Spice up the nine to five

Not all companies offer you Latin lessons in your lunch break, long weekends in Brazil or the opportunity to take days off at short notice. Such practices may seem mere gimmicks, but the companies that have introduced them say they have inspired increased creativity and commitment from their workforce.

Nick Oulton, the founder of educational publisher Galore Park and a former Latin teacher, has 12 staff. One day one of his proofreaders mentioned casually that she’d like to learn Latin. Oulton, a passionate advocate of a classical education, agreed to offer her lessons at lunchtime, along with anyone else who was interested.

‘Anyone else turned out to be the whole company,’ he relates. ‘I had to cut the team in half to make sure there were still people answering the phones.’

Oulton (pictured) says the lessons have turned out to be excellent for teambuilding and bringing together people who would not normally talk to each other. He adds that getting their heads around Latin is likely to improve the staff’s attention to detail.

Rachel Clacher, joint founder of virtual PA service Moneypenny, has also responded to the requests of her employees, 96 per cent of whom are women. Staff can take five ‘bad hair days’ a year on top of their regular annual leave, which they can book
at short notice and use for occasions like funerals, essential shopping trips or children’s sports days. If you don’t need them, you can take extra wages instead.

It’s just one measure in a raft of policies designed to promote a culture of flexibility and trust, Clacher states.

Seeking inspiration
Another generous but fruitful initiative is Soak It Up, which design and branding agency Boxer has been running for two years. Business development director Giles Poyner explains that staff are sent on long weekends to destinations in Europe and beyond to gather fresh ideas and build the company’s library of creative photography.

‘Creative staff are under pressure all the time to come up with new and exciting ideas. Soak It Up provides “creative fuel” – it’s like a mental holiday,’ Poyner elucidates.

Clearly, unconventional working practices work best not when they’re introduced for the sake of being wacky, but when they grow out of the company’s needs and culture.

‘Staff can see through initiatives that are simply about buying their loyalty,’ says Poyner. ‘If you’re going to do something like this, you have to put it at the centre
of your business.’