Company Benefits & Incentives – How We Adapted to Tackle the Covid-19 Pandemic
September 2021
Parallel has always prided itself in offering company benefits that help to incentivise and reward its employees, including monthly socials, all-expensed VIP trips around the world, luncheons at Michelin star restaurants and sports team events.
But in March 2020, Covid-19 put a stop to almost everything... Not only were many of our incentives made inaccessible due to repeated lockdowns but it was also incredibly hard to reward and praise our team for their hard work in person! It was then that we made a decision to invest in new incentives and also improve our benefits package. Adapting our offering so they were resilient to the challenges the pandemic posed.
So how did we reinvent our benefits programme to ensure it was aligned to what our employees wanted and needed? We asked them!
Using our new HRIS platform (HiBob), we sent out a company-wide survey to ask our team questions about what was important to them, what they wanted in a benefits program. The survey covered work from home flexibility, health & wellbeing, learning & development as well as open-ended questions for them to contribute their own suggestions.
What was the result?
1. Flexibility
Before March 2020, our team didn’t have a work from home option. The pandemic allowed all our employees to do this and showed us all it worked and worked well. A trusted and ambitious workforce can be effective anywhere! Now, all our employees have the flex to work up to 3 days from home. Everyone is given a laptop and all the tech they need to operate anywhere.
2. Around the world in 14 days…
Our diverse team of recruiters come from all over the world, and the pandemic has meant they haven’t been able to visit family for over 2 years. Family time is important, so we have decided to offer the flexibility to work from abroad without anyone using your holiday! We’re trialing ‘work up to 2 weeks remotely’ to see how our team get on.
3. Reduced Working Hours
We could see that our team were effective in core hours and those that wanted to or needed to work longer could but shouldn’t feel this is forced on them, so we paired back our working week by 5 hours.
4. 24/7 Wellbeing Support Line
Our team has access to our health and wellbeing partner ‘Health Assured’ who offer a 24/7 support line and consulting services. They also get free counseling in anything from legal advice and personal finance to stress management and emotional support.
5. Health & Wellbeing Savings
Parallel employees get their very own access to Perkbox, a digital platform giving them daily, weekly and annual savings on health and wellness options of their choice. And let’s not forget the free perks, coffees and savory snacks each week! We get to save on our weekly shopping, gym memberships, utility bills, beauty, tech gadgets, and more.
6. In-person gym & unlimited virtual gym class membership
We believe that our employees operate best when their body and mind are both taken care of. That’s why we contribute to their health and wellbeing by making it easier to take care of themselves, for whatever they need. Everyone who works at Parallel has access to our in-person office gym, Boxx virtual gym class membership and wellbeing app Aura.
7. Recognition Gifts
Whether it’s a work anniversary, 1st placements, promotions, team success or the occasional engagement, marriage or birth, we like to make a big deal of it! From shout outs to gifts, we’ve been known to take everyone to Selfridges, treat big announcements with weekends away, offer up gift cards and congratulate key work goal success with a nice bottle of champagne.
8. Team Competitions
We organise regular team competitions and incentives to encourage some healthy competition. Success breeds success and we recognise we have an ambitious bunch who deserve to be rewarded! Brunches at the Ivy, a lunchtime finish, team socials, holidays in Ibiza, you name it, we’ve done it!
9. Early Finish Fridays
Why should finishing up early on a Friday only occur during the summer? That’s why we have early finish Fridays all year round.
10. It’s your birthday…
No one should work on their birthday, so take it off for free and press the snooze button!
Interested in hearing more about what it is like to work at Parallel in London or New York? Get in touch with Lauren Cleary.
Connect with Lauren on LinkedIn
Email: lauren.cleary@parallelconsulting.com
Telephone: +44 0 203 142 7802
