Making Aiimi a positive and rewarding place to work.

Like so many organisations, the past year has made us take a good look at ourselves. As a team leader at Aiimi, I’ve found myself thinking more carefully about how we can achieve the successful outcomes we all want, both when we work together as an Aiimi team and when we work with our customers. But at the same time as achieving material success, it’s more important than ever that Aiimi is an uplifting and rewarding place to work, whether you’re at home or in the office

A positive workplace experience

In early 2020, we moved to an amazing new office in central Milton Keynes. Our new space has helped us to create a really positive workplace experience. We like to think of it as a hub – a place for collaborative working, both with each other and our customers. Our ‘Zoom Rooms’ and Hack Zone are kitted out with tech that helps make those who are working elsewhere feel just as much a part of the space as those who are there in person. It’s an environment we’re proud of, as it physically embodies our core values and our desire to be open, innovative, caring, and collaborative.

It’s fair to say that when we opened the new office, we started on a journey to make being part of the Aiimi team an even better experience. But we wanted to go further.

Making change happen

When making changes to how we do things in 2021, we’ve tried not to constrain ourselves by getting stuck on how we’ve done things in the past. With this commitment in mind, we’ve researched, questioned, and analysed data (like our diversity statistics from a recent company-wide survey) and feedback from our team members – just as we would when helping one of our customers tackle a challenge.

Aiimi has always been a progressive organisation when it comes to working methods. We’ve always encouraged our consultants to work with our customers in the way that suits them, whether that’s from home, on-site, or our offices. Our tech-enabled Aiimi hub in Milton Keynes exemplifies this, but we didn't want our new office space to be the only improvement we had to offer our current Aiimi team and those looking to join us.

Our latest steps

Over the last six months, we’ve made numerous changes at Aiimi to affirm what’s most important to us as a team and as a company. Without question, this has galvanised us all!

We’ve improved our overall compensation and benefits from what was already a strong package. I feel this really sets us apart and shows our commitment to attracting and retaining brilliant team members and supporting wellbeing across the board.

Here's what we’ve introduced this year to help our team members stay well:  

• From day one at Aiimi, all new team members now receive critical illness and death in service cover. At the point of passing probation, usually 6 months, this extends to full private health care too.

• Once you’ve found your feet within the team, we’re happy to invite you to work more flexible hours. Work from home, your garden, the park, anywhere you can – we don’t mind! As long as you bring value to the business and get the job done to a high standard.
• To help keep on top of your mental and physical health, you can expense up to ten personal training sessions each year. We aren't all triathletes, but we recognise the need to stay healthy and personalise this to individual needs.
• Life is never straightforward, and we all need help and support from time-to-time. We believe no one should have to suffer in silence when it comes to mental wellbeing. That’s why we offer fully paid-for, anonymous private counselling. This is all in addition to our 24/7 Employee Assistance helpline, our regular wellbeing lunchtime workshops, and our dedicated mental health website signposting advice and support. As of 2021, we now also have 16 fully trained Mental Health First Aiders within our team, a mark of how much Aiimi people genuinely care about supporting each other.

We know that including a wider variety of benefits, including some of the more ‘non-traditional’ ones, is really important to our team. But we also wanted to make changes to how we compensate and reward our team members, as part of our commitment to making Aiimi a winner on all fronts for existing staff and prospective applicants.

Here’s how we’ve switched up our compensation and rewards in 2021, for new starters and existing team members alike:  

• At the point of passing probation, all Aiimi team members now qualify for a 9% pension contribution, with the ability to contribute further if they wish.
• In addition to our usual 25 days’ annual leave (plus bank holidays) and additional day of annual leave for every two years of employment, we’ve introduced a new Aiimi Sabbatical. Now, you can take two weeks off when you reach five years of service, and four weeks off when you reach ten years at Aiimi. Sound like a long time? That really is how long Aiimi-ers tend to stay with us!

• Alongside our flexible working offer, we wanted to make sure everyone has what they need to be successful when away from the office. From day one, you’ll receive an additional £100 a month as part of your pay to cover any mobile phone and broadband costs.
• We always reward quality work. If you do something amazing for Aiimi or one of our customers, someone in the team may put you forward for a Spot Bonus – anything from us picking up your dinner bill, to a cash pay-out.
• From time to time, our consultants may need to be away from home at our customers' request. For nights spent away with work, you can now claim an inconvenience payment – £30 on us to thank you for your dedication.

What’s next?

We’re always striving to keep our compensation and benefits at the top of their game, listening to feedback from new applicants and our long-time Aiimi-ers to make sure our benefits reflect your needs.

One thing I know we’re all looking forward to later this year is getting back to our favourite in-person activities, like Aiimi Days. It’s been a tradition that each year we take the whole company camping or to a hotel in the countryside. From talking about our values (Brave, Expert, Caring and Integrity) and how we’re upholding them, to running about on a team GPS treasure hunt, to gathering round the campfire for a meal – it's one of our favourite ways to get together.

We’ll also be taking our monthly Aiimi Team Meetings offline and back to our hub when we get the chance – another great excuse to get the whole team in one room, catch up on company news, and have some fun together. Isn’t that what work’s all about?

Interested in finding out more about life at Aiimi or applying to join us? Check out our open roles.