As government spending comes into sharp focus amid wider market pressures, we know how important it is that everyone, including public sector suppliers, rigorously scrutinise how they deliver value for money.
We also understand that cultural fit and social value are important when it comes to choosing a partner.
Culture and social value
Because we are an employee-owned business, every person here plays their part in deciding our structure and strategy. This means we have a unique culture, built by every member of our 200-strong team, and we have structured our organisation to ensure our clients and people come first.
Prioritising value
For us, working well and delivering value are priorities. Our commitment to teamwork enables us to deliver quality outcomes together.
One senior client, from His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service, said:
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Some consultants rely on flashy templates and quirky workshop routines, but what I really value from Clarasys is their ability to consistently cut through even the most intractable tasks to find solutions, and then blitz through the necessary work with relentless enthusiasm. The Clarasys team have helped us go further and faster and achieve more than I thought possible. They brought enthusiasm, fresh thinking and the skills to deliver at a pace that has turbo charged the whole team. I also think I’ve benefited personally from working alongside the Clarasys team in terms of skills transfer.
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We understand the complexity of delivering citizen-facing services on time and within budget. Our success is measured on whether we have delivered, to the client’s satisfaction, what we promised. We guarantee 100% of our work and if our clients aren’t happy, we will cover any associated costs for free. We can do this because, as an employee-owned business, there are no demands from external shareholders or Partners within the business.
No employee sales targets or commission
An important part of our structure is an absence of employee sales targets and commission. Our ‘no target’ structure means our people focus solely on what is best for the client, and our recommendations are objective and can be trusted.
Instead, our people are measured on direct feedback from clients and how well the client teams operate after we leave. On every project, programme, product and service we aim to upskill the client team so that our knowledge remains in-house.
Pro bono work
As part of our commitment to the not-for-profit sector, every person who starts work here spends six weeks on a pro bono charity project. This gives our people the opportunity to understand our culture and the way we work.
Recently, we have worked with justice charities that focus on rehabilitation. These projects leave an indelible impression on our consultants because their work has made a lasting difference to many people’s lives. Our sustainability experts also run pro-bono materiality workshops as standard to identify the environmental and social benefits we want to progress.
Working collaboratively within a multi-supplier client team
To be successful, our people need to be able to work well within client teams. As such, delivering excellence as teams through collaboration is one of our most important values. We put every new employee through a two-day course focusing on their own emotional intelligence to understand how they can better impact team dynamics. This equips us with the skills we need to work within client teams.
Our focus is always on our clients’ goals, not individual supplier’s goals, and our consultants respect the boundaries between different suppliers. Clarasys sits at the centre of a partner ecosystem of SMEs, enabling us to collaborate and deliver the best solution for government departments while supporting SME growth. We have used our expertise to support Voluntary, Community, and Social Enterprise organisations working alongside the government (such as Switchback, Nehemiah Project, and Crimestoppers). We also integrate ourselves in teams to avoid siloed working because we enjoy working with others.
Fighting environmental crisis and enabling a green economy
At Clarasys, sustainability is a core part of our strategy. We are part of the Sustainable Business Network, the UN Global Compact, and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. We are also in the process of establishing a science-based net-zero target with the Science-Based Targets Initiative (SBTi), and are committed to becoming a circular organisation.
Our experience in delivering sustainability consulting makes us a suitable delivery partner for G-Cloud 13 contracts focused on sustainability. In recent years, we have successfully helped clients define and implement strategies, design circular processes, embed sustainability into their customer experience and organisational design, and set up carbon reporting.
Recently, we explored opportunities for improved service design within a Government department to push towards delivering on net zero targets in a more efficient, user-centric way. We ran a series of tailored user research approaches for the service’s stakeholder group to capture detailed user needs and pain points, coupled with the creation of a holistic view of the as-is service, including core processes, capabilities, costs, and systems. Through our analysis, we were able to develop a complete roadmap to deliver against key recommendations, where improvements identified will both allow for a more successful service in the future, and also better enable innovation within the service which will help meet their goals of net-zero policy introduction in the future.
Conclusion
We value honesty and collaboration and that, teamed with our commitment to doing the right thing for our clients and people, make us a good match for the public sector, and our solid track record in this area is why these organisations choose to work with us.
