Investec is giving employees unlimited leave and relaxing its dress code

Asset manager Investec has announced a number of internal changes which aim to make the company a more enjoyable place to work while still meeting targets.

Speaking to 702, head of human resources at Investec SA, Lesley-Anne Gatter, said that from September 2019 the company will allow employees to take unlimited leave days as long as they meet their deadline requirements.

Essentially the financial services firm will reward employees according to output, and not the number of hours worked.

Employees will also be  allowed to wear whatever they want to work – provided they still dress appropriately for meetings and formal events.

“We want to engage with employees as adults who can really manage their time as they need to and in their own way,” she said.

“Rather what we are after is high-performance. We are after output and we are after exceptional delivery.”

Investec employs approximately 10,000 people globally, with just over half located in South Africa.

Dealing with grown-ups

Citing research from Netflix, Gatter said that in many instances a company’s strongest performers actually end up taking less leave than they ought to have.

To get around this, Investec has mandated that every employee take a minimum of 10 days leave each cycle and now tracks ’employee wellbeing’ across a number of indicators.

“We are after a very adult relationship with our employees. High degrees of freedom and exceptional levels of trust that uphold our values.

“When we enhance our employee-value proposition we expect to get more out of our high-performers,  we think its a retention mechanism and an interesting attraction mechanism. ”

Gatter said that employees who are not interested in joining the new programme, can still follow the old system.

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