Our culture drives our revenue. Culture drives our strategy, not the other way around. We put our strategy on a single page to ensure that everyone can explain it and actively decide how it relates to their own objectives. – Con Mouzouris, Chief Executive Officer
The founders of Mantel Group recognised the importance of trust and how it creates a sense of ownership, belonging, and purpose – all vital to the success of the business. A technology consultancy specialising in digital, cloud, data, and cyber security, Mantel Group has grown rapidly since it was founded in 2017, both organically and through acquisitions; their headcount almost doubled from 2022 to 2024. Through its expansion, its key priority remains unchanged: to ‘develop the strongest culture and employee experience in Australian and New Zealand consulting and professional services’.
We put together a plan on paper of what Mantel Group could look like, six months before the company was born. We wanted to build a company that was different from what you’d typically expect a company to look like in the technology services space. We wanted to put people at the heart of everything we do and build a company around that. – Con Mouzouris, CEO
Why Mantel Group Chose Great Place To Work®
We’ve done Great Place To Work for the last 5 years. The questions in the Trust IndexTM survey are incredibly important to the way we wanted to set up the business – aspects around collaboration, trust, ethical leadership – and the way those questions are asked. Great Place To Work is external, confidential, and gives us a way to sense-check everything we’re doing. – Caroline Henshaw, Chief People Officer
The Great Place To Work Trust IndexTM survey was developed with the intention of providing “a recipe for creating a great workplace that could be followed by any leader in any organisation”. Through qualitative and quantitative analysis of interview data from companies representing a wide range of industries and sizes, statements assess employees’ experiences around credibility, respect, fairness, pride, and camaraderie.
[Other award/survey companies] reach out to us each year to be involved, but we haven’t participated in them. Although it’s important for us to try to be on the Best WorkplacesTM List, the survey data from Great Place To Work is more important for us. We’ve found the details in employee comments incredibly helpful. With some other surveys you don’t get a great deal of data, the questions are pretty minimal. – Caroline Henshaw, Chief People Officer
Culture coaching sessions by a dedicated Great Place To Work consultant provide additional feedback and support for Mantel Group, with insights provided around year-on-year changes. These allow Mantel Group to do a deep dive into its employee experience that directly influences its people strategy – an exceptional strategy that has landed Mantel on the Best WorkplacesTM List in Australia among medium companies for five years in a row. 89% of Mantel’s 850 employees – also known as Mantelorians – say that it is a great workplace.
It’s really helped our reputation and our name. Definitely, people that come here are interested in working in a good culture. What’s always been valuable is the feedback Valentina provides – her reflection and positivity has been incredibly helpful. Our first experience [with another survey company] wasn’t as positive; Great Place To Work is much more professional in terms of how it’s been run. Rebecca’s also done an amazing job in bringing things together, from the way she shares information and little case studies – those things are incredibly helpful. My expectations have been exceeded this year. – Caroline Henshaw, CPO
The results of Mantel Group’s Trust Index survey also gave insights that brought about a significant change in its communication strategy:
The biggest bit of feedback for us is some teams score really highly for benefits and other teams not as high, even though it’s the same benefits they can choose from. How come? We realised certain leaders are amazing at communicating things and certain leaders are not as strong. The biggest change we’ve had is coach leaders and ourselves to do strong communication campaigns. We didn’t actually need to change any benefits but we changed how we communicated it. Their engagement results became much stronger the next year. – Caroline Henshaw, CPO
What Makes Mantel Group a Best Workplace?
Employee Feedback Shapes Workplace Culture
Mantel Group is remarkably intentional about listening to and acting on the voices of Mantelorians.
After sharing the Trust Index survey results, a couple of leaders including myself visit all the office locations in Australia and New Zealand to follow up and ask, ‘is there anything you want to talk about that you didn’t want to put in the survey?’ We ask if anyone wants to have a one-on-one with us. We do that a lot, at least four times a year. We go and talk to them about strategy. – Caroline Henshaw, CPO
Feedback is seen not just as a tool for improvement, but a cornerstone of its culture. Mantelorians can exercise their voices through:
- Annual Great Place To Work Trust Index survey
- Pulse surveys
- Mantel’s bespoke feedback tool, CrewMojo
- Annual My Deal conversations
- Weekly ‘how are you feeling’ 2-question survey
- Project retrospectives – sessions where every team member can raise any issue, provide feedback, and agree on actions to improve
- Direct conversations
- Onboarding and exit interviews
This democratic approach applies even to organisation restructuring. McKinsey research found that approximately 70% of organisational change fails due to a lack of focus on culture1. Mantel Group took heed of this and in late 2023, started ‘The Great Debate’ to kickstart their rebranding, actively seeking input from all Mantelorians across the entire business and even clients, to articulate a common vision and concerns for the future of Mantel Group and its internal brands. It offered a chance for all Mantelorians to challenge it with different approaches and took the options to a vote, being sure to address the emotional attachments some Mantelorians have with their respective legacy brands, some of which had larger brand equity and longer brand histories than Mantel. More than 90% of Mantelorians voted for the new structure, and Mantel Group moved to execute the decision – all within eight weeks. The result? A 40% increase in average project value and a 20% increase in project length since 2022, with multiple process improvements and transactional efficiencies.
Mantel asked the entire organisation who we wanted to be as an organisation, who we want to be in the future. In my forty years, I’ve never worked for an organisation where leadership has asked the company, ‘we want to know what you think.’ – James Boswell, Principal Cloud Consultant
Organisational Design Increases Employee Engagement
Mantel Group has no traditional hierarchies and managers. Its structure is inspired by several concepts – Frederic Laloux’s Reinventing Organisations, General Stanley McChrystal’s Team of Teams, and Robin Dunbar’s Rule of 150.
Our founders intuitively grasped that an effective leadership strategy wouldn’t stem from top-down decisions but from a fundamental consensus on what not to do. This translates into not controlling and not prescribing. – Mantel Group employee
Every new Mantelorian is given a copy of Reinventing Organisations for them to learn what it means to be a ‘teal organisation’; characterised by self-management, wholeness (where employees can bring all of who they are to work), and evolution (where employees are tuned in to the company’s purpose and what it wants to become)2. Team of Teams refers to the organic formation of groups with decentralised decision-making and cross-functional collaboration; it nurtures the emergence of leaders in their domains, without formal selection processes or favouritism. Dunbar’s number is an evidence-based gauge of the sizes of effective social and working relationships.
Mantel Group has over 20 active Team of Teams, enabling Mantelorians to contribute to things they’re passionate about. The self-organised Sustainability Team of Teams has led Mantel Group to become Carbon Neutral since 2021 by measuring and offsetting its carbon footprint, and even helped it to become Climate Active certified.
I came from a traditional organisation and it was so incredibly hard to get things done. The flat hierarchy here at Mantel means we are empowered to make decisions and build and deliver initiatives. I also love how approachable leaders are. If you walked into a hub, you wouldn’t know who was the CEO or who was the new Associate. Everyone mixes and chats to one another. Actually, you will probably find the CEO cleaning the fridge or unpacking the dishwasher! That may seem trivial on the surface, but it actually has a big impact in people seeing that we are truly in it together. – Mantel Group employee
Mantel Group has a circular, not pyramidal, organisational design. Instead of managers, 340 People Guides at Mantel’s core encourage and guide all team members, complementing the Team of Teams model. People Guides are experienced individuals who act like enhanced buddies or coaches, helping new Mantelorians navigate their initial weeks and facilitating growth, communication, and problem-solving across multiple domains of expertise. The system is built on trust and empowerment, and employees work on peer-to-peer accountability in their respective team stand-ups and project milestones.
I’ve been at Mantel Group for nearly 4 years, and I’m very happy that despite the growth we have maintained the same flat hierarchy, and people first approach to everything it does. People are still easy to approach. I don’t have to jump through hoops to communicate any issues that may come up (both personal and on a client). Despite the number of employees, it still feels quite intimate. – Mantel Group employee
Self-management isn’t just a feel-good concept – it has shown to impact business outcomes. A meta-analysis of 6541 organisations by Professor of Management and Organisation Andreas Bausch from the University of Giessen in 20133 found that hierarchical cultures that emphasize control are less likely to be innovative, productive, or efficient. Studies from Canada4 to West Africa5 show that employees who are given autonomy perform better and go above and beyond their job requirements to support the organisation. Teams given autonomy strengthen their beliefs in their decision-making capabilities, which reduces absenteeism – and this effect is bigger when tasks are less routine, which is the nature of work of Mantel’s consultancy services.
No Policies, Just Principles
I work with awesome people who have no egos and value me for my expertise. The way we trust each other in a principles-led organisation to be the best we can be and empower us to do so. I feel I can bring ideas to the table, share my views and try things. It’s ok to fail here as long as you pivot, own it and learn. – Mantel Group employee
Mantel Group has no policies; instead, it trusts every single Mantelorian – that’s 850 people – to make decisions that align with the company’s values and principles, which are: Make Good Choices, In It Together, Communicate Directly, Love What You Do & Be Awesome At It, and Make Things Better. Instead of an expense policy, for example, Mantel Group simply tells its employees to ‘stay as close as practical to the venue while remaining within reasonable costs’ – empowering them to exercise ‘making good choices’. Reimbursement doesn’t require approval before they’re processed either. These five principles are in employment contracts, requiring everyone to understand and agree to them. They form the basis for every conversation around career development and for awards and recognition. They’re on company merchandise, and office rooms are named after them. Mantel Group also designs and delivers a leadership programme based on these principles.
Never in my previous 23 years of working could I feel the company’s key principles. What sets Mantel Group apart is that what we say on the tin is on the tin. Sure, we have times where it’s tough and we need to dig in, but I can recite the five principles because it’s so ingrained in what we do. The focus on relationships is something I can see every day at Mantel Group. People and relationships do come first. – Ben Bloomfield, Client Experience
Personalised Career Development and Employee Benefits
Every Mantelorian has a personalised “My Deal” arrangement to craft their own career development and benefits according to their changing needs every year. My Deal is discussed in a meeting with the People and Culture leaders on employees’ work anniversaries, a self-driven career reflection reviewing the previous year and looking toward the next year, where Mantelorians come to an individualised agreement with the company about what is important for each of them. For example, when Talent Acquisition Partner Emily Millard suggested that she would like more opportunities to present to a large audience, she got the chance this year to host the company’s fortnightly Q&As, where key business updates are provided and employees are encouraged to ask questions and give feedback.
The individualised approach is a massive standout. I feel that the leaders know me as an individual and continue to shape my role to play to my passions and strengths. My “My Deal” conversations are so personalised and we build on my passions every year. Leaders are also very transparent about what’s going on with the business that I understand where things are at at any point in time. – Mantel Group employee
Mantelorians are able to choose their benefits every year, including extra paid annual and parental leave, relocation, learning and development opportunities, fees for adult swimming lessons, wellbeing retreats, and the opportunity to work on passion projects unrelated to work. Milad, a Strategic Account Principal, was able to transit to part-time work after the birth of his child by spreading his use of his extra four weeks of paid parental leave from My Deal over 10 weeks, working three days a week instead of taking his leave all at once.
We all have different priorities as we move through life so in addition to our remuneration package, each year we get to pick something that matters to us that Mantel will contribute to, with the value increasing with tenure. – Mantel Group employee
Talent Acquisition Supports Minorities in Career Transitions
In what is perhaps unusual for the IT industry, Mantel Group prioritises hiring people who resonate with its culture first with a focus on behaviours. This creates an environment that Mantelorians enjoy working in, with minimal conflicts.
Being able to hire people with the quality [we’re looking for in] technology consultants is the biggest challenge for us. We hire people who don’t have experience and train them up, but we also need experience in technology. Culture fit is the most important. It’s hard, but we will never hire strong technologists if they’re not a good culture fit and that takes out a lot of people. – Caroline Henshaw, CPO
Mantel Group harnesses the strengths of individuals with transferable skills, leveraging their diverse backgrounds from previous industries. The Trainee Programme at Mantel, for instance, supports women and LGBTQIA individuals in transitioning or returning to a technology career, and addresses the gender gap in the technology industry. The gender gap at Mantel Group has narrowed, with 29% of its workforce now identifying as female and non-binary, compared to 19% before the programme was implemented. Over the past four years, Mantel Group has supported 83 women in advancing their technology careers.
Transitioning from a career in nursing to becoming an Associate Cloud Engineer, I joined Mantel Group through its traineeship program, tailored for career switchers like myself. This opportunity not only facilitated a substantial shift in my professional trajectory but also introduced me to a workplace culture that genuinely values its employees. I feel empowered to propose ideas that could benefit me personally, such as the opportunity to work from abroad while visiting my home country. My experience at Mantel has been incredibly fulfilling, both professionally and personally, thanks to its supportive culture and commitment to employee development. – Catie Strigenz, Cloud Engineer (previously a registered nurse)
In showing radical trust for Mantelorians, Mantel Group has saved well over $7.5million in hiring costs from its 54% referral rate for incoming employees, even without referral incentives. In the words of a Mantelorian, ‘I just think more people need to know about Mantel’ – truly, a great place to work.
Discover what employees value about working at your company, and how you can boost retention rates and increase productivity and performance with Great Place To Work CertificationTM.
