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Life after lockdown

29.03.2021

People count: Building a winning team by Cashflows HR

With three quarters of UK businesses planning to retain flexible working once restrictions end, our Senior HR Business Partner, Rebecca Garner, shares how the team at Cashflows has stayed connected, focused on growth and is looking forward to life after lockdown. 

We’re growing fast at Cashflows, and the whole leadership team plays a hands-on role in every hire we make. I guess it’s no surprise then that I’ve been thinking about our Employee Value Proposition (EVP) – what we offer, as an employer, to our talent and what it is that makes Cashflows such an exciting and rewarding place to work.

It’s especially important now when our environment and the way we operate have been completely transformed. With each of us working remotely, we’ve had a unique opportunity to ask ourselves: what do we need from our working environment, and which tools, processes, and spaces enable us to be our most motivated and productive?

Of course, a strong EVP needs to include all the basics around financial rewards and benefits, but increasingly the brightest talent is looking for much more. They want to work for employers who create the opportunity to learn and develop, that recognise their place in the community and live by values that resonate with their own beliefs.

We’ve taken some big steps forward. We’re proud to have launched a Virtual Volunteering partnership with Matchable and begun numerous wellbeing initiatives - including our Time to Talk blog series, wellbeing packs, and yoga sessions.

Our induction programme has been redesigned, with remote working in mind. A new onboarding process for virtual employees maps out their interactions for the first month, and updated processes ensure that every new joiner feels part of the team.  Personalised content, virtual meet & greet sessions, and regular check-in calls all help us to get to know our new joiners and to celebrate each and every one.

We’ve embraced remote working and believe in the flexibility of our teams, just like the agility of our technology, has been key to our success. Our systems have been tested but run smoothly, and our multi-channel communication means we’ve stayed connected at every level.

From interactive virtual workshops and quizzes to happy hours and cocktails, it’s been more important than ever to show our teams how valued they are. Frequent pulse surveys check in on what’s working well, what we could do differently, and how people are feeling. What’s for sure is that there’s no going back to the expectation that everyone works, every day, in an office. We think we’ve gained too much to stop now, and we’re not alone.

According to The Institute of Directors, almost three-quarters of UK businesses expect to retain flexible working of some kind. At Cashflows, we’re planning to embrace flexible working for the long term because we’re confident it helps us to attract better talent, enables our employees to be happier, and our business to be more successful.

We believe our future success will be having the right balance of at-home working, where we can focus and time in the office for collaboration and sharing with others. For us, sparking off one another to create ideas, to learn something new, and to build deeper trust and relationships, is still something best done in person.

So, when it’s safe, we’ll be working with our colleagues to find the right balance between office and home time. Our main office in Cambridge is being redesigned as a collaboration hub where our teams can come together to get to know each other, share ideas and have fun, always embodying our fintech freedom and spirit.  

And honestly, we can’t wait to be together again - just as soon as the time is right.