WiredCo. has expanded its WiredWellness offering to allow staff to choose which public holidays they can take off.
The move ‘Public Holidays Just Got Personal’ initiative allows staff to choose when and how they take them, aiming to respect the cultural diversity of its workforce.
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 per cent of respondents want flexibility on how they use public holidays.
WiredCo. partner David Kennedy said the more diverse the business becomes – not just in ethnicity, but also intergenerational working, beliefs and ability – the greater the need to overhaul a fixed approach to traditional 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 and managing director Angela Hampton.
WiredCo. partner Michelle Hampton said: “When we consulted our team, we discovered they were 100 per cent 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
Although 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,” said 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 counsellor to help them manage their mental wellbeing, so we made access to that unlimited,” Hampton added.
The agency has also led flexible initiatives in remote working, allowing their employees the chance to work from anywhere in the world. And in 2023, WiredCo 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 per cent team happiness, 97 per cent job satisfaction and stabilised retention at 81 per cent. And we firmly believe it’s helped us commercially, with the business almost quadrupling in three years,” Kennedy said.
