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In April 2022, we began trialling a 4-day working week. Whilst the introduction of a 4-day week is not brand new, adoption is still quite rare. A five-day week is now an outdated concept and we are proud to be part of a cultural shift that sees organisations moving from measuring based on hours worked, to measuring based on results.
Following the 100:80:100 model, we commit to 100% of the pay, for 80% of the time, in exchange for 100% productivity.
All Highgate employees are provided with Private Medical Insurance paid for by the company. We have included mental health support cover too which includes unlimited talking therapies, mindfulness app and online support community.
We welcome guest speakers to talk about wellbeing topics. Recently, we had a suicide awareness talk delivered by Steve Philip from The Jordan Legacy – a difficult subject to speak about, however a necessary one. We extended this talk to all employee’s family and friends too, as well as our sustainability and services partner, Agilitas.
We are a work anywhere organisation, believe that ‘work’ really is something do, rather than a place you go.
Linking our sustainability strategy with our wellbeing one! This year we have provided all employees with litter pickers and wildflower seeds. We also encouraged our teams to take a couple of hours away from their desk to go litter picking and plant the seeds. It has been proven that spending time outdoors and gardening can boost an individual’s mental health.
Time is the most valuable thing we have and we want to give our employees more of that time back. In March 2022, we changed our working hours from seven and a half hours a day to seven hours a day, with no impact on salary. This reduction gives our teams 10 hours a month back to spend with family, loved ones, doing hobbies or activities, or whatever they feel is important to them.
Taking place every Monday morning, we hold a company-wide Teams meeting. Everyone is encouraged to talk about positives from their previous week and seek advice on any challenges. It is an open, caring and non-judgemental environment. As we are a 100 per cent remote workforce, these meetings help to keep us connected, stimulated and a chance to check in on one another. We also encourage regular contact between employees throughout the week. Might sound a simplistic thing to do, it is, but the small things sometimes make the biggest impact!
We work with Ultimate Resilience, a team of psychologists to run independent employee satisfaction studies. It is important to ensure we maintain and improve how our employees feel.
93% of staff agreed with the statement ‘I feel supported by my manager’
100% of staff agreed with the statement ‘I feel included and kept up to date with developments at work’
93% of staff agreed with the statement ‘I feel happy with my work-life balance’
All employees are gifted their birthday off! We want to give them the chance to spend the day celebrating as they wish!
To make up for the missed company events due to COVID, in March 2022, we took our teams to Tenerife! The four nights were a combination of working and socialising, giving everyone a great chance to relax, build relationships and have fun! In June, we hosted our half yearly event in Oxford, where our teams got together for an office day followed by an evening out.
Each month, those opted in to the Highgate book club receive a non-fiction, personal development book in the post, or sent digitally. We actively encourage participants to take a break from their screens and dedicate time to reading and developing. Books we have read so far include ‘Atomic Habits’ by James Clear and ‘Ego is the Enemy’ by Ryan Holiday.
Designed to help us achieve our personal fitness goals, boost team morale and reap the mental health benefits, we dedicated the month of June to exercise! All employees that opted in were sent a book about health and exercise and added to a WhatsApp group, where everyone could post motivational messages and exercise updates.
Some participants set themselves goals and on reaching those goals, made donations to charity The Jordan Legacy. With the company matching all donations, we raised £600 to support their ‘Baton of Hope’ campaign. Find out more about the Baton of Hope here: https://www.batonofhopeuk.org/
