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Part I
What are the major benefits on the market? Do we start with this question when we aim to have a great package for our employees? Just because 80% of the employees in the IT companies consider benefit “X” to be the best benefit, does it mean that we should give it to everyone in our company? Does it even mean that everybody would want it?
Using a benefits plan that covers all employees may not be as effective as it used to be. Knowing that every employee’s needs are different has led us towards creating a flexible benefits plan.
Even though we researched at the very start what is available out there on the market, we did not limit our options to that. We asked our employees for their opinion on the choice of benefits.
So, here is the package we ended up with back in 2018:
The package is revised every year and will be different this upcoming year, too.
How does it work?
Everyone has a fixed number of credits from which to make their choice.
If any credits are left over then, a certain number of credits can be transferred to the next year.
In the middle of the year, every employee can revise their credit distribution.
How was the experience using it?
After the first year, this is how our people evaluated the offering:
We in Documaster believe that every person is unique. Flexibility allows the employee to have more control over their changing needs and, in turn, control their lives in a better way.
Can we be even more flexible?
Yes, we try. On top of our flexible benefits, we have added some extra dimensions to our overall employee package. We have based it on our belief that an employee is a person first and foremost.
In Documaster we believe that every person is a whole person. Everyone brings to work their whole self, their mind and body, not only work-related thoughts and deeds.
Thus, everyone has their work-related issues, but also relationship and household issues, health or personal stresses, perceptions, attitudes, preferences...One cannot bring only that part of him/her that doesn´t think of family, household, or finances…
We want to make it easier for our people to integrate their work as part of their personal path and life.
Thus, we are always working on incorporating all these needs in what we offer to our people:
Mind:
We believe in sparring partners. We believe that nobody should do it alone. When you are stuck, often one meeting or one right question can give you all you need. There is always someone who cares in the company, but also external partners. We have a coach and a psychologist that can help with any personal or work-related dilemmas.
Learning:
While this is one of the pleasures in life, to self-actualize yourself, we are all too often so busy that we rarely have enough time to devote to training.
Thus, we created a program that we called “Curiosity Lab”. It is a program made up of small “servings” of topics. It is created to offer new ways of untangling problems; help foresee problems and turn one’s curiosity into a desire to experiment. We offer topics from Decision making in a team, Persuasion, Github, Migrations to Emotional Intelligence, Startup scaling, and many others.
In the spirit of Agile, we do not impose one right way, but rather - offer to people enough practical knowledge for them to experiment and critically find solutions.
Work:
We want to create the intangible conditions for people to do their job. That is why we do not consider benefits, but rather a given condition, things like: working from home, comfortable and ergonomic workstations, healthy snacks, energy snacks, etc.
Body:
Our people organize themselves in hobby groups (hiking, running, etc.) and we take no credit for it, but wildly encourage it!
We invite physiotherapists every now and then to strengthen our mobility. We have a Swedish wall in the office and a nap room. We also attentively listen to suggestions for other activities on an ad-hoc or regular basis.
Finances and household:
We will leave that for Part II of this article :)
There you will also learn what are the new benefits in our flexible benefits plan for next year. Some of them are really cool! They will surprise you, I promise.
So stay tuned for Part II...
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