Escape 100 | Lightful listed in the Top 100 purposeful organisations to work for in 2022

We are thrilled to be part of the Escape 100 list for the second year in a row with the top purpose-led companies to ‘escape to’ in 2022! 🎉

Beating some 13,000 other company nominations, we are excited to be in this list thanks to our inspiring mission, positive impact and flexible working environment - ranking alongside social enterprise giants like Oddbox, OLIO, Too Good To Go, Moving Worlds and more.

The Escape 100 campaign was started by Escape the City. While on their mission to help 1,000,000 quit their corporate jobs and find work that matters to them and the world, they began to wonder: what actually makes an organisation different, forward-thinking, and impactful? They came up with a scoring system of 6 criteria (Impact, People, Mission, Planet, Innovation and B-Corp) to rank companies, including anonymous employee reviews - and ‘The Escape 100’ was born.

Our CEO, Vinay Nair, commented on what the campaign means to the company:

We are absolutely thrilled to have been included again this year in the ETC 100 list. One of my mentors used to always say: “great people, every time, no exceptions”. How right she was! Our exceptional colleagues at Lightful have been consistently delivering for our incredible clients— charities addressing some of the most urgent social problems around the world. We are particularly delighted to be in the esteemed company of so many organisations that we admire greatly. Many thanks to everyone at ETC for this recognition once again this year.

Steve West, Lightful’s People Director, shared his thoughts on what it means to be included in the top 100 purposeful organisations to work for in 2022:

When I made the decision to join in September last year, Lightful being placed in the Escape the City Top 100 for 2021 was hard proof that my gut feeling about Lightful being an amazing organisation to be part of was right. I am extremely proud to be part of Team Lightful.

We are all excited to be on the list again in 2022 with 99 other amazing purpose led organisations. It's a very humbling thing! Along with our B-Corp status, which we achieved in 2020, it proves that not only does Lightful have a huge impact, but that we are a great place to work too!

A large part of the scoring for this award is about People and Culture. This isn't just about a small number of key individuals, processes or policies, it's the sum of the parts of everything that happens through our people. This award is recognition for everyones hard work, passion, commitment and efforts each and every day.

What's next for Team Lightful, then? Steve West answers:

Our mission is that those doing the greatest good deserve the best technology. We look for individuals who share our passion for our mission and who evidence this in every step of the recruitment process. We're unique in what we do, we're a diverse and unique group of individuals, so a CV/cover letter which has clearly been sent to multiple companies doesn't work for us. We want to understand what makes you unique and feel your emotional connection to our purpose.

This campaign comes at a key moment in working history. Since the pandemic started, employees all over the world have been given time to think about what really matters to them, and are increasingly prioritising finding new meaningful, flexible and forward-thinking work environments (as reported by The Times). In Escape the City’s recent survey of 1500 job-seekers, 89% want a career with a clear sense of purpose (up from 71% in 2015), with 73% saying that their reflection time during the pandemic has made them reevaluate their path. Furthermore, for 74% of professionals a flexible working location is the primary barometer they use when choosing a new role.

Dom Jackman, Founder of Escape the City, explained further: “The job market is still dealing with the impact of the pandemic, and jobseekers will have to work harder than ever to find opportunities that align with their values. This list has been designed to rank organisations on the metrics that really matter. What are they doing to save our planet? How do they look after their people? What problems are they solving? These are all things that jobseekers want to know in 2022, and we hope this list helps talented people discover interesting opportunities and organisations that they might not have found otherwise.”

Check out The Escape 100, 2022: Top purpose-led companies to ‘escape’ to in 2022 here to see our organisation’s ranking and read our employee reviews!