You can never anticipate what people will say about their employer — and this is particularly true when it comes to former employers since there are some factors you can’t control. The following is a non-exhaustive list of things you can do as a company to create an open, transparent and focused environment for employees to thrive and be themselves.
Some of the initiatives that we at Local Logic have introduced that have garnered positive feedback from our employees include a focus on:
Prioritizing work-life balance. When it comes to work-life balance, we recognize that there is no one-size-fits-all approach. What we can provide as an employer, however, is an environment where employees are free to do what’s best for them.
For instance, everyone at Local Logic has unlimited PTO. So no matter the reason, employees are empowered to take time off as they see fit. And to take it one step further, you must take a minimum of 15 days of paid time off every calendar year. There is no cap on vacation beyond this minimum amount, and this excludes paid civic holidays and company-wide holidays.
We also implemented Flex Fridays wherein employees can choose to use their Friday afternoon in any way they want, be it to focus on an important task or to get an early start to their weekend.
Allowing flexible working schedules. As a remote-first company, our team is spread out along multiple time zones. Thus, it is essential to create an environment that’s designed for asynchronous work. Life can be unpredictable, so our structure accommodates that.
Creating an environment of recognition. Startup life can be hectic, and timely recognition easily be forgotten — especially in a virtual environment.
To overcome that problem, we organize a weekly demo day where employees can showcase their work and recognize others for their contributions. We find that this really helps strengthen cross-functional collaboration.
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Focusing on mental health and wellness. We want to take a proactive approach to mental health and wellness. To that end, we started a few initiatives:
- First, we schedule quarterly mental health days where the entire company is off. We usually try to line them up with public holidays to give our team four-day weekends.
- Second, every employee has access to a Headspace subscription. Meditation has proven to be a really helpful tool for many.
- Finally, every employee owns a home and wellness budget that they can spend on anything that suits their needs.
Listening to the employees and taking action. As a people-first company, we always want to hear from our team. To that end, we run regular anonymous surveys to gather feedback on it. Additionally, our Mental Health and Wellness Committee gives our employees an open space to discuss and propose initiatives. Company-wide action regularly comes from there.
Ongoing education and professional development. It is in every company’s best interest to encourage employee growth and professional development. Our team is empowered to continue learning via an individual budget that is designed for that.
Everything is done intentionally with the goal of creating a genuine environment where you, as an employer, care about your employees and have policies that are there to help them become not only excellent teammates but also naturally great company advocates — from current to former employees.
Employees then fundamentally feel like it is a great environment where they want others in their network to join. Ultimately, talented people want to work with other top talents in a creative environment. If you strive to create that, then the advocacy becomes natural.