Platform employees are used to dealing with a middle man. As the intermediary lender of Britannia Building Society, Platform works with financial advisers and brokers rather than directly with the customer. But there is no middle man between Neville Richardson, Britannia’s group chief executive, and the company’s 250 Canary Wharf-based staff.

“If anyone at Platform doesn’t know who Neville is I’d be surprised,” says David Tweedy, Platform’s managing director since 1989, 12 years before it was taken over by Britannia. “He’s comfortable talking and asking questions, engaging people.”

As Britannia’s intermediary arm, Platform provides buy-to-let, self-certification and non-conforming mortgages. In the UK market, about 66% of people moving house arrange their mortgage through a broker. Platform offers its own financial products, however, not those of Britannia and isn’t a high street brand.

Its staff, nonetheless, are ultimately Britannia employees and their views helped the building society earn its rank of second in this year’s Best Big Companies to Work For list.

It is a credit to Richardson, winner of the Best Companies special award for best leader of a big company, that Platform employees, who are based 177 miles from the Staffordshire head office, do not feel he is a remote leader. “When Britannia acquired Platform, our priority was to integrate,” explains Tweedy.

The company’s dedication to staff engagement comes from the man at the top. “The evolution will continue,” Tweedy says, adding: “In Britannia, there’s a lot of importance placed on implementing and embedding change and on our awareness of other people.

“The way Neville develops leaders is consistent with how he leads. It’s not ‘do as I say’, it’s ‘do as I do’.”

Richardson’s monthly “captain’s table” question and answer sessions with employees allow people to raise concerns or suggestions over lunch with the boss. Any member of staff from anywhere in the business, including Platform, can volunteer to attend. Tweedy himself also holds similar sessions with Platform employees, whose opinions are not only listened to, but sought out.

“It’s Neville’s approach cascading down to other levels of the organisation,” says Tweedy. “Britannia is up there as a role model on how to develop leaders.”

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