byte5 Honoured with Gold Award

The New Work Star was awarded in Nuremberg in November. byte5 was nominated for its trust movement and founder Christian, employer branding expert Jessica and PR manager Laura were present for the awarding ceremony. In her follow-up report, Laura reveals how this special evening went.

Outside it may be cloudy, but on the inside, we are beaming. We, that is Christian, Jessie and me. The three of us are sitting in a festive atmosphere in the audience of the New Work Star award ceremony and are keeping our fingers crossed for the entire byte5 team. When we applied for the award back in May, we would never have dreamt that byte5 would prevail against well-known competitors and thus make it among the nominees for the New Work Star. The award is presented as part of the Expert Management Congress PROFachkräfte, which focuses on the future of work organisations and their staff.

We are grinning at each other in satisfaction when, at the end of the gold laudation, the juro” summarises the new work innovations of the winner before revealing the company’s name. “The gold winner was able to convincingly redesign work in the company. Its unlimited paid vacation model, which is far from being widespread in Germany, is particularly impressive”, says the laudator and she takes a solemn break. Behind her is the lettering “New Work Star“. The audience looks up to the stage. The star-shaped awards – sorted neatly from gold to bronze – stand on a table on the right, waiting to bring joy to their owners. “In addition, the company is committed to a democratic management culture and to the full flexibility of working hours and places of work”, she continues. “Congratulations to byte5!“ That‘s us! Jessie, Christian and I are asked on stage, where the juror congratulates me enthusiastically on our award.

The rest of the evening flies by: photos are being taken, interviews are being filmed, hands are being shook, people drinking, snacking and networking – until the three of us, tired yet inspired, make our way home to Frankfurt. As we jet down the highway, we think about the way our trust movement has come.

It all started about two years ago. Due to the strong growth of the team and the associated new challenges, freedoms had initially been restricted. That hadn‘t been good for employee satisfaction. The style didn’t fit byte5 either. A new solution was needed. In a constant exchange with the team, our managing directors Christian and Chris first got rid of having to have home office requests approved. A little later, they announced there would be no more core working hours. Then, in the summer of this year, they placed the entire work organisation in the hands of the team by introducing the unlimited paid vacation policy.

What followed was something that I can only describe as a “medial wave”. Media representatives from radio and television stations and from newspapers interviewed us and published articles about our unlimited paid vacation policy. At the same time, we were also nominated for the European Business Awards for our “People and Workplace Development”. To our great joy, however, this was not the last nomination: In September, Christian and I were invited to the Berlin Trendence Awards, where we made it to the shortlist of the category “HR Innovation of the Year”, alongside renowned German companies. Our trust movement was voted 8th: an acknowledgment with which we are more than satisfied.

So, a special year is coming to a special end. After the efforts of our management and the commitment of the team, byte5 can be happy about not only a high level of employee satisfaction and productivity, but also to the honours we have received since summer. And our Golden New Work Star – which, as we approach Frankfurt, is still safely stowed in the back of Christian's car – is a very special one.

I can tell you a lot about our culture of trust, but I can show you, too! As part of our New Work Star win, we did not miss the opportunity to entrust the Lichtschreiber agency with producing a short film about our company culture. Have a look yourself!

We would like to thank the jury of the New Work Star and congratulate all other winners, especially greple, with whom we share first place.