CPO, Signable: The people-first practices behind our 98% retention rate

Fresh off the back of a multimillion-pound investment round, and with recruitment, retention, and engagement already at outstanding levels, Signable is a company on the up.

The funding marks a new phase for the document software firm, with inevitable change on the horizon. However, there remains an unwavering focus on keeping culture tight, doing right by people, and driving performance through trust and engagement.

Chrissie Green, Chief People Officer, tells HR Grapevine how Signable is delivering inclusive, flexible, and people-first employment practices that guarantee effective collaboration, proactive problem-solving, and high-quality service for customers.

How would you define Signable’s workplace culture?

We’re people first. Everything is based on trust; through all of our policies, everyone gets trust from day one.

As we continue to grow, the culture will shift a little bit because different people come in – but we put in the foundations early on, and we always go back to our values. Because they’re so strong, the culture is tight, and we’ll continue to make sure people are aligned as we recruit.

How has it shaped the company’s journey from founder-led startup to a £3.7m SaaS business?

Our CEO and Founder, Ollie, and I always say, ‘What’s the right thing to do?’

He always says he wants to be able to sleep at night, and that’s not done by making sh***y decisions. And that's been tough sometimes when you're balancing between the commercial side of the business and people's lives.

But we treat everyone as human beings, and because our foundations and values are solid, it’s easy to come back to them during those decisions. We just got a multimillion-pound investment, so it’s a big moment – we’ve redone our values to make sure they’re solid and still reflect us.

What inclusive, people-first practices are in place at Signable?

I speak to every new starter, and so does our CEO. I say to everyone, your family and your health come first, no questions asked.

Everyone has different types of caring needs. If your family needs you, then that's where you need to be. Work has to be done, but not at the expense of someone's personal health or to the detriment of their family. That's where our flexible working comes in.

It’s different for everybody, whether that's children or carers, or just having that work-life balance. We don't have a one-size-fits-all approach. We just take everybody as individuals and see how we can work around them.

Our flexible policies include allowing people to work from wherever they want – obviously taking into account the fact that they can only spend 90 days a year out of the country for tax implications.

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We've got somebody whose partner is from Poland, so he goes out with her so she can get to see her family. He can work out there. We've had someone in the past who wanted to explore Japan, but couldn't afford to take three months off. They worked from Japan and took holiday in between to allow them to be there for three months and really absorb the culture. That was really important to them.

We trust people to do their job no matter where they are.

How do you embed workplace wellbeing?

Wellbeing is in the day-to-day. We have a wellbeing team, which is part of our ‘culture club’; mental health first aiders that people can reach out to; obviously, counselling if people need further support. There are several different routes that they can use.

Beyond that, we don't do annual reviews; we do weekly one-to-ones with our managers. It’s easier for managers, especially in a remote business, to check in and have those honest conversations, maybe see some subtle changes, and ask if everything’s ok.

Culturally, wellbeing is not a taboo subject at Signable. Lots of people talk about their mental health within the business. We use Slack for our main communications, and people use the ‘not 100%’ icon if people aren't feeling quite their best but are ok to work. It’s done at all levels of the business.

We also do wellbeing events throughout the year, and those initiatives are often remote and always based on employee feedback.