Five benefits that promote work-life balance at Zühlke

1| Workplace flexibility

Among different working models, our ideal is to allow everyone to choose where they want to work from. With no obligation to be in the office on predetermined days, each one can decide where they feel most productive: taking advantage of remote work, home office and trips to the office, whatever is most convenient.

Aleksandar Milanovic, Advance AI&Data Engineer: "Sometimes, I start work earlier when we don't have any project meetings in the afternoon, so that I can finish earlier. Other times, I start at nine and work a little bit later. I usually work in hybrid mode; for 2-3 days a week I go to our local hub and on other days I work from home."

2| Working time reduction

There are times when people need extra time to deal with private matters so they benefit from reducing their working hours for a certain period. Looking after a family member, moving house, accompanying a child to nursery school, or even giving lessons can be taken on more efficiently with more free time.

Carlos Castro, Professional Software Engineer: "I am taking one morning off and using it to give classes at university. It allows me to maintain the usual working hours while having this other professional activity." 

3| Schedule condensation

With the possibility of condensing working hours, our staff can take days or parts of the day off. Each employee should be able to decide how they distribute the hours over each day and therefore be able to work fewer days during the week.

Vanya Valkova, Lead Architect: "During the free day, I usually run errands I've been postponing because they require a day off. Besides, I go outside during the day, taking some me-time while everybody else is busy. I sometimes work a couple of hours in the morning to reduce the hours I need to work during the rest of the week, but I have my calendar empty to focus and get something done."

4| Additional days off (can be exchanged for money)

With more time to rest, professionals can achieve a better balance between their personal and professional lives while showing outstanding commitment and better productivity levels when they return to work.

Uros Milivojevic, Expert Software Engineer: "This is an amazing example of a company listening to employees' feedback. People wanted more vacation days, and now we have three additional days to rest and charge batteries. And we can also pay those days out whenever we want during the year, which in my case is fantastic, because I am saving for a house." 

5 | Unlimited recharge

We launched this as an experiment at the beginning of 2023. The experience will allow 35 volunteers to take as many paid days off as they wish without impacting projects and colleagues. We want to hear from our team first, and based on their feedback, the experiment will decide future actions.

Iliyan Lesev, Lead Architect: "I plan to take more vacations this year and travel more. I always used to calculate precisely how many days I needed to take. Now I take whenever I need to, as long as everyone on the project is ok with it. I am much more productive when I return from holiday. Taking unlimited time off means I will be more motivated to do my job and deliver more value to our clients."

When they are given trust, employees make the greatest difference, steering their work-life balance and contributing to the results of teams and the organisation's growth.