In May 2019, Kindred Group was officially recognised as a Great Place to Work in the UK. We are very proud to also receive recognition for being one of the 2019 Best Workplaces In Tech by Great Place to Work UK.
Great Place to Work UK's 'Best Workplaces In Tech' list represents the outstanding organisations within the tech industry that have been recognised as one of the 'Top 30 UK Best Workplaces'. The list is divided by size into four categories: Small, Medium, Large and Super Large. With our 400-strong workforce, Kindred's award falls under the Large category. Being recognised as the 'Top 10 Best Workplaces In Tech' – in a very competitive UK landscape - is a great achievement and highlights the importance of creating and nurturing a great culture and first-class working environment.
9,000 releases every year
Durgesh Dandotiya, Development Manager - Commercial Marketing System, was one of the first people that began shaping the tech department in London around 12 years ago.
– When I joined, we were three people representing this department. Together, we started this journey and today we are more than 46 people in development, and more than 130 people total in tech. It feels really good to see what we have achieved. Seeing how all the decisions we have made and the changes we have adopted resulting in this. Back then, everything used to break every day, but there has been a lot of learning. We have gone through a lot of firefighting, but today our platform is more stable than ever. Of course, incidents happen occasionally, considering where we came from, we have had an incredible journey. We are doing 9 000 releases every year with basically no downtime. That’s a huge amount and an amazing achievement.
Durgesh Dandotiya was part of the group that shaped the foundation of the tech department in London about 12 years ago.
Importance of value-led culture
Durgesh believes the proximity to the other Kindred departments is important in shaping the award-winning Kindred culture, not only locally at Kindred House in London, but on a global scale across all our 13 offices.
– People are connected here. They become friends, and that friendship extends outside of work. Those relationships are usually very hard to build in professional environments. Here in London, we sit close to many of our other departments which is also very beneficial to the social aspect of the workplace. It helps us build good relations and good values. All the activities we have here help bring teams together both inside and outside the department and it’s one of the big winnings and unique selling points of the London tech department. Besides, it also helps us contextualize the work we do, showing how our technical solutions enables possibilities for other stakeholders in the company.
He says the work we do, the work-life balance and the friendships we make builds our great culture which is key in receiving a recognition like this.
– I think our employees appreciate this, and this can be seen from the outside as well. People who are running this department has been part of it from the beginning. They know how things work and even though they are managers, they understand the freedom that is required to make this a tech department you want to work in. I believe we have an open communicative environment where everyone can speak their mind, whilst we still have that start-up feeling in the company, even though we have grown into a big enterprise these past years.
A Great Place to Work in London
We moved into our brand-new office in Wimbledon a few years ago. A great working environment is just one of the reasons why our team choose to go to work every day. Wellbeing; being part of a diverse workforce; and job security are all reasons why our people recognise Kindred as a Great Place to Work. 90% of our employees praise Kindred’s approach to flexible working and 93% say that Kindred is a friendly and fun place to work. Want to see more of our London office? Check out this video. Want to learn more about tech opportunities at Kindred? Visit our careers site here.
