A Stoke-on-Trent creative agency has given more than 600 hours of free-of-charge services to local charities and non-profits – equivalent to more than £50,000 of work at its standard hourly rate.

ChattyDuck Creative, based in Fenton, has a team of four staff working across writing, multimedia content creation and quality assurance.

Since the business was founded in 2021 it has donated more than £2,300 to local causes, representing more than 4.5% of its post-tax profits for FY 2021/22 and FY 2022/23.

It works with clients in sectors including real estate and construction, manufacturing and industrial, automotive, logistics, energy and utilities, infrastructure, technology, travel and tourism, education and R&D, charities, non-profits and government.

Set up by Managing Director James Morgan, the company works with clients across the UK as well as in Europe and the Middle East.

James said: “Our modest size makes it easy to ensure we champion charities and non-profits that are close to our employees’ hearts, with each team member having a say in the causes we support.”

ChattyDuck is accredited by the Living Wage Foundation and is committed to having a healthy work environment.

All members of staff receive 30 days of paid annual leave plus the period between December 23 and January 2, no one other than the MD has access to work emails on their mobile phone and everyone is told to not work other than during their allotted work hours.

James added: “We understand that work-related stress is not only preventable, but also an organisational issue as well as a personal one.

“We appreciate that operating in a high-pressure, client-centric industry with exacting standards and tight deadlines can have a detrimental impact on employees’ mental wellbeing if not managed effectively.

“To this end, ChattyDuck has implemented a stress evaluation and mitigation tool that identified a series of mental health-related risk factors based on team members’ responses to an in-depth questionnaire. We then developed an Employee Wellbeing Policy designed to mitigate these factors and ensure a healthy work environment for everyone at ChattyDuck.”

ChattyDuck Creative has entered the Team of the Year and Business in the Community categories of the Staffordshire University Business Awards.