News Jan 2022

The benefits of working at Innovia

A behind the scenes glimpse into what it's like working at Innovia...

Working at Innovia comes with a range of benefits, from pension contributions and enhanced parental leave, to a friendly culture that values work-life balance. Here are the benefits we currently offer –  we reserve the right to review them and make changes as appropriate. To make it more readable we’ve cut out some legal details, so bear in mind there are a few more terms and conditions. However, hopefully this gives you a sketch of what it’s like working for us.

 

Benefits

Pension

Innovia operates a Workplace Pension Scheme for everyone employed for over 3 months, with a default minimum employer contribution of 8%.

 

Income protection insurance

Subject to acceptance by insurer, employees on permanent contracts will receive 75% of salary plus continued employer pension contributions if they are unable to work due to an extended period of sickness.

 

Life assurance

Subject to acceptance by insurer, we offer life insurance to the value of 4x annual salary, to be sent to beneficiaries of your choice.

 

Optional private medical insurance

We offer private medical insurance (currently through BUPA), although we have made this optional to fit with people’s preferences and tax situation. Partners and dependants can also be covered, although some restrictions apply.

 

Enhanced parental leave

We significantly enhance statutory pay for maternity, paternity and adoption leave. For example, we supplement statutory maternity pay to 100% of the employee’s normal pay for the first 20 weeks of maternity leave.

 

Free lunch

We provide a free, varied lunch for staff on site every day, plus snacks. This includes hot and cold options, and of course adjustments are available for different dietary requirements. We have a five star rating (the highest available) from the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme, which is part of the Food Standards Agency.

 

Holiday Entitlement

A full-time employee is entitled to 25 days holiday plus 8 bank holidays a year. Part-time or flexible workers get the equivalent adjusted pro-rata.

 

Onsite car and bike parking

Safe, secure parking is provided for both bikes and cars (of course, subject to availability). We fully support employees cycling to work and have accessible showers on site for those who want to change out of their travelling gear, and bike maintenance kit for emergencies.

 

Eyecare Vouchers

As required by law, and because we use our computers on a daily basis, we offer eyecare vouchers to all employees to cover the costs of eye tests. It’s important to take care of those peepers!

 

Serious about healthy screen and work station use

We want our employees’ display screen equipment setup to be as healthy as possible, so we offer regular checkups and reviews. We have a range of equipment – such as our mouse library – so people can try different options and find their personal best set-up.

 

 

Policies

Hybrid working

We’ve all got good at working at home during COVID – it gives efficiency and flexibility. On the other hand, we think that the creativity, community, and stimulation of in-person work is important to what we do. Therefore, we’re planning on going to a hybrid working model – with some time in the office and some working from home – when COVID levels permit. Our final policy isn’t yet decided but it’s likely that everyone will need to spend some time in the office unless they agree a specific contractual change. We hope to have a fixed policy in 2022, developed through a consultative and evidence-based approach.

 

Flexible working

We have a history of working flexibly. This applies for everyone within our business, not just long-standing or senior staff. We trust everyone to be reasonable and consider the needs of colleagues and clients in using the flexibility in the system. This can be ad-hoc flexibility like working from home to deal with household emergencies. Or it can be a formal agreement about regular changes in working hours or days, or shifted hours to fit around your life. Talk to us about the options – recruitsupport@innoviatech.com.

 

Work-life balance

We know a healthy work-life balance is key to employee wellbeing. We want all our employees to work sustainably, and have a range of tools availale to achieve this: from compensatory Time Off In Lieu following overtime, to flexible working, holidays and proactive workload management. We encourage all our staff to take advantage of these and other options, and to keep talking with their managers to make sure we get the balance right.

 

Continual development

As roles change and people develop, it’s important that we appreciate this and keep our rewards competitive. We have development and salary reviews annually, and offer a continually-evolving range of training options. Our size and agility as a company allow these to be personally tailored and adapted to your needs and experience. If there’s something missing, staff are encouraged to suggest and propose new development activities.

 

Ethical policy

We take ethical considerations into account as we decide which projects to work on and which to avoid. We only take work that aligns with our culture, mission and values. We work hard to arrange that staff work on projects which fit with their personal ethics, and can raise ethical concerns around potential projects. We have previously turned down work that wasn’t appropriate for us.

 

Sustainability and environmental policies

We aim to run in a way that’s sustainable for our employees, the company and the world. As well as getting involved in projects that help big clients turn the dial down on climate change, we also use carbon offsetting associated with long-distance flights. Due to COVID we’re on a travel pause right now, but we plan to keep offsets as part of our future travel plans, whatever form they take.

 

 

Culture

Friendly welcome

To help you get used to a new workplace, we provide a thorough induction, including training on different parts of the business and what your colleagues are doing as well as your own work. For less formal queries, everyone gets an assigned ‘buddy’ – for those awkward ‘what does this term mean?’ questions, as well as coffee chats! When new starters can’t physically come to the office, we set up online tea breaks to meet a range of people and start making friends.

 

Location

Our office is conveniently located for Cambridge railway stations, city centre shops, retail parks, cafes, restaurants, and pleasant walks admiring the cows by the river.

 

Casual dress code

Our office dress code is ‘casual’ – so there’s no pressure to buy clothes you won’t wear outside work, or dress in a way that doesn’t feel right for you. When meeting clients, we might go more formal if necessary – but day-to-day, feel free to break out suits, stilettos, ripped jeans, pretty dresses, or a Christmas jumper in June. Be yourself, be comfortable, be creative.

 

Social activities

Our friendly staff enjoy big and small social activities of all kinds together all year round. These include big annual events – our Christmas party for all staff and partners and our pumpkin carving competitions – as well as more casual weekly gatherings like our board game meetups and Ultimate Frisbee. We mix it up with one-offs too – past activities have included Chinese New Year crafts, wine tasting and a pizza van visit.