Public relations organisation FleishmanHillard Fishburn has launched a range of new benefits to support employees' work-life balance, including flexible working, lifestyle and family-friendly benefit schemes.
The new benefits were implemented on 11 September 2017 as part of the organisation’s #Listeningface campaign. This involved collecting feedback from FleishmanHillard Fishburn’s 250 employees via its employee engagement survey, which was conducted in the spring, as well as through staff consultations. This information was then used alongside external research to inform the new selection of benefits that were introduced.
New family-friendly benefits that have been introduced include flexi-time arrangements that are built around an employee’s childcare requirements, staggered return-to-work hours when an employee is returning from parental leave, childcare vouchers, and private healthcare coverage for family members. Employees returning to work after paternity or maternity leave also receive peer and counsellor support, a welcome-back goodie pack, and access to a welfare room for breastfeeding or expressing breast milk. FleishmanHillard Fishburn’s parental leave policies apply to both male and female staff, biological and adoptive parents.
The new benefits include initiatives to enable employees to engage in their passions outside of work. A newly implemented initiative, Passion Projects, allows employees to pitch for up to £600 each from an annual £10,000 fund in order to follow a passion outside of the workplace, such as charity work or attending a cookery course. Another new initiative, Side Hustle, offers flexible hours, employer support and additional resources to allow employees to commit regularly to other jobs and activities away from the organisation, for example volunteering, blogging, politics or fitness.
The organisation has also launched new leave benefits for staff, enabling them to take up to 37 days of annual leave as well as the option to buy an additional five days' holiday. This includes granting staff the day off for their birthday. The organisation also runs a sabbatical programme that grants between six and 13 weeks of leave.
Alongside these new benefits and initiatives, FleishmanHillard Fishburn has also introduced a new flexible-hours policy. This enables employees to fulfil their contracted hours anytime between 7am and 8pm, with the option to work remotely using an employer-provided laptop.
Staff were informed about the new benefits options via a staff meeting and team breakfasts. Employees will also receive daily email communications about the new benefits offering.
Jim Donaldson (pictured), chief executive officer at FleishmanHillard Fishburn, said: “We discovered through this process that listening really is our superpower at [FleishmanHillard Fishburn] and we felt it was time to celebrate this obvious but often elusive skill. We know people have lives outside of work and these fresh commitments to our team reflect how we’re adapting to help them be more flexible and empowered, in a way that’s also great for the [organisation].
“Our industry is beset with mental health issues due to pace and pressure coupled with high attrition rates of people leaving the sector altogether. These are often attributed to burnout or lack of options for groups like working parents. In addition, talent churn across consultancies reflects that millennials and generation Zs feel the need to move [organisation] in order to unlock career development.
“Addressing these important industry-wide challenges starts with listening, and by ensuring that people feel more in control. It has been our mission to create a trusting, flexible and supportive environment where people’s passions and lives outside of work are supported and valued as much as the professional skills and experience that they contribute. It is a culture that is at the centre of our success over the last couple of years.”
