Not all superheros wear capes! The parents of OpenPayd

Our culture and people have always been high up on our agenda at OpenPayd. Diversity comes in many different forms and shapes but today we’re talking real-life superheroes: working parents!

So we went out to learn what matters most to them at work, as well as what we could do to support them while juggling work and family responsibilities. We also heard from them in their own words what they value when it comes to flexible working.

What’s the company approach to supporting working parents?

“The work-life balance is well respected, and the work-from-home policy helps to spend more time with my family instead of losing around 2 hours daily just to get to the office and return.”

Overall, as a company we’re flexible and understanding towards individual needs, whether you are a working parent or have other circumstances. We know that working parents bring a lot of value to our diverse team and work culture and while managing work and home life can be challenging, we value the contribution our parents make to the OpenPayd journey.

What did our survey find?

“The 2 days a week in the office is greatly working to my 'parental' benefit - it enables myself and my wife (who also works full time) to split our days between us, to ensure at least one of us is within easy reach of our son should an emergency require us to attend his school.”

To really understand our working parents we asked them whether they feel supported by OpenPayd as working parents.

Data does not lie! 63% of our colleagues who responded say they “Strongly agree” and 37% agree.

I feel supported by OpenPayd as a working parent.

We all know that life as a parent can be very fulfilling, yet sometimes quite challenging. Working parents face challenges every day to juggle the work and parenting duties. But what is that they really need?

According to our staff survey the top three needs of working parents are:

1) Flexibility

2) The chance to work from home

3) Medical insurance

“Everyone is super understanding about different schedules and everyone helps to make it work for us.”

What are we doing to support our working parents?

We’re glad you asked! There are a few things we’ve put in place to help make life easier for our working parents:

• Extended parental leave

• 2 months fully remote working every year

• Hybrid working model

• Early Friday finish

• Sabbatical leave after 3 years of tenure

• Extended annual leave for 3 years+ with increased days up to a maximum of 30 per year

• A flexible approach towards individual needs and circumstances (according to our survey results).

“The flexibility that is given at OpenPayd is great and the understanding of the parents need is great from the management.”

What are we working on next?

We have a few specific projects in the works. But our main focus is to stay committed to supporting our working parents and create a work environment that works for every single member of the team.