Not Just Travel is to give staff £500 each a year to spend on personal or professional development – which could vary from learning IT skills, gardening, bread making, photography or kickboxing.
Co-founder of the homeworking agency Steve Witt said: “There aren’t many companies which give you £500 to learn to code, make bread or kickbox – whatever you want.
“We want to empower people to develop their own skills and interests.
“We’re at a size now where we can do things to say thank you that we couldn’t do before. It’s our way of giving back to our incredibly loyal team.”
The grant is part of a ‘ground-breaking’ reward, wellbeing and development programme which has been developed after feedback from staff.
The feedback came from Not Just Travel’s first employee engagement survey, conducted by head of people Donna Stonehouse (pictured).
“We believe in constant growth and career progress at NJT. We support individuals regardless of level or length of service – empowering ownership of Learning & Development and removing the red tape often associated with such opportunities,” she said.
“We believe it’s pretty groundbreaking.”
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Commenting on the £500 grant, she said: “They can choose to spend the money on IT training, a photography or gardening course, first aid training, or a finance-related course.
“It could be the Headspace or Calm app; it could be an online fitness programme; an A-level or equivalent; the options are endless.”
The company offers other wellbeing initiatives and benefits such as private medical insurance, life insurance, 24/7 mental health and wellbeing support, including external mental health support; counselling services; and support lines.
Its wellbeing platform covers nutrition, exercise, sleep, meditation and a range of retail, fitness, food and supermarket discounts.
There is a flexible homeworking policy and the annual leave allowance has been increased by five days, plus birthdays off and the option to purchase further holiday.
One staff member commented: “The Learning and Development policy made me cry. I’d been thinking of doing a course to help my autistic children and didn’t know how to pay for it; with the new policy, it’s covered.”
Witt added: “Our goal is to become one of the top voted places to work in the UK. We want to create an environment when people come to us wanting to be hired, not where we have to go looking.”