In the 27 years since Reed.co.uk’s inception, there have been many landscape-changing events on the internet (the launch of YouTube, the rise of Google and the introduction of the “Metaverse” to name but a few), however one thing has remained consistent – Reed.co.uk’s position as one of the leading online careers marketplaces.
Beyond the hundreds of thousands of vacancies that the site features, Reed.co.uk’s offering has since expanded to include over 70,000 courses from respected learning providers as well as regularly updated expert careers advice and insights. This is all powered by our 240-strong Reed.co.uk team, based in Dragon Court in Covent Garden, London.
From sales & marketing to engineering & data, we all call Dragon Court our home and welcomed the chance to return to the office after it was shut from March 2020 to March 2021 due to the pandemic. Since re-opening, we’ve been back to collaborating on what we do best (improving lives through work!) as well as coming together for unique events and sessions to celebrate our wins, challenge our ways of thinking and develop our camaraderie. Consider this your sneak peek into what’s happening at Reed.co.uk.
January
January saw the launch of ‘Reed to Ankara’, an internal campaign where co-members banded together to track their walking, running or cycling with the aim of reaching 1000 miles of collective activity. This was in fact a sequel to 2021’s ‘Reed to Romania’, a seven-day challenge where Reed.co.uk co-members aimed to reach 1156 miles of activity, the exact distance from our Covent Garden office to the Romanian borders.
During these campaigns, co-members were granted an hour each day (in addition to their lunch break) to take time out to walk, run or cycle while tracking their activity through the Strava app. After a massive 265 hours of tracked activity, we reached 1013.6 miles of travel and were joined along the way by some beautiful backdrops and a few furry friends!
We committed to the ‘Reed to Ankara’ challenge in support of the charity MIND, who joined us on Blue Monday (January 17th) to deliver an excellent talk on the ‘5 Ways to Wellbeing’, one of which was to be active with regular physical exercise.
This was such a great initiative because a lot of people think wellbeing and mental health is mindfulness and Yoga or therapy and its not, it can involve that, but It can also be some basic steps, one of the best ways to help improve your mental health, which I am passionate about is to be active, so giving everyone an extra hour to take some time and go for walk, or a run or be active in whatever way possible was very positive and hopefully we helped people start and keep up some good habits
Co-organiser of Reed to Ankara
For the entirety of January, our Chief Executive and Chairman James Reed invited us to join him in committing to ‘Veganuary’, a popular 31 day challenge of consuming only vegan products through the month of January. To make it extra interesting, the co-member who came up with the most inventive vegan recipe would be awarded a night in the Reed Box at The Royal Albert Hall for their choice of show.
We had some fantastic entries to the competition such as a Sweet potato curry, a Tarka Dhal with vegan naan, and even a Sweetcorn polenta!
However, we had to wait until February for the winner to be announced…
February
And the winner was… The ‘Caribbean Feast’!This dish won the most amount of votes and is an incredible medley featuring crispy jerk tofu, quinoa and peas, sweet potato fritters, stewed jackfruit, sliced avocado, fried plantain and cooked greens.Beyond the health benefits of Veganuary, we especially value the environmental advantages that come with reducing animal consumption. It is estimated that if just 350,000 people worldwide took part in veganuary, there would be:
41,200 tonnes of CO2 saved
2.5 million litres of water saved
More than one million animal lives spared!
As a forward-thinking sustainable business, the future of the environment is always at the forefront of our minds. You may have heard that the Reed Group has been certified CarbonNeutral® since 2005 but what you may not know is that the roof of the Reed.co.uk office is home to 20,000 bees who provide one of the most recognisable ecosystem services, i.e. pollination, which is what makes food production possible. By doing so, they protect and maintain ecosystems as well as animal and plant species, and contribute to genetic and biotic diversity.
To ensure that our co-members are equipped and dedicated to doing their part to protect the environment, February also saw the release of our updated Environmental Policy. This highlighted some recent successes, such as an 82% reduction in our transport-related emissions and 19% reduction in landfill waste, whilst also setting clear targets for the future like eliminating single use plastics and only procuring energy contracts that come from 100% renewable sources.
Reed’s company purpose is improving lives through work. We fundamentally believe being a champion of the environment lies at the very heart of our purpose. How can we continue to improve lives through work if we are unsure of our planet’s future to sustain life as it exists today?
Chief Executive & Chairman of Reed.co.uk
March
What’s the only thing better than pancakes? FREE pancakes! We were lucky enough to kick off March with free pancakes from the cafe across the road from the office, Il Panino’s. As you can imagine, they went down an absolute treat.
The following week, we celebrated International Women’s Day with a number of social activities for our co-members to get involved in, both virtually and on-site at Dragon Court. This year’s theme was #BreakTheBias so we started the day with a interactive virtual session from Stephanie Rix which focused on breaking down our internal biases and exploring the common traits and skills of those who have fought to overcome biases during their career.
Next up, we held a Q&A panel starring some of our best and brightest female leaders at Reed.co.uk including:
Abigail Shepherd – Head of Digital Marketing
Aileen Kent – Director of Delivery & Strategic Transformation
Beckie Sizer – HR Director
Kathy Smith – Director of Product
Sangeeta Naik – Software Development Manager
Hosted by Reed.co.uk’s Managing Director, Simon Wingate, the Q&A was a very informative and beneficial session; we were even joined by James Reed! Together, the panel unpacked relevant and impactful topics such as Imposter Syndrome, unconscious stereotyping and how sexism in the workplace has changed over the last few decades.
We also installed an Instagram-style frame in the office where we captured some cracking shots of our co-members doing the ‘X’ pose, designated by the International Women’s Day organisers as the symbol for removing gender biases that still exist in society today.
As you can tell from this article, there’s never a dull moment when you’re a part of the Reed.co.uk family. We endeavour to be a business where our family-orientated values are brought to life and the personal development of our co-members is paramount, all while not missing a beat on our professional targets. If you would like to the join the UK’s #1 job site (and the 20,000 bees that come with it!), please click here to see all the opportunities we currently have available.