WiredCo. revolutionises public holidays with WiredWellness expansion
WiredCo. has made its WiredWellness offering wholly flexible, allowing employees to have more control over their public holiday rights.
The announcement:
Award winning WiredCo. has expanded its WiredWellness offering to make public holidays fully flexible. In a move that respects cultural diversity, the ‘Public Holidays Just Got Personal’ initiative allows staff to choose when and how they take them.
“The more diverse our business becomes – not just in ethnicity, but also intergenerational working, beliefs and ability – the more obvious it has became that the fixed traditional public holiday approach was no longer right.” says WiredCo. partner, David Kennedy.
For many businesses, the topic of how to handle Australia Day has come into sharp focus over the last five years. But WiredCo. recognised the issue is far broader than that, with a recent study by Perkbox Australia revealing that 58% of respondents want flexibility on how they use public holidays.
“For us, it wasn’t just about finding a solution to Australia Day. We also had to think about people who don’t celebrate Christmas and Easter for religious reasons, and those who don’t celebrate The King’s birthday because they don’t place value in a monarchy.” added WiredCo. founder & managing director, Angela Hampton.
“When we consulted our team, we discovered they were 100% in favour of ‘Public Holidays Just Got Personal’ because it showed trust, cultural-connectiveness and helped them create a personal working style that was respectful and effective for them.” says WiredCo. partner, Michelle Hampton.
And whilst the initiative is something the three WiredCo. partners knew they had to do, it wasn’t without its challenges.
“We’re an independent business, so any change presents a host of questions. We had to think about how to track these days, how best they accrue, how the team take them and how they communicate that flexibility with their teammates and clients.” Nikki Cranley, WiredCo. CFO.
WiredWellness was created to ensure staff not only get support in their mental and physical wellness, but also the flexibility to do their job in the most effective way. And for WiredCo. ‘Public Holidays Just Got Personal’ was another step in deepening employee engagement and building trust.
“WiredWellness wasn’t a response to the pandemic lockdown working environment, it started long before that. We wanted to give our team space to decompress, so we created our monthly ReWired events. Then we gave our people access to a counselor to help them manage their mental wellbeing, so we made access to that unlimited.” Says Angela.
The agency was also one of the pioneers in remote working, giving their employees the chance to work from anywhere in the world. And in 2023, they became the first Australian business to offer parental leave for pets, aptly named Pet-ernity.
“We’re proud to say that WiredWellness has helped us achieve 95% team happiness, 97% job satisfaction and stabilised retention at 81%. And we firmly believe it’s helped us commercially, with the business almost quadrupling in three years.” Says David.
Source: WiredCo.
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