UK domain name registry Nominet is encouraging its 250 employees to get more active with its bikes-for-work scheme.
Employees can buy a bike through the organisation’s salary sacrifice arrangement and purchase any model up to the value of £3,000, spreading payments over a 12-month period.
Beverley Hamblet-Bowes, HR director at Nominet, says: “We have quite a proactive wellbeing strategy and a cycle-to-work scheme fits into this. We’ve also advertised lots of information surrounding what the government is doing if you already have a bike and you want to get it tuned up, and to make sure employees take advantage of the benefits that are on offer.”
The bikes-for-work scheme is just one of the benefits the organisation has been proactively promoting during the Covid-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic, Nominet has also been signposting content within its wellbeing portal which focuses on other areas of wellbeing such as exercise, health, food and financial planning. Nominet’s chief executive officer (CEO) has also encouraged employees to adopt a more flexible working pattern through his regular video broadcasts.
“We’ve encouraged people to be more creative about how they use their hours or days in terms of working, we’ve encouraged more flexibility and fluidity through the day to get things done,” explains Hamblet-Bowes “We are also encouraging employees to look at their holiday differently. If they want to use half days rather than full days that’s okay; or use mornings, or while the weather is good, take an afternoon off for a day out with the family. They can spin their holiday in different ways to make a real difference.”
Employees are entitled to up to 30 days holiday but can also buy up to 10 additional days a year, and are able to roll over 10 unused days into 2021. “Some people rely on the extra holiday because of childcare over the summer, however, we acknowledge that not everyone wants to use their holiday this year. We understand that and we want to manage flexibility by allowing them to carry over up to 10 days holiday into next year,” says Hamblet-Bowes.
Since lockdown measures have eased, Nominet has also been actively encouraging its employees to use its health cash plan, provided by Medicash. “While they haven’t been able to use Medicash [during lockdown], now is the time to get an indian head massage, for example, as that is one of the treatments that is covered within our package. People have been taking quite a benefit from that,” explains Hamblet-Bowes. “Even the virtual GP service that comes as part of [the plan] and we’ve really tried hard to make employees aware about our health assessments. It’s all about making employees aware that they’ve got help and to reach out if they need it.”