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Industry Awards 2022: Hear From The Most Flexible Workplaces

28th Sep 2022

We’re ecstatic to announce that the 2022 Flexa Industry Awards are finally here! 

We’ve spoken to some of the flexible companies who are in the top 3 of their respective industries to understand more about their flexible working practices, and what makes them such a flexible company to work for. If you’re interested, you can also find out more about how the flexible working industry awards are calculated.

Anthemis

What makes Anthemis a flexible workplace?
Anthemis is a globally distributed team, focused on outputs and outcomes and we utilise flexible work arrangements such as part-time working, managing your own schedule and compressed hours to create a balanced and healthy workplace. We also have a work from anywhere practice, access to various types of paid and unpaid leave, a home office stipend, a mental and physical health support package plus some new items we’re working on to provide greater flexibility benefits to the team. We have regular feedback mechanisms with our team and our approach to flexibility is always highly rated as well as the support and encouragement the team provide to each other in managing their work and non-work lives.

Why we’re happy to be recognised as truly flexible

We’re delighted to be recognised as the first VC for our flexible working practices and benefits, we have spent a lot of time researching and piloting initiatives to support our team and regularly seek feedback on how we can improve. Our journey to this place has been a collaborative effort with our team and we’re proud to share the impact of this outside of Anthemis. We don’t believe our work here is done, we know this is a continuous process and we will strive to achieve consistent and sustained excellence in our flexibility practices.

What advice would we give to a company in our industry who are currently less flexible or are thinking about embracing workplace flexibility?
Talk to your employees about what flexible working means to them. Find out how they experience their work environment and what improvements they would like to see. To truly embrace flexibility you need to collaborate with your team and be open to hearing how sometimes even the smallest of changes can make a huge impact on their working life. Also, think about how you will bring to life the flexibility day to day, it is much more than having policies in place - it’s a mindset that needs to be woven into your cultural DNA and for your leaders to be walking the talk.

HR Business Partner - Cat Macdonald

Blood Cancer

What makes you a flexible workplace?

We have an agile working policy, which empowers our employees to have autonomy over when, where and how they work and focuses on outcomes. This allows us to build a great working environment for people with various working preferences, caring responsibilities and locations, harnessing this talent and delivering for our blood cancer community.

What advice would you give to a company within your industry who are currently less flexible, or is thinking about embracing workplace flexibility?

Focus on outcomes and removing barriers, this will help you attract, motivate and retain key talent!

Emerald Group

What makes you a flexible workplace?

We know our colleagues perform at their best when they feel trusted and are able to choose an approach to working that suits them best, which is why we evolved our approach to flexible working to allow them to choose when and where they work. This not only benefits us in terms of empowering our current colleagues but also opens up a wider talent pool to allow us to access skills, knowledge and experience that we may not have been able to reach locally.

Head of People - Katy Snell

Humn

What makes you a flexible workplace?

We know you’re a real person. And real people have good days, bad days, strengths, weaknesses, problems, and personal lives – so we’ll treat you like it.
From unlimited personal leave (which is completely separate from annual leave, fyi), to remote first working, we do what we can to make sure our superhumn’s have the best work-life balance. At Humn, you’re in the driver’s seat. Prefer to get up early and seize the day? Or perhaps you like to sleep in and smash your projects in the afternoon?

Maybe you like to work from the beach? Or the ski slope? However, whenever, and wherever you want to work, we’ll do everything we can to support you. All we ask is that you’re around for team meetings, the rest is up to you.

Tell us why you’re happy to be recognised as a truly flexible workplace

It’s really important to us that flexibility and support are at the heart of the Humn experience. Our goal is to treat our people like Humn beings, not human resources. Being recognised by Flexa shows we’re on our way towards that goal – and that’s something we’re really proud of.

Papercup 

What makes you a flexible workplace?

What makes us so flexible is that we fundamentally understand that everyone is different and needs the ability to do what works for them so they can produce their best work. We operate a hybrid model which allows us to blend remote working and time together and the team is largely left to translate that how they see fit. The hybrid model appreciates that both in-person and remote work have their associated benefits. As an example, deep work in an office environment may not be the best match, but for ideation it is. 

Historically, most would agree that there was a widespread failure among companies to understand the intersection of personal lives and work is unavoidable; people were left to figure it all out for themselves. The hope for us is that flexibility in the workplace, rather than pit home against work, allows us to help people manage both more easily and effectively, especially at times when one or the other is proving demanding. This creates a more inclusive environment and we continue to bake in flexibility wherever we can with unlimited vacation, nomad working options, and one parental leave policy regardless of caregiver gender.

Tell us why you’re happy to be recognised as a truly flexible company

We are happy to be recognised as truly flexible as we genuinely believe it is the right thing to do for our people! Now more than ever we see people looking to blend their work and home lives; flexible working is here to stay. 

If any companies are seeking to be more flexible our advice would be to ask your people what it means to them and then - just start. It can be overwhelming trying to navigate the many options but start with something, even as a pilot, and build on this over time.

Head of People - Kaylee Parkinson

Prolific

What makes Prolific a flexible workplace?

We are building a culture of work that reflects the needs of our customers, our employees and work very closely with Prolifico’s to build a flexible culture to be proud which reflects their needs as individuals.

I feel like we're given a lot of trust when deciding how to plan our days and manage our workload. As long as we're producing great work and getting it done, we're able to work around our other needs in life.

Tell us why, as a business, you’re happy to be recognised as truly flexible workplace

We are very intentional about the things we do at Prolific to be flexible, from our perks, benefits, guidance and policies so it’s great to be recognised for this!

Flexible companies are the way forward as they give employees a good work-life balance. Proud to work for a company that really focuses on flexible working.

The ability flexibility gives us to be inclusive and really live by our we celebrate our differences value ❤️

What advice would you give to a company within your industry who are currently less flexible or is thinking about embracing workplace flexibility?

It’s really important to build a workplace culture of flexibility with your employees. People work best when their needs are met so catering to them where you can is super important to help employees be their best selves at work. Providing greater flexibility to your employees will increase trust and in most cases, this will boost productivity. Happier employees = better work.

ScreenCloud

What makes you a flexible workplace?

ScreenCloud has always had a hybrid approach. We all have different preferences when it comes to getting work done, whether that be collaborating together in the office, or working from home with little distractions. Ultimately, we’re all about recognising output over effort -this means we trust our employees to get their job done! We also promote a healthy work/life balance with unlimited holiday, encouraging our employees to book time off proactively so they don’t experience burnout, as well as providing 5 days of volunteering leave, enhanced parental leave and an overseas working policy!

Tell us why you’re happy to be recognised as a truly flexible company

We pride ourselves on our flexibility. Trust and Transparency are one of our value sets, after all! Life happens - and life consists of more than someone’s job! -Our employees love being able to decide how and when they work and we’re really proud of our Flexified status; it’s a mark of distinction in an area that is a fundamental part of our company culture.

Our Flexa accreditation is measured on real-life criteria i.e. our policies and practices, and an employee assessment. It’s not performative, and it’s not a tick box exercise, it’s authentic. This authenticity is a reassuring additional element to our employee value proposition, and verifies for candidates considering working at ScreenCloud that we walk the walk - not just talk the talk! We’ve got ambitious goals as a company, and our partnership with Flexa helps us attract top talent as we grow as an organisation.

What advice would you give to a company within your industry who are currently less flexible or is thinking about embracing workplace flexibility?

We’re in an evolving world of work and really you either keep up, or you will find yourself hiring from an ever smaller talent pool. ScreenCloud feels quite strongly that while some companies are forcing people back to their desks all day every day, and others are proudly declaring 100% remote-first, we’re doing the right thing by giving people choice. One size does not fit all, and people are aware of this and flexing their rights to an experience of work borne of this ‘one size doesn’t fit all’ philosophy. There are a million reasons that being compassionate and empathetic in company governance and leadership are the right approaches for a healthy, high-performing culture, but ultimately, if businesses need no other reason to embrace flexibility, competitive edge is the one they should pay attention to.

Tilt

What makes you a flexible workplace?

Having also worked in a very flexible company previously and my team was even more so (being an international expansion, so everyone was in different countries etc). We have learnt different ways to work together and keep trust in our team!

Myself and Abhi also met at Revolut and sat next to each other, however, a few years later he moved to New York. However, we still managed to stay best friends over this time. So we are very used to working in a super flexible cadence and making it work.

Tell us why you’re happy to be recognised as a truly flexible workplace

We think one of the best traits in a team is to be extremely adaptable. To be able to adapt quickly as situations change. So we also see this as wider recognition of the team that we are extremely adaptable.

What advice would you give to a company within your industry who are currently less flexible or is thinking about embracing workplace flexibility?

Do it! In the long run, a happier team will be a stronger team.

Co-founder - Neil Shah

Tyk 

What makes you a flexible workplace?

Tyk started off as fully remote from day one in 2014, our founders were based in different locations, with young families, and they decided that in order to make things work Tyk will be a fully remote company, and offer that same flexibility to everyone, to be happy in their day to day work and life.

Tell us why you’re happy to be recognised as a truly flexible workplace

Because it’s not a slogan we just stick on job adverts to attract people, it’s the real deal, open diaries, open comms, complete trust and it’s great to be acknowledged for it

What advice would you give to a company within your industry who are currently less flexible or are thinking about embracing flexibility? Just learn to trust more, and if there is no trust, you hired the wrong people! Create a company with people who LOVE their work and are proud of it, so that when their boss isn’t in the room, it makes no difference, because they are always fully committed to their own job and delivering great results.

Head of Talent - Michal Akrabi Peleg

Vita Mojo

What makes you a flexible workplace?

Being a flexible employer is much more than offering tangible benefits such as flexible working hours or hybrid working. Flexibility is embedded into our company ethos and values, it’s our approach to working life and how we treat our people. 

We don’t have strict policies in place, we trust people to be able to discuss with their line manager their work-life alignment, which can be different for each person. If people need to pick up their kids from school, or need time to get their haircut or doctor's appointment, for example, people should feel comfortable they can take this time with no negative repercussions. 

By embedding flexible working into the culture it becomes a part of what it's like to work here, making it a way of working. This ultimately makes Vita Mojo flexible and allows us to continuously work on and adapt our policies to support this.

Tell us why you’re happy to be recognised as truly flexible workplace

A one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t suit every person and every team in the business. At Vita Mojo we are happy to be recognised as flexible, as we want to be able to cater for all people with a variety of needs. We’re all different and come to work with our own lives and responsibilities, and as a business, we want to operate effectively to manage that. This is what makes team members happy, and we are always striving towards happy and healthy team members who can be themselves at work.

What advice would you give to a company within your industry who are currently less flexible or is thinking about embracing workplace flexibility?

If you’re thinking about embracing flexible working, think of it as an iterative process, rather than a one-and-done initiative. Find out what your team needs and what would help them, try a few things and then iterate on it. Approach your team as adults and human beings with needs and concerns and flexibility as a way to support them. Focus on building relationships on trust, rather than overly prescriptive policies that dictate what people do. It’s a journey and one to iterate on over time but you’ll find that it results in more fulfilling relationships and a better workplace experience, which is a win for everyone!

Whereby 

What makes you a flexible workplace?

At Whereby, we believe in the power of distributed work – not only for our customers but for our team too. We’re taking our own medicine and finding ways to build a remote-first company that allows our team to manage how they work, when they work, and where they work.

Working from everywhere also means when we do our work becomes less critical. This is because we have people working from California to the Czech Republic, it simply doesn’t make sense to require everyone to strictly work from 9 to 5 where they are. For this reason, we’ve adopted a flexible working approach, and are 'hours agnostic'. What exactly does that mean? At its core, hours agnostic is a working schedule that allows our team to choose when to start and end their workday, and/or how long to take their breaks.

We use our overarching policy to guide us and treat each one of our colleagues like adults and, crucially, we trust!

This means we do not:

  • Track or log hours
  • Monitor team whereabouts
  • Measure a team member’s contribution by the time they spend online

Word Monster

What makes you a flexible workplace?

An open mind. This enables ultimate freedom, autonomy, and trust.

We live what we call our ‘life-first’ culture with three overarching principles: 

  1. Write With Bite (so we do great work and continue to build our reputation).
  2. Work your core hours every day, and no more [unless you’re particularly keen for paid overtime], being as billable as your role allows (so we get paid).
  3. Keep our clients happy (so we continue to get paid).

This means that so long as our talented people are producing magnificent work, being efficient and keeping a smile on our client’s faces, then our team can work whenever they like, however they like, from wherever they like.

Traditional agency life is tough, with long hours, often demanding clients and sometimes little appreciation or reward for your efforts. 

We’re quite unlike other agencies and their typical way of thinking about servicing clients.

We ensure that our team DOES NOT work more than their core hours. Because spending time with family, and friends or just doing whatever you need to do to chill out is far more important. We set clear expectations and boundaries with our clients.

The mantra for our writers is “You can only do what you can in the time that you have”. If additional time is ever needed on projects, then we pay overtime – and at higher rates too. But this is not expected – it is optional, by request. 

And in reality, no one even works additional hours anyway because we’re so good at ensuring the clients, projects and timelines are managed so well that there’s never any need to. 
A huge congratulations to all Flexified companies who are progressively working to challenge the standard 9-5 office environment. We applaud these companies for really putting their people at the forefront, recognising that inclusivity and choice are crucial to the future of work.