By Sam Evans, Business Development Manager, Business in the Community

One of the greatest joys in my role as Business Development Manager at Business in the Community is meeting businesses and finding out what they are doing to make their unique worlds a little better.

I’m often stunned at the time and resource that companies put into staff and their health and wellbeing. Obviously, this has its own secondary business benefits through productivity and staff retention and recruitment, but some companies seem to just genuinely care.

Take Bazaarvoice for instance, a digital marketing company that helps brands and retailers to find, reach and win consumers. Established in Austin, Texas they came to Belfast in 2017 and now have 41 members of staff. Like all our members, Bazaarvoice are committed to responsible business, but they are taking the health and wellbeing of their staff a step further. I spoke to Danielle Topping, a software engineer to learn more and here’s what she had to say:

“Firstly, we operate what is sometimes referred to as ‘true flexible working’ – employees can work from the office, from home or from a café. This is fed from the top down and our senior management team take the approach that you do your work, not your hours. Our staff find this extremely beneficial for juggling a busy home life and working across international time zones.

When staff do come into the office, it is ultramodern with collaborative global workspaces. We provide breakfast, snacks and weekly lunches.’’
I also asked Danielle about reward and recognition: “We use a platform called YouEarnedIT, this a peer to peer and manager to staff reward system that turns points into prizes. So, if you help a colleague, give blood, go above and beyond or even just go to the gym you can earn points that transfer into Starbucks, John Lewis or Amazon vouchers.

Staff love this scheme, it’s a great way of encouraging wellbeing and you’re being paid to go the gym! It’s also an excellent team building tool as you can instantly reward someone who has helped you. The scheme is completely trust-based and that adds another layer of appreciation.’’

Bazaarvoice also support staff development and ask staff to commit 20% of their working week to personal development. Danielle adds: “Bazaarvoice are extremely supportive of staff taking time to better themselves and this even includes areas that are not of immediate business benefit.”

Bazaarvoice are also committed to community engagement and diversity and inclusion and offer many benefits to staff, such as:

• Progressive Parental leave policies
• Competitive medical, dental and vision plans
• Sabbatical opportunities for long term, high performing employees

In a competitive tech industry, Bazaarvoice seem to be setting their stall out to be the business of choice for employees.

It’s fair to say that not many companies can offer these amazing benefits and opportunities for development, but it’s certainly not a bad thing to learn from, and even strive for.