The great resignation, re-entry anxiety, the great reset, regional relocators, hybrid work models and the global war for talent are topics we encounter every day in the post-Covid world as we look to the ‘new normal’ and start heading back in some form to offices and workplaces across Australia.
Coupled with this is the ongoing need to focus on diversity, inclusion and gender equity to support the push towards acceptable national benchmarks for each.
“The common denominator across all of these is people. We know that Covid has caused people to reassess their priorities and discover different and often better ways of organising their lives to combine the things that are most important to them, only one of which may be work,” says Andy Neumann, CEO of Sensei. “On top of this, scarcity of skilled people means they will no longer accept a workplace that doesn’t value them and the contribution they bring.”
“So when we set out to review our employee benefits, we knew that we had to actively address the areas our people have told us are most important to them to create a workplace that supports our number one value of putting people at the heart of all we do.”
The result of this process has seen Sensei launch a new range of “people friendly” benefits designed to help employees structure their work in ways that work for them, addresses some of the key areas to bring a diverse and equitable workplace to life, and continues supporting Sensei’s people to deliver outstanding value for clients.
The benefits group into 3 main areas:
Flexibility
One thing the pandemic has proven is that many roles can be worked successfully away from a traditional office. While Sensei has always supported flexible work arrangements, these have now been formalised with:
- Flexible work arrangements organised around different locations and hours to better balance work with all the other things that happen in life.
- ‘Work remote’ support for our people when life happens. This has enabled team members to work for periods of time in locations around Australia, and the world – including Romania and Norway – when their personal circumstances have necessitated it.
- An annual “Work from home” equipment allowance, so that people can refresh their home office equipment yearly.
- A Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) allowance, so our people can choose their own tech hardware to set up for work and be reimbursed.
- Mobile phone allowance – available to every person at Sensei.
Equity & Inclusion
Along with flexible work arrangements, Sensei’s ongoing focus on equity and inclusion has seen the following benefits introduced:
- Paid parental leave for 16 weeks for the primary carer and three weeks for secondary carers for those with 2 years’ service. Newer employees with less than 2 years service are able to receive 13 weeks as primary carer or 2 weeks as secondary carer.
- Parental leave superannuation payments contributed at the employee’s normal wage level for both the government and employer paid parts of their parental leave – to help bridge the superannuation gap.
- Kids are welcome at the office – because they are part of the Sensei family too and sometimes life happens!
- Employee Assistance Program – completely confidential and anonymous, to access in times of need.
- Paid Family & Domestic Violence leave in addition to normal leave allowances.
Lifestyle
We want everyone to enjoy being part of the Sensei family and have a great time at work, and away from work, so we’ve put together the following:
- Training & professional development including paid study leave and financial assistance to keep learning and growing your career.
- Social events – both at work and at home (including family & friends ‘rent a movie and buy snacks evenings’, Sensei Office Olympics, and many more).
- Summer Fridays – where everyone finishes at 3pm to get some extra sun, fun and family time.
- Volunteer days – to give back to the communities that we live and work in.
- Plus a whole range of other great things.
“Sensei is a successful and growing business where everyone has access to leadership, learning and information. We have the opportunity to create a unique workplace of the future together. Our new people benefits are a reflection of wanting to build the right people foundation to support our business as it grows. We want our people to know they are valued, regard Sensei as a place where they want to work and in turn, are motivated to bring that level of focus and care to our clients and partners,” said Sam Brooks, People & Culture Business Partner of Sensei.
“In addition to launching our new people benefits, we recently received formal accreditation as a Great Place to Work®, which is a valued reflection that we are on the right path and building a workplace that lives our value of putting people first.”
Find out more about what life at Sensei is like and how you can join the team:
