Highgate ranked 22nd in this year’s Oxygen Fast-Growth 50 after swelling headcount from eight to 28 over its three most-recent sets of annual accounts (it now has 43 staff).
Here Highgate Services Director Paolo Rodia opens up on its four-day week model and services push
Find out more about the Fast-Growth 50 here.
What’s driven your growth?
I joined Highgate just over two years ago, and a key part of my role has been expanding our services-related and contractual business. This has enabled our sales team to change from transactional selling to leading with a business-driven solutions discussion.
As a 100% partner-led VAR, our strong services growth has been in partnership with our hand-picked, specialist partners.
For our clients, this means they have access to the best-in-class partners for the services they require. For Highgate, it means we do not have the pressure of keeping an internal team fully utilised, or concern over the skills shortage.
Does a four-day work week actually work?
Since we introduced a 4-day work week in 2022, we’ve gone from 16 employees to 43, and apart from a few small tweaks, the working model remains the same.
We continue to grow year-on-year, and last year we experienced nearly 50% growth, in what was considered a flat year in the industry.
In August last year, we conducted the Great Place to Work employee survey and the feedback we received was overwhelmingly positive. 98% of employees believe that Highgate is a great place to work.
With our four-day week, work anywhere model, we are able to recruit from a wider talent pool. We also find it’s a more inclusive way of recruiting, as many employees find it beneficial working from home and things like childcare can be easier. We’ve seen excellent employee retention too.
What’s the plan for 2025?
We will continue to develop our ESG strategy, with a focus on employee wellbeing, charity fundraisers and sustainability.
We are always looking to onboard new partners and service providers that complement our current offerings and expand our portfolio. We have built some strategic partnerships with disruptive vendors too, so will look at gaining momentum with them.
Overall, we would love to surpass £30m this year, and we think given all the foundations we’ve put in place, we might well do it.
