Being a responsible and accountable business by design means asking ourselves often: what matters most to our people, what makes them happy, secure, proud to work at WeTransfer, and where can we level up. 

This is why in March, three in four of more than 300 employees globally took part in a survey to share their ideas around productivity, flexible working, and what parts of our employee experience and benefits could even be better. 

Two distinct areas that scored highly in terms of satisfaction and retention were our different existing paid time off policies and our approach to flexible work arrangements (e.g. full and part-time, remote and hybrid). 

Thanks to this feedback, we have reshaped a number of our employee benefits to make them more focused on what’s most important to our people – more flexibility and time off to relax and recharge, which in turn will help us further strengthen the culture of collaboration and build trust. 

One of the highlights of the revamped benefits package includes brand new WeTransfer Time Off: summer edition. Every full Friday during July and August will be granted as a day off– resulting in giving all employees 9 additional days off as paid leave* during Summer.

In conjunction, we are encouraging all employees to make the most of their existing health and well-being budget (we grant every full-time employee a yearly allowance of €750 in the EU, £750 in the UK and $1,000 in the US) that can be used for anything that contributes to their health, physical or mental well-being, as well as a generous learning budget of €/£/$1,000 to spend on self-development. 

These Summer Fridays are deliberately designed not to be banked up like annual leave – we genuinely want as many people to have a break at the same time to avoid being confronted with the dreaded inboxes on Mondays, or missing important catch-ups that happened while they were offline. 

Smart planning and flexibility

Realistically, this will require smart planning and flexibility to ensure smooth running of the business, which is why we announced it internally back in April asking each team to think it through and make it work for them while keeping to the overall promise as closely as possible. 

Making sure we still deliver outstanding services to our community and clients means we will have to change how we work by focusing on where we spend our time and making deliberate choices to work smarter. 

Tighter schedules and the need to adapt to new practices and efficiencies is why we’ll be sharing special tips and tricks throughout July and August to help our people structure their work week to avoid stress and being overwhelmed.

Tracking outcomes

As we test this new set-up for the first time amid a wider global movement, we’ll be closely tracking our own outcomes with regards to happiness, impact on wellbeing, as well as business productivity and team alignment. 

Stay tuned as we share these learnings with you over the coming months. 

Like the thought of keeping your summer Fridays for hobbies, fresh air or anything else that brings you joy outside of work? Click here to see our open roles and come work with us: https://wetransfer.com/explore/careers

*Note that for part-time employees, this allotment is prorated based on part-time percentage as opposed to working pattern. Those who already have Fridays off can move the allowance to another working weekday over the same time period.  Photography: Annie Spratt