With Brexit and economic uncertainties putting pressure on businesses, especially those small firms and start-ups, we were interested to read about local Bristol firm Cre8ion and their new creative shift in working patterns, gaining a competitive edge and hopefully ensuring staff retention. The marketing firm, Cre8ion have adopted a different working pattern which is every other Friday off, with their working Friday being a day dedicated to Research and Personal Development. Despite these extra days off, the employees still receive the same salary as before.
We were lucky enough to speak to Mike Owen, Head of Digital at Cre8ion, who has been with the firm since inception. We asked Mike a few questions about the new working hours:
Rise: How did the idea come into fruition?
Mike: Darrell (the CEO) sat us down and consulted the team on their thoughts to a 4-day week, with every other Friday being a research and personal development day. As I have a young family it really appealed, being able to spend more time with my daughters is valuable.
Rise: What do the research and development days entail?
Mike: “It’s a personal choice, Darrell is very flexible, it could be attending a training course, seminar or online course. I have been working on becoming more of a full stack web developer to further my skillset. Finding time to study in the evenings and weekends is difficult, so having a day dedicated to doing so is fantastic.”
Rise: Have you noticed a shift in the team morale?
Mike: We have had positive comments from team members, all saying they’re enjoying the extra time off and time to develop their skills.
Sounds like Bristol based firm, Cre8ion are shifting the norms. It’s positive to hear personal development time being put to the forefront of the business, we wish Cre8ion every success with their new working pattern and hope it continues to be a triumph and sets new standards and examples of working options for other firms.
Retaining talent
Retaining talent is so important and small changes can have a huge impact on morale and retaining your key team members, no firm wants to experience a high turnover of staff. Businesses need to gain a competitive edge in this uncertain market. Here are our tip tips on how to retain your staff and boost team morale:
- Have the basics in place – make sure your employees have the setup, tools and processes in place in order for them to do their job well. This avoids any unnecessary frustration and allows the employee to be able to achieve their goals and develop their learnings.
- Firm values and culture – lead by your firm values, (if you haven’t set any – then do!), let your employees know how their contribution directly impacts and helps the firm values come to life, this for some firms requires a big cultural shift.
- Acknowledge employee achievements – Exactly what it says on the tin! If something is done well, offer praise and thanks. Whether that’s just a simple e-mail or a more formal employee recognition scheme.
- Benefits package – Perhaps it’s time to consider adding to or changing your employee benefits package. Whether it’s simply a reduced gym membership option, investing in an Employee Assistance Programme or a bigger change – perhaps introducing flexible working options or as Cre8ion have done, change the working pattern.
- Salary Benchmarking – Ensure that you are once again getting the basics right and offering the appropriate pay. Here at Rise HR we have tools to support a salary benchmarking exercise – get in touch if you would like to have more information on this.
If you would like to discuss staff morale and employee retention, we would love to hear from you. Please do get in touch with us direct: Rise HR Ltd, call us on 0844 854 6704 or email us at hello@risehr.co.uk.