Anthony Mitchell, co-founder and chairman of Bendelta, speaks about the company's purpose, its wellbeing program, and the elements that make a great workplace
“Chief potential officer” may sound like an unusual job title, but Anthony Mitchell of Bendelta loves the creative intent behind it. In an interview with HRD’s Kylie Speer, Mitchell, who is also Bendelta’s co-founder and chairman, explains how his colleagues suggested the title based on the idea of having a custodial role and the purpose of realising human potential inside and outside the organisation.
As Bendelta eschews a traditional hierarchy reflected in a sort of “parent-child relationship,” Mitchell even jokes that even if he’s not CEO material, he has some potential. This informal leadership style may just be what companies need at this time.
In recognition of its innovative approach to people development, Bendelta won the gold prize as Employer of Choice in the 1–99 employees category at the Australian HR Awards 2021.
A creative concept that Bendelta has introduced is its “pods” consisting of 8 to 11 people who work closely together, similar to the way dolphins look after one another.
“[The] work of that pod is to focus equally on three things. On development of one’s potential. To help each other with that, wellbeing has to be there, to make sure people are okay and help them out before it becomes difficult for them. And finally, to make sure that we’re achieving the business objectives as well,” says Mitchell.
Mitchell believes that a good organisation is one where employees are treated as equals and where they enjoy trust, autonomy, and flexibility in working with clients, and in deciding where and what time to work. He emphasises that flexibility has been a part of Bendelta’s policy since the company was founded in 2003 and believes that such an approach leads to greater team achievements. For him, having a good place to work starts with hiring good people.
“If there’s one thing that we’ve done well, it’s the way that we’ve hired over the last eight years. The people are just caring and compassionate. This is everywhere, everywhere, throughout the organisation. They’re not people who are there to compete with each other or do better than each other. They’re there to collaborate and to work out how they can do things best together,” he says.
At present, Bendelta is developing the concept of “thriving projects,” which enables the organisation to measure the success of its endeavours from the point of view of both the clients and the personnel involved. This innovation gives employees an opportunity to examine their own learning and development process.
In response to pandemic-related challenges, Bendelta has created a “wellbeing scorecard” and conducted an anonymous survey to find out how people feel at work. Other beneficial steps include assigning “welcome buddies” for new employees, distributing care packs, and organising storytelling sessions for people to talk about their non-work interests.
“I think these tough times have helped good companies be stronger and challenge the ones that didn’t have that level of cultural glue that weren’t such a great place to work. So again, we’re thrilled to have won the award, but now I think the work starts again,” Mitchell says.
