Something Familiar are committed to inclusivity and diversity, and engaging with good employment practices to empower their staff

Part of this commitment meant that Something Familiar has engaged with good employment practises and associations such as the Living Wage Foundation. The Real Living Wage is voluntarily paid by almost 9,000 UK businesses who believe that people deserve a wage which meets everyday needs. The advantage of this is that we consider our freelance roles in a ‘permanent’ frame of mind – which has resulted in both our Junior & Senior Designers becoming full-time members of the team.

Something Familiar has a flexible working policy, which means that where possible, members of the team can work remotely, or from home and adjust hours around specific needs. While recognising that the pandemic has changed ways of working for the Something Familiar team, it also changed for the majority of clients, so Something Familiar has continued to add and develop hybrid working tools such as virtual meetings, online chat, project management systems and cloud storage. Many of these tools have been adopted by clients after experiencing how efficient this way of working has become.

Something Familiar openly encourages discussion and conversation around mental health. In 2021, the company produced a wellbeing workshop – in which all members of the team participated to discuss and define actions around wellbeing needs in the workplace. This workshop is repeated with every new member joining the team. Some other wellness initiatives have included ‘No Meeting Wednesdays’ during lockdown, which allowed the team time to focus and have a break from the pressure of online meetings. And also checking in with one another daily by asking ‘How are you, TODAY?’.

Something Familiar recognises that we are only as good as the talented people we hire. We strive to cultivate a diverse team and have adopted tools such as ‘gender bias decoder’ – a tool for writing job descriptions that are checked for unconscious bias – to help a fairer recruitment system. We invest in a yearly training budget for each employee to allow them to develop their skills and help their work progression. We regularly share ‘Stuff We Like’ with one another, watch design talks, go to exhibitions and have socials where we make or learn new skills. Every week Something Familiar has ‘Future Friday’ where everyone focuses on non-client work and instead works on their development or ideas to grow and improve the business.

Something Familiar strives to foster an open feedback environment, where we encourage the team to feedback through open and effective communication as well as more formal consultation like 360º appraisals and written feedback. We encourage all of the team members to form relationships with clients and feel comfortable challenging them, which ultimately leads to a stronger, healthier and more collaborative environment and results in much more enjoyable and productive outcomes for both our clients and the team.

Something Familiar is proud to have formed and grown during a very unexpected time of change. And we’re excited to continue to grow and adapt without ego, presenting our ideas in ways that make sense for everyone, empowering our clients and trusting each other to do good work.