- The WANdisco Team
Fancy having as many days holiday as you’d like with no one keeping tabs on you? Yes, that’s right – How would you like an unlimited number of days holiday from work – all paid? Does that sound a bit far fetched? Well, that’s the reality if you work for forward thinking software business, WANdisco!
This fast growing business which is based in Silicon Valley and Sheffield (honest) has announced that its employees can have unlimited amounts of paid leave!!!
WANdisco’s Managing Director David Richards, said its employees will be able to take as much paid vacation as they need “to stay the same productive, enthusiastic employees who made this company what it is today“.
Wandisco believes that to keep its products on the cutting edge, they feel that their company culture should be as forwards-looking as their products.
It’s a forward thinking move – even a Dramatically and Demonstrably Different one! Our research suggests that winning businesses work hard to create a culture as competitive advantage (We call it UBER Culture) and WANdisco is clearly a great example of this. The ‘B’ in UBER stands for Building systems and processes to reinforce the culture you want, and this certainly does that!
David explained in his blog “This is not some sort of fad or publicity stunt. It’s real. Actions speak louder than words: we value actual productivity more than biding time at the office, we trust each other to do the right thing, we recognize that work is not actually at the center of everyone’s universe, we have unlimited paid vacation days!
It obviously sends a message to employees that they are trusted and valued, and a lot of other businesses could certainly learn from that! David goes on to say “Here’s the logic. If we really trust and value our employees then this shouldn’t be a problem. We are not running some sort of Dickensian sweatshop where everyone clocks in at nine and is playing solitaire to bide time until the clock strikes five”
It’s worth pointing out that this isn’t the only thing that WANdisco does to create and reinforce it’s UBER culture – They don’t believe in stuffy, company enforced fun but do believe that employees who socialize, and have a laugh together, work better together. They create time to have fun, and that includes nights out, office darts competitions, rounds of table tennis, and even a trip down the office slide! Every quarter the team nominates a ‘Social Captain’, whose job it is to organize fun nights out and day-trip adventures!
They are all somple things that reinforce the culture that the WANdisco leaders have clearly established to engage their people- How does your culture reinforce your ‘Dramatic Difference’? What do you need to do to make it do that?
(This is 3D idea number #4 in our 3D Challenge search for 100 ideas!)
