Guy Hayward, the CEO of Goodman Masson, holds a simple belief. Your choice of career is important but the environment you work in and the company you work for is even more so.

That is why he places the employee experience firmly on top of his agenda. He believes that investing energies in creating an environment that is fun and that allows freedom, creativity and openness provides the platform for careers to take shape and a unique employee experience.

‘The Experience’ has been adopted as the brand of working at Goodman Masson and it started with understanding that people want to have fun at the same time as developing as a professional. It continued with understanding what tools and infrastructure people needed to be successful and then acknowledging that it is all the little things that make a difference. Introducing Spanish, photography and art classes in working hours is just one example of making a difference.

Goodman Masson set an annual fund raising target of £50,000 for their chosen charity, ‘Help for Heroes’, a big number for a business of 110 employees. ‘The Experience’ set the tone for how this money would be raised. There needed to be quirkiness to their fund raising and there needed to be excitement and fun.

Setting out to break a world record and appear in the Guinness Book of records created that over night and followed Guy’s belief that the environment you work in, if fun and enjoyable, cements employee engagement.

Breaking the world record as the largest group of people dressed as superman ticked and becoming a super hero was a perfect match for ‘Help for Heroes’.

It was a completely unique experience for everyone involved including employee’s friends and family and will be remembered and talked about for years to come. Equally importantly it reinforced the message of ‘The Experience’ that working at Goodman Masson is about building your career at the same time as having some fun.

Some four months before the event Goodman Masson employees knew that on 20th August they would be breaking a world record but they had no idea what it was going to be. This mystery behind the world record attempt started the build up to the event with the perfect tone. The whole business was talking about it.

The announcement and subsequent internal branding of the world record attempt generated huge excitement, interest and enthusiasm for the day. These feelings of excitement were further compounded when, with just 4 weeks left to break the world record, the employees learnt that it was for the largest group of people dressed as superman.

The debate very quickly started internally on how Goodman Masson could turn the world record attempt into a day of collecting monies for ‘Help for Heroes’. The business soon learnt that after the World Record was broken the City of London police had granted permission for everyone to walk through the City collecting money. The sight of 180 people dressed as Superman in the city as you can imagine was certainly a spectacle. The sense of camaraderie and team spirit generated from this was a special feeling.

A world record was broken, officially recognised by Guinness and £7,300 was collected for Help for Heroes’. Plus apart from PR exposure in our industry and trade press there was coverage on the BBC, Capital Radio and OK magazine.

As someone said ‘I was one of the last people to take the costume off, so I think my inner child enjoyed dressing up as a super hero. What an amazing day!”