You may have met Dexter Dog, RedBalloon’s Chief Security Officer. Having been one of the very first employees, Dexter has been with us for three and a half years – in pretty much the same role. He has come to me and requested a career move otherwise he said he will walk!

He says he would like a move into a new role, something he can get his teeth stuck into.

Dexter tells me that he chose to work at RedBalloon because we do things differently… He said he really values our commitment to work-life balance and he loves the formal reward a recognition program. However, he does not want to have to leave to get career advancement. This can be difficult in a small business even if fast growing.

So I have a plan to move him into the marketing team. Not necessarily starting on strategic campaigns (His typing is just not that good)…So we will start him in promotions.

I discussed with our product team having a new experience called ‘Swimming with Dexter’ they totally canned the idea. I thought it would be fun.

Dexter is set for a career move, and unlike the 30% of people that move jobs because they are not recognised…or the 48% who will move within 12 months because they just are not engaged with their employer. Dexter will stay, he gets a lot of love and attention…but we will be moving him to a role that truly plays to all these strengths – Promotions Pooch.