Company bonuses have always been around, they are a great way to boost morale and can help with productivity. A recent article went into how a Cardiff firm gave staff a free all-inclusive break to Tenerife. Yolk Recruitment Ltd. paid to take their 55 staff on holiday to thank them for continuing to work through the pandemic.

The company first started up in Cardiff 14 years ago, going through the pandemic was very hard for them but ended up also being very profitable for them. The firm said that they planned to spend more than £100,000 for the four-day break. Imagine if your workplace did that, would be quite nice wouldn’t it?

Pavan Arora the Chief commercial officer for the firm said:

“2020 was a really tough time on our whole industry - we went from the jobs markets being put on hold to going into overdrive. “Our staff have been on a journey, from going to remote working to hybrid back to remote… so we just wanted to put our arms around everyone and say thank you for the last two years.”

It is nice to see companies taking care of their employees in such out-there ways.

Unlimited paid leave

Another company that is rewarding their staff extravagantly is the dating app Bumble. Bumble have said that their 700 employees can take unlimited paid leave provided they get their manager’s approval. Continuing, the unlimited holiday plan is still contingent with the staff completing their work. The thinking behind the idea is that it will help de-stress their employees. Alongside this idea, they are planning to shut the office for a week two times a year. They said that going through the pandemic made them reflect on the way staff work and pushed them to change their approach.

Bumble’s president Tariq Shaukat is quoted saying:

“It’s becoming increasingly clear that the way we work, and need to work, has changed and our new policies are a reflection of what really matters and how we can best support our teams in both their world and life.”

Take time off when you want

Sir Richard Branson, the boss of Virgin Group had a similar idea pre-pandemic. He allowed his 170 staff to “take off whenever they want for as long as they want”. He also added that they didn’t need to ask for approval or even say when they were coming back to work. The thinking behind it was that the employees' absence would not damage the company.

Mr Branson got the initial idea from Netflix and he was even quoted saying:

“It is left to the employee alone to decide if and when he or she feels like taking a few hours, a day, a week or a month off.”

It is very interesting, as of course if the person’s work isn’t up-to-date and they took the time off they could potentially damage their career. So it works under the assumption that they can only do it when they feel 100% comfortable that they and their team wouldn’t damage their careers or the business in any way.

We’ve all heard about the four-day-work week and how it has the potential to help productivity and wellbeing. It is a curious thing to think about. Whether or not taking time off whenever needed without approval would work in a similar way.

Benefits of rewarding staff

There are definitely benefits to be seen by rewarding your employees such as; boosting productivity, helping with company morale, making employees feel more valued, and better general well-being and a sense of freedom in work. Of course there could be people who would take advantage of such generous schemes, but in the long run these types of awards could prove beneficial to certain workplaces.

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