Victoria, B.C.-based technology company Redbrick is supporting its remote employees through individualized benefits offerings and unique virtual events.
“For us, remote work continues to be part of a conscious effort to do what’s best for our employees,” says Christine Tatham, vice-president of people and culture at Redbrick. “We consider remote work in every decision we make. With our group benefits, we offer options that our remote teams can easily tap into. We have virtual health and wellness benefits for our whole team and we offer a digital [employee assistance program] for mental-health support.”
The tech company also holds virtual scavenger hunts and provides food delivery gift certificates for remote employees during in-person lunches in order to help those workers feel more included. “Our employees like the fact that whatever we do, we try to give a remote element. People tend to be appreciative of us making an effort so they can feel like they’re part of the team, because it’s difficult to truly feel like part of the team when you’re one of the few people working remotely.”
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It’s important for Redbrick to host company-wide virtual quarterly meetings, in which its chief executive officer and executive team discuss new initiatives and all employees are given a chance to ask questions, notes Tatham.
“We also help our managers understand leading teams remotely isn’t something that will happen effortlessly — you can’t just have an employee start working remotely and expect everything to be the same. You have to make a much more intentional effort to connect and to catch up. So we provide tools to our leaders to [keep track of progress] and have virtual one-on-ones.”
The company wants to ensure workers can tailor benefits to their individual needs, she adds, because each employee is on a different journey in life, so meeting them where they’re at is paramount.
Redbrick also offers its employees — including non-birth parents — parental leave with a top-up of up to 75 per cent of their salary for 12 months, as well as personal significance days. “Every time we have a stat holiday, we allow people to swap that holiday for another day. For example, at Easter we had a couple people swap the holiday for Eid. They should also be able to have the time off to spend time with their family and friends.”
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