A Kiwi engineering firm is giving its employees longer weekends than the standard two days, and they're loving it – but it's not just the staff who are seeing benefits.
Stratum Consultants CEO Mel Lewis said employees come back rested and refreshed on Mondays after clocking off at midday on Friday.
"They're an amazing team and we had many of the traditional benefits within our team," she told Breakfast this morning. "Flexible working conditions, health insurance, regular social events, learning and development opportunities, even fruit bowls.
"But the leadership team were really looking for a truly impactful wellness initiative that was ongoing rather than a one-off, and everyone kept coming back to the value of time.
"In this day and age, it really is the most important thing."
Lewis said a longer weekend gives employees more time to do what they love – and it means they're ready to go on Mondays.
"Obviously there's a bit of a process to get to the point of implementation," she added. "Including a trial period.
"After that trial, the team were surveyed and – not surprisingly – the feedback was overwhelmingly positive."
The initiative has been in place for about a year now and the results aren't letting up.
"That sentiment is absolutely still there," Lewis said. "I just don't think that a company can ignore wellness anymore.
"For us as well, it really has created a point of difference in our employee value proposition, we get a really excellent response with our recruitment campaigns [and] retention is also good."
The company views it as an investment in their people, she explained.
"Financially, that's something we get asked about a lot, and any wellness programme or initiative has a cost or an opportunity cost – and that's got to be weighed up against the benefits... It's outweighed, absolutely, by the positive impacts."
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