week – there’s a real buzz in the building which makes a nice change after working from home. Plus, being up on the 18th floor means the views across Leeds are amazing!"

We learned so much more about our DJS team at our annual 'Inform Day'

Back in May we had our company 'Inform Session' – an annual get-together to share big company news and talk about the past year, including our (many!) achievements and how we are moving forward and growing as an employee-owned business. This year we held our session online via Microsoft Teams and it worked brilliantly! More than 100 staff from across all departments and seniorities joined us from locations around the UK and internationally too.

The session included a video, which was expertly pulled together by our creative team and featured footage submitted by teams across the business to tell us what they’ve been up to as well as any plans they have for the coming year. It was a great way to learn more about the company and more about the people within it – and what our colleagues' roles actually entail!

Read all about it here

We were invited to speak at the EOA event in Manchester

In November 2022, DJS Chairman and Founder, Danny Sims, and HR Manager, Lucy Pawson, who is also our Employee Trustee Director, were invited to speak at the Employee Ownership Association’s (EOA) regional event in Manchester. This was a result of us winning an award at the EOA conference for good engagement and communication.

The event saw us speak about the many things we have been doing to improve engagement since becoming employee owned in July 2021.

Chief Executive at the EOA, James de le Vingne said:

“It has been wonderful to see how positively everyone at DJS has responded to becoming employee owned and I was delighted to see this recognised at the EOA awards in Liverpool. It’s no surprise to the EOA that DJS are accelerating through the early stages and transitioning so smoothly, you have invested wisely in developing excellent communications and created a framework that enables everyone across the business to embrace their new roles as employee owners. Congratulations to you all.”

Read more about it here

We've continued to raise money for a number of charities

Bake sales, a Get up and Go Challenge, wearing pink en masse for Breast Cancer Awareness and jumping from planes; 2022 has seen our partners get involved in a number of charitable activities for our Charity of the Year, the Air Ambulance Service as well as Breast Cancer Now and the Thomas Theyer Foundation. We have also continued our support as Corporate Patron of the Market Research Benevolent Association at a time when the organisation has never needed it more, and used our DJS volunteering days to support local and national charities with their vital work.

We have put a focus on corporate responsibility

We are also working hard to be a socially responsible business that looks after its people and the planet as well making a profit. We have signed up to the MRS Net Zero and Inclusion pledges, developed a plan to reduce our carbon emissions, and implemented a range of wellbeing initiatives for our partners.

We have extended our wellbeing offer for company partners...

In 2022, DJS Research has placed a strong focus on wellbeing, developing a number of initiatives to support staff in this area, including the creation of a wellbeing working group. As well as supporting staff with yoga sessions and wellbeing walks during working hours, we have shared information internally around various topics such as mental health, menopause, breast cancer and energy saving. We have also taken on more staff in 2022 to help reduce workload and developed a peer-to-peer mentoring scheme. Another popular wellbeing initiative has been the introduction of a range of thank-you cards and DJS ‘star badges’ for employees to send when they would like to acknowledge a colleague's efforts. These have been a huge success, with 52 sent in 2022 -- that's one every week! We have also very recently introduced a shorter working day on a Friday, enabling employees to begin their well-earned weekend break, from 3pm.

We launched our DJS mentoring scheme

This year we introduced a mentoring scheme, a form of employee development, which allows partners at DJS to work and connect with other team members as either a 'mentor' or a 'mentee'. As a mentor, DJS partners are able to challenge themselves to support a colleague's development and build relationships outside of their immediate team, while as a mentee, partners receive focused support, advice and guidance and are able to broaden their understanding of potential opportunities and develop their career. The scheme has been well received with six sets of pairs currently working together with great results.

“Being a mentor is a great opportunity to build relationships with colleagues that you might not normally work directly with. Sharing your knowledge and helping to support colleagues in a more informal way is really rewarding and I'd recommend it to anyone.” - DJS team member

We had great fun with the whole company at Drayton Manor

What fun was had at our company day out to Drayton Manor Resort! Staff across the business and from all over the UK had the chance to come together for some thrills and spills and to get to know each other a little better. From nail-biting coasters to long lunches and getting soaked on the log flume, the feedback we received was great and just confirms how important these sorts of events are for colleagues and company culture.

Read more about the day and see the photos, here

Final thoughts by DJS Research Managing Director, Alasdair Gleed

"It has been another great year at DJS. We’re on track for another record-breaking performance and once again our partners have worked their socks off delivering great work for great clients, new and repeat. In our second year of being employee owned, this progressive business model is really starting to have an impact – our staff have started to act like partners/owners, coming forward with ideas and helping to implement initiatives outside of the day-job to improve the company and our offer.

A real highlight for me was winning the Employee Ownership Award for 'Delivering Good Engagement'; we launched our Employee Charter to provide all partners with clarity on what EO means for them and what we are about as a company – and we got our best-ever results in our internal employee engagement survey. We have also established a Leadership Team to help implement our strategic plans, and lots of our partners from all parts of the business are getting involved in initiatives to improve and develop what we do and how we operate.

There’s a lot of uncertainty around right now but, with the great team of partners we have, I’m confident that we can continue to grow and improve in 2023. I’d like to thank all of our partners for their hard work and thank all of our clients, suppliers and research participants for their support this year. Have a great Christmas and a happy New Year!"