The new workplace purpose: How Finerva is prioritising employee preferences

Finerva works with some of the fastest growing and most innovative businesses in the world and expanding their business during the pandemic highlighted the importance of flexibility and collaboration.

Many team members have young families, some are semi-retired, so they are very flexible about working preferences – full or part-time, office or home-based, and consulting or project roles. They are passionate about seeing their clients grow and reaching their full potential and believe this is only possible if they get access to the best advisers, who feel valued and respected. The two go hand in hand.

Co-Founder and CEO of Finerva, Adam Brodie explains: “We encourage a collaborative environment, something that is especially important with remote working. We work as a team with clients, colleagues, and associates, listening and supporting and being flexible around family life. This empowers us to be in control of what’s important and fit work around this.”

As Adam explains, “Before Covid, we were already a flexible business and as a result, were successful in attracting return to work mums and dads. We found this approach helped us find very high calibre professionals, something we’ve built on, and which creates a good collaborative culture among our office and remote based team members. Flexible hours, flexible location, open to part-time too.”

The companies first employee, Melanie Stevens who is now a Senior Associate, describes her experience of working in the flexible environment, “I started here as a part time worker, as I had young children, and felt that Adam and Ben [the co-founders] really supported my need for flexibility with my working hours and allowing me to work from home when necessary. Even though I wasn’t in the office 5 days a week, I still felt valued and important. I enjoyed being here for the start of the journey; being part of a small team and therefore part of the decisions regarding how the company grew and in which direction. The people are great – I would say there is a relaxed working style built on mutual trust and respect. We all pull together well as a team.”

In a recent survey conducted to explore employee experiences, the team reported the top 5 reasons they consider Finerva, “the best place to work”:

1. Tailored to the flexible modern work environment
2. Freedom to express ideas and work with innovative clients
3. High calibre of employees and consultants
4. Friendly team with a strong reputation in the industry
5. Working collaboratively in a friendly and open way with other team members.

These are why Finerva is refreshingly different and is leading the way in building a positive and exciting workplace culture. Adam explains: “We’re definitely not a traditional accounting firm. Most are generalist. We’re specialist.”

Finerva is part of the UK’s high-growth and scale-up economy. Clients are mostly technology, science, engineering, and consumer products, “We’ve had clients go from zero to £100m+ valuations in 3 years; something that’s incredibly exciting to be a part of,” Adam says.

Adam is keen to emphasise, “Finerva’s vision is to see the UK as home to the fastest growing companies in the world. We do this by bringing together fast-growing businesses with a trusted network of specialist advisers in finance, accounting, tax and beyond.”

Finerva’s flexible work culture motivates, empowers, challenges & respects the team.

It’s important to Adam that, “We challenge our team to put themselves in the shoes of our clients – founders who appreciate clear, straightforward advice, so our clients can focus on what’s important – often selling, R&D or investor relations. Often the challenge is distilling the complex technical into a simple recommendation! We are selective in who works with our clients, and ultimately, we trust them to deliver.”

Rowena Wattrus, Director of Accounts and Tax recently joined Finerva and has already felt the impact of working in a supportive and exciting team environment, “Adam and Ben are very supportive of the team and actively encourage mutual respect, including not sending emails to colleagues on holiday or outside working hours. The work is interesting and mentally stimulating. Despite many years of experience, I have learnt many new skills in a short space of time. The clients are great people and any lack of professional courtesy towards Finerva team members is not tolerated. New ideas and suggestions for improvements are actively encouraged. The team is diverse as the focus is having the best people on board irrespective of their personal circumstances, stage in life or other commitments”.

Working at Finerva is exciting and rewarding; “It’s a great team, working with likeminded professionals, with similar business goals. We are an ambitious and hard-working team. There is a sense of belonging within the workplace, with a great company culture. The whole team cares about your personal values and commitments, and there is trust and flexibility within the workplace. We work with some really fun businesses that have great ideas and are developing some great products.  It’s great to see the growth that these companies can achieve, and you really feel a part of the success,” says Seema Kher, Director of Finance at Finerva.

As a company they believe that the continued business growth is due to the treatment and respect that is given to both advisors and clients. Prioritising employee preferences allows Finerva to guarantee increased levels of care and support is delivered to each client. The ability to be responsive and proactive with clients is based on the confidence and wellbeing of the team. The strength of Finerva, is in the power of nurturing this!

Written by Michelle Hind. Read more about our working approach and currently available roles on our Careers website.

About Michelle Hind
Chillibean Creative

Michelle Hind is the creative director at Chillibean Creative and a freelance brand consultant. She has a special interest in how the levels of employee motivation directly impact the quality of work presented to clients and determine the success of the overall brand experience – from staff through to client.

Michelle has experience working with teams operating in a flexible work environment. Her work as a multimedia journalist has been featured across the United Kingdom and Southern Africa.

She graduated from Rhodes University with a Bachelor of Journalism, majoring in journalism, media studies and psychology.