Our culture and values
Want to know more about what it’s like working for Scottish Enterprise, what values we work to and how we work together? Find out more about our culture and values.
Working at Scottish Enterprise
Scottish Enterprise is a place where you can be yourself. We welcome different strengths and perspectives to our friendly, flexible and inclusive culture.
We’ll nurture your talent and skills, so that you can be your best. And we’ll help you balance your work and home life in a flexible environment, where you feel empowered to decide how, when and where you deliver your best work for our customers and stakeholders alongside some core principles about how we work best together.
Our values
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Be ambitious
We will:
- Transform the future by embracing new challenges and opportunities
- Strive to make our organisation more accessible and inclusive
- Push boundaries to achieve more
- Set ambitious goals while delivering quality performance
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Be impactful
We will:
- Drive forward to deliver results
- Stand up for what’s right and take ownership of our actions
- Work together to achieve our shared purpose
- Make our impact sustainable
- Act with respect and empathy
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Be dynamic
We will:
- Be confident to take informed risks and make well-timed decisions
- Feel empowered to be our best
- Reduce complexity
- Continuously improve by listening and acting at pace
Everyday flexibility
We'll provide the flexibility and support you need to flourish and be your best in meeting the needs of the business and customers. We use a hybrid working model where you feel empowered to decide how, when and where you work, in support of our delivery.
We’ll do this by providing:
- A hybrid working framework, designed to unlock team delivery – everyone is expected to engage face-to-face with colleagues, customers and partners to build strong connections
- A culture that is rooted in our values, our amazing people, and our mission of helping the Scottish economy grow
- The opportunity for you to determine where and when you work from to ensure you can make the biggest impact in the delivery of your role
- A range of wellbeing resources to help keep you healthy and well at work and in your home life
- The flexibility you need to help you meet the demands of your professional life and accomplish the things you identify as priorities outside of your career
A diverse and inclusive workplace
At Scottish Enterprise, we're committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace where everyone feels valued, supported and able to thrive.
Our colleague diversity networks, known as ‘My Communities’, provide under-represented groups and their allies with opportunities to raise awareness, offer peer-to-peer support, and act as a critical friend to the organisation.
Each community aligns to a protected characteristic under the Equality Act and plays an important role in helping us shape an inclusive culture. Each community is also supported by a senior leadership ambassador, ensuring that issues raised are visible, heard and given a platform for resolution.
Our diversity communities
Disability Positive
Focused on creating an accessible and inclusive organisation where people of all abilities feel welcome and supported.
Working Parent and Gender Balance
Supports our working parents, throughout their careers, on the various stages and challenges of being a working parent.
Pride
Supports colleagues across the broad spectrum of sexual orientation and gender identity.
Multicultural
Promotes inclusion across race, ethnicity, nationality and faith, helping to build a culturally inclusive organisation
Multigenerational
Works towards an age inclusive Scottish Enterprise, recognising the value of all stages of working life.
Staying connected and involved
Each community hosts its own intranet page – making events, resources and updates accessible to all colleagues. The networks also work closely with our leaders and our Human Resources team to ensure they have an effective voice and the right support.
‘My Communities’ continues to evolve and introduce new initiatives. This includes our 'Human Library' – a safe space where colleagues can share lived experiences through storytelling and panel discussions.
We strongly encourage colleagues to become allies to 'My Communities'. At Scottish Enterprise, we believe that creating an inclusive workplace is everyone’s responsibility.
A connected community
We value the connections our people make outside of their immediate working teams. As well as our diversity communities, there are plenty of other ways to join communities and connect with each other. This includes:
- Hobbies and interest groups – from gardening to hillwalking, bookworms and gigs to travel and TV, it’s easy to connect with colleagues who have similar interests
- Support groups – with groups like our menopause support group and families with disabled young people, you can share your experiences and get support from others
- Fika – in Swedish it means “coffee and cake break”, so join our fika sessions for monthly 30-minute chats with colleagues you might never have met otherwise
- Volunteering opportunities – give something back to the community and connect with colleagues using paid volunteering days
Developing you and your career
We’re committed to supporting and developing our people. Alongside a wide range of online courses and development resources, we offer development opportunities such as bespoke training tailored to individual and team needs.
We also provide a range of in house opportunities, including courses, mentoring, coaching, job shadowing and individual assignments.
Everyone at Scottish Enterprise is actively encouraged to make space in their diaries for ongoing personal development too – whether that’s keeping up to date with industry developments, reading blogs from across the public sector, joining webinars, or experimenting with new tools and ways of working.
We also support professional fees, where this is relevant to your role, which can also give you access to continued professional development (for example, online resources and networks).
Career starter opportunities
We also support early career starter opportunities – a range of programmes that might suit you if you're just starting your career, or starting a new career.
Your voice, heard
Our colleagues' voices matter to us. Everyone has regular one-to-one catchups with their people manager to discuss how they’re getting on and raise any issues. We also send out regular surveys where you can share how you’re feeling about things like workload, sense of purpose, opportunities for growth, level of autonomy and more.
We also have employee engagement groups and when we’re working on big changes that affect you, like when we introduced our hybrid working arrangements. We’ll always make sure your voice is heard.
Join the team
If our culture sounds like a good fit for you, have a look at our current vacancies to see if there’s a role for you.
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