Pioneer Profile: Alex Voakes

It’s time that we recognise the people behind the evolving world of work. Our working lives have shifted to being more inclusive, more people-centric, more flexible, and just plain better for both employees and companies. 

These changes didn’t just happen: they were put into place and upheld by individuals and teams working to create a better working future for everyone. 

So we’re finally putting the spotlight on the people who make great companies great: the people-people.  

People-people are crucial to the success of every company. They find you the talent that drives you forwards, and they’ve taken on an increasingly strategic role in the past few years – often taking on responsibility for mental health, diversity and inclusion, culture, EVPs, Employer Branding and team happiness. 

Read more about the Pioneers List and go behind the scenes to understand how and why we’ve selected our Pioneers.

Tell us a little bit about your career history, and how you got to where you are now. What were the key milestones?

Hi! To start, I’d just like to thank everyone at Flexa for awarding me this, it’s a true honour and means so much to me. I’m trying to change the world of work for the better, and to be recognised for this when I wasn’t really looking for it is amazing! Thanks. 

Now to the question…

This is where it gets a little unusual, my career path isn’t a well-trodden one.

In 2008, at the age of 22, I took part in the Mongol Rally (with Tom Entract who now heads up Sales and Marketing at Peak!), driving a 1989 Fiat Panda worth £500 from London to Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia. This took quite a long time, but for the sake of this article I’ll say that the main thing I learnt from this is that people are decent and can be trusted. Countless occasions people would show us warmth and kindness and would go out of their way to help us. 

For example, on some of the more dangerous roads we encountered in Siberia, a man called Boris escorted us for three days, guiding the way, digging our car out of sand, showing us how to wash in the rivers. He had no reason to do this other than human connection.

This trip showed me parts of the world I would never have seen otherwise, and really set my world view that we have more in common than what divides us. 

To document the Mongol Rally trip, I had set up an account on Twitter, when you still had to send your tweets by SMS (I can’t believe that happened either). I used to text in jokes, and I started to get a decent following. At this stage of my life, I needed a regular income, and texting in jokes to Twitter wasn’t providing it. So reluctantly, I started to find myself on the UK Comedy circuit, almost by accident. 

I was on the circuit for 8 years, performing in dark rooms all over the country to anywhere from 1000 to 1 person (yes, the gig still went ahead). I found myself in some very unusual situations during this time, from a black-tie event at the Knightsbridge Rotary Club, a canal boat on the river Avon, and three runs at the Edinburgh Fringe. Some incredible experiences, but a lot of driving and a tough schedule left me burnt out and was impacting my mental health. 

One day I was at Worcester College in Oxford, in an unbelievable room, performing at their graduation ball, and it just felt like a good time to stop, I walked out of there completely satisfied and ready for something new. 

What I like about these years the most, is that when I’m old I won’t be thinking “I wish I gave that go”. I had some success, I died a few times, I met many interesting people with unusual world views. It was just an incredible part of my life, something I’ll always be proud of.

Here we go, getting to the proper work now, and Peak. 

Whilst I was working out what to do next, my dad was setting up a new business, an International EOR called Worldwide Workplace. 

The timing of this was perfect for me, and I thought it would be cool to work alongside my Dad for a while, help him out, and buy myself some time to make my next move. 

Paul was a pioneer of this industry, seeing the opportunity long before the rise of remote work. Having that vision and pioneering spirit really excited me and got me to know my dad better than I could ever have imagined. 

I only planned to do this whilst I was figuring out what to do next, well 9 years later I’m still in International EOR. 

I helped my dad build the business into something, from there over a few years it grew to a team of 4. The business gave me the stability I was missing whilst performing comedy 5 nights a week. And working with my dad and building something up together was an amazing experience, something I’ll always be proud of. 

What it didn’t offer me though, is the ability to bring all my previous experience to the world of work, to bring my full self to work.  For that I would need my own business.  In 2017 after a certain referendum in the UK, we required a business in the EU, so I took the step to set up my own International EOR in Ireland, Peak PEO. 

My vision for Peak was to make a truly progressive business, built around trust, transparency, and impact. An International EOR with heart, and not just looking for a profit and growth at all costs. We are aiming to be a great business, not a massive business, then if we get that right everything else will take care of itself. I’m fortunate to be in my position, and I believe that giving back, and staying true to the values I have always held, is the right thing to do. 

I have been in every single role here at Peak, and always left it to someone way more competent than me. We are up to a team of 21 now, fully remote, with full trust and transparency.

I want Peak to be a beacon of good business practises, employee engagement, sustainability, and charitable giving. A true impact business.

To set us on our way, and lead by example at Peak, I decided to join Giving What We Can, and pledged to give 10% of my income to good causes for the rest of my life. With this commitment and conviction in what I’m doing, I know that Peak can follow suit. 

I think that’s about it….

When did you become interested in the future of work?

Ten years ago, I read the book Utopia For Realists by Rutger Bregman, which has a chapter in it about 4 day work weeks. This is where it started for me, I found this fascinating. 

Since then, I’ve taken a huge interest in progressive working practices, and building a Business for Good, that works for its stakeholders not its shareholders. It is so important to me to treat everyone at Peak with the utmost respect and give them full trust. This enables the remote team we have to thrive; people can have autonomy to get their work done how they wish. 

As I don’t have a conventional career path, I don’t have experiences of big corporate life, 5 days in the office, micromanagement, that kind of thing. So, I’m very free to build a business how I think one should look. 

One of the cool things about stand-up is you can try things, driving to a gig you might think of something, and you can just say it that night and see if it works. I like to bring that same process to Peak, if I read something that engages me, we can discuss it and implement it the next week. 

What is the most impactful change that you’ve implemented?

For sure it’s the 4-day working week.

In 2023, I subsequently implemented the initiative in my own company, Peak PEO, in the form of ‘Ultra-Flexible Fridays’. This meant that the team had Fridays to dedicate to work if it desperately needed doing or could instead spend the day doing whatever they wanted. This worked to an extent, but I noticed that people, especially senior members of the team, were still online on Friday’s monitoring emails and messages.

Fast forward to 2024, and we now have a true four-day working week at Peak where an additional day off is viewed in the same way as a Saturday or Sunday would be. Now all of our employees are switching off, and as a result, we are experiencing seriously strong employee engagement, and our recruitment and retention is thriving. 

When listing a job, with our four-day working week included as a perk, the quality and quantity of candidates applying increases tenfold. Also, unexpectedly, many of our staff are spending their day off volunteering which is improving their self-esteem, confidence and overall wellbeing.

These benefits which I have witnessed first-hand are ready to be unlocked in businesses all over the world and a true four-day working week holds the key. I acknowledge that it might not be possible in every industry, hospitality, nursing, and teaching for example, but why should that stop those who are able to take advantage?

What’s the biggest challenge of being in your role/industry right now?

With the rise of remote work since 2020, our industry has boomed. What used to be a very niche industry, for a niche client, has become mainstream. With that comes huge investment, and new organisations joining the sector. 

This presents a challenge for a boutique operator like Peak, but rather than see this as a threat to our business, I saw it as an opportunity to turn the business into something even more progressive, an impact driven business. To not just survive in this turbulent market, but to thrive, we have gone all in on our values and good business ethics. If someone in our sector is looking for a business with heart and good ethics to look after their global team, then we stand alone. 

What do you think the next big trend is in working culture?

AI, 4-day weeks, return to the office v remote divide. These are obvious answers here and are going to lead me to what I think they mean for a true new trend. 

I think we’re almost entering a minor culture war between the return to office and remote work. I think it’s quite clear what hill I’m willing to lie down on in this debate. 

Here’s a thought though, is the return to the office slightly short-term thinking?

Let’s look at Gen Z. In 5 years’ time, or even ten years’ time, a lot of these people will never have seen a 5-day work week in their entire working lives. So how can they see it as a return to normal?

AI is going to reduce the number of inputs humans need to make in their jobs, so they are going to have more time on their hands, so 4-day weeks become more viable, and time allocation for the week shifts. Leading to the opportunity to build strong Third Place communities. 

This refers to social settings separate from the two usual environments of home ("first place") and work ("second place"), examples of “third places” are churches, cafes, gyms, the allotment. 

If the second place becomes virtual, the third place can become the in-person interaction you need, but with the simple goal of shared experiences and interests. With more time available it makes these communities much more viable for people, so people can truly have a fulfilling experience in all aspects of their life, with remote work.