How J’adore Models became a leader in representation and inclusivity

J’adore Models is a Manchester-based modelling agency known for their inclusive and innovative approach to talent representation, with around 20 employees working across two locations. 

They are award-winning in their approach to representation and diversity and believe that investing in people and creating a culture of respect, honesty and collaboration is key to driving positive change within their team, industry and the wider community.

We caught up with Jess and Harriet to hear how Stribe has helped them build on their values and culture and create a connected and collaborative team. 

For organisations on the fence about employee engagement tools, J’adore’s experience is clear – Stribe isn’t just a platform for collecting feedback – it’s a tool for creating meaningful conversations and driving change.

By starting small, building trust, and embedding engagement into their day-to-day, businesses can unlock their team’s full potential.

Thank you so much for chatting to us! To get started, it would be great to hear more about how you use Stribe?

Harriet: Stribe’s shout-outs are one of the main ways we use it day-to-day and they have become a firm favourite across the team, with everyone getting involved with them.

We’re seeing a lot more being sent now compared with our old system.

Employees use the shout-outs to celebrate each other’s successes and hard work. We’ve even seen them bring their shout-outs to appraisals and team meetings which has been so nice to see!

We also use Stribe to support a lot of our wellbeing initiatives, like our quarterly wellbeing sessions.

From laughing yoga to team walks, we use Stribe’s surveys after these events to help us understand what works and doesn’t work for employees, and what we can do to improve next time. Some of the feedback has been really interesting and unexpected!

Jess: Stribe’s surveys have also really helped us open up honest conversations on important topics including working hours and even refining the company’s bonus structure.

It’s something that we wanted to see when we introduced Stribe and it’s been great to see it happen. 

Harriet: We’ve just finished our survey planning for the year ahead – we want to use Stribe for regular monthly surveys so that we can start touching on every element of employee engagement and being proactive about that.

Our aim is to feel ten steps ahead going forward. 

Each month we’re going to send out a survey that explores 3-5 questions around a different theme, and we’ll balance that with any reactive things that come up that need to be addressed.

Jess: We’re going to focus on topics such as wellbeing, pay and benefits, career development – we know these are important topics for our people so it’s important to us to stay relevant and fresh in all areas.

Rather than an annual approach, we want to keep the dialogue flowing across the year so we’re getting honest and accurate pulse checks.

Staggering these topics across the year gives us time to digest feedback, dig deeper and action any relevant changes rather than trying to do everyone at once, once a year.

What was your process for employee feedback and employee engagement before Stribe?

Jess: Before Stribe we relied on a combo of things such as a physical post box for feedback, suggestions and Google Forms.

We also made sure to share any positive feedback from the post box in team meetings so everyone could hear the great work that was going on.

While these methods worked to some extent, they did have limitations.

The post box isn’t practical now we’re across multiple sites, and Google Forms lacked anonymity which may have hindered some more open discussions.

We like the psychological safety that Stribe offers our employees.

We’ve previously always used meetings as another place to share updates with the team and gather feedback, particularly when there were bigger organisational changes, but we’re aware of unconscious biases that take place in these settings.

What works well about Stribe is you can start the conversation and it’s all anonymous, so we’ve been able to overcome those drawbacks. 

We also like that with Stribe you can start the conversation.

You can throw a question out there and then dig into the different threads of employee feedback when you need to, in some cases bringing it back out of the platform into a face to face setting once confidence has been built, to make real meaningful change.

Stribe really helps us get into the details of the conversations employees are starting, and we’ve had numerous pieces of feedback through Stribe that we’ve been able to dig into and action immediately, sometimes it’s more ongoing but where we can we use the ‘You Said, We Did’ function so that it’s even more clear that as a company, we’re genuinely listening. 

What’s the main purpose of Stribe within J’adore?

Jess: When we started our Greater Manchester Good Employment Charter journey, we were recommended Stribe as a way to enhance the work we were doing around employee engagement.

We saw how important it is to go beyond the basics of employee engagement, and Stribe helps us do that. 

For us retention of staff is absolutely key.

It’s about creating a workplace where people feel valued and supported.

We know that people are always going to be thinking what they’re thinking and it’s better that we hear it so that we can show them we’re open to listening and creating a workplace where they’d want to stay long-term. 

We’re always open to listening, and we wanted to find ways to have a productive conversation about it.

We did have a few ways to support this, such as a Whatsapp group and regular team meetings, but Stribe gives us a way to create a space where employees feel comfortable being honest and sharing detailed feedback. 

What would you say to someone who is on the fence about taking on Stribe?

Jess: People are already thinking and talking about this stuff – it’s better that you hear it from them – and Stribe is a manageable way to hear it, so you can try and use it to create change.

How does Stribe contribute to the bigger picture at J’adore?

Harriet: We’re really looking forward to the next 12-months, the plan for this year is to build on what we’ve started with Stribe.

It’s helped us lay the groundwork to get everyone throughout the team from a junior level up to feel more confident in sharing feedback and speaking up.

We’ve really seen the value of having a system that employees can use in their own time and space.

We’ve also seen the importance of having a tool like Stribe for the business – even though we have an open-door policy and 121s, not everyone feels comfortable speaking up in those environments and Stribe helps them do that. 

Jess: Stribe has been helping us connect the dots between those pieces of day-to-day engagement and the bigger picture of what we want J’adore Models to be as an employer. 

It’s given us a way to really understand what our team needs, whether it’s through the anonymous feedback messenger or regular surveys.

It’s given us insights to allow us to make meaningful changes, from tweaking our wellbeing initiatives to improving communication across the business.

We’ve recently opened a London office and there are lots of changes we’ve had to put in place to our practices and processes to support a more dispersed team.

We used Stribe a lot to understand from employees what those changes should look like in reality. 

How are you adapting the business using the feedback you’ve received from Stribe?

Jess: We’ve made some really positive changes from the feedback we’ve had through Stribe.

For example, one area we’ve done a lot of work on recently has been our bonus scheme and more flexibility around working hours.

Feedback from Stribe helped us understand what’s most important to our team, which meant we created these changes with their feedback in mind.

It means the changes have been really positive and worked well for everyone. 

Harriet: It’s also been great to see how our wellbeing sessions have been landing.

With the feedback we’ve received, we’ve been able to understand more about what the team has found most impactful.

It’s been really interesting to hear what the full team values, it’s not always the big external wellbeing sessions that have the most impact, sometimes it’s something smaller or internal.

It’s feedback we keep in mind when planning these sessions to make sure they’re really useful for employees.

Have you got any favourite stories where Stribe has really worked in your team?

Harriet: For us it’s definitely been the shout-outs.

Overall they’ve been really positive and we didn’t appreciate how impactful they would be.

Employees have really taken to them, it’s been really nice to celebrate those things and it’s been great to see how they’ve been embedded into everyone’s day-to-day. There have even been a few shared on LinkedIn! 

Jess:  In so many cases, the changes we’ve made based on employee feedback have been relatively easy to make.

They didn’t take any extra resources or impact anyone negatively, but it’s made a big difference for people which is what it’s all about.

Some are more about starting the reflection process and digging deeper.

Finally, what do you think is the key to a happy team?

Jess – For me, I think it’s purpose – knowing that you’re making a positive difference and you’ve got a genuine purpose to come to work. 

Harriet – I would agree – knowing that you have a purpose is really important for happy teams, that and helping employees feel valued for the work they do.

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