Flexa was founded by Molly, Maurice and Tim. They discovered a severe lack of information and transparency in the hiring process after Molly was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, which led to her needing more flexibility whilst she works.
Molly asked for a bit of flexibility in her role and her employers fired her. Searching for a company that offered Molly the flexibility she needed, Molly and Maurice realised that there was absolutely nowhere to search for companies that guaranteed the workplace environment she needed and thus Flexa was born!
Flexa is a people-first recruitment platform that enables people to find the right working environment for them.
Molly said that, “when we started Flexa, I wanted to create an environment that made people feel the opposite of how I felt in my previous career. We began with the mentality of "if you give a lot, you'll have happy, productive, and engaged employees" and it worked (thankfully!)”
“It's come with some challenges - while we attract talent very easily, sometimes people come to us for the wrong reasons, so we are very output and target-focused. People work hard, but get so much freedom in return, hence why we're rated so highly on our own website!”
Molly told us that, “as a sixteen-person business, we've spent a lot of time thinking about how we make generosity work for us. We work remote-first, so that people can choose the right pattern for them (and get to come to the office to meet their team once a month on an all-expenses-paid trip). We have core hours of 11-3 so that people flex their hours to suit them, work a 4.5 day week with no pay cut, and have people on alternative contracts like part-time. Trust and autonomy is key to our culture, as is fun. We're rated 100% on all three.”
“We try to ensure that everyone at Flexa can thrive - with enhanced parental leave, dog-friendly offices, Unplugged stays to digitally detox, and our very generous WFA scheme alongside 45 days of holiday (which includes two full shut down periods where the whole team is off for two lots of one week)”.
“We offer a £250 budget for people to set themselves up to work from home, get people birthday presents every year, and celebrate people's achievements every day. To say that we, as a founding team, spend time thinking about how best to treat our employees would be an understatement!”
“Every employee has options in the company, and up to a 20% bonus every year. We re-benchmark salaries every year and move people to above market if going rates have changed, without them even asking”.
“We aim to be one of the best companies to achieve a lot and be rewarded for that hard work, enabling employees to thrive at work and at home”.
Judge Ifty Nasir, founder and CEO of Vestd said, “Congratulations to our joint second place winners, Flexa Careers. You can be rightfully proud of leading the way and setting an excellent example to other British companies!”
Molly added that, “it's wonderful to be recognised as the second most generous employer in the UK. When we started Flexa, we knew that high-performance and enjoyable working environments could go hand in hand. We designed how we work around that concept - working at a startup can be intense, and our 4.5 day week, company shut-downs, and generous holiday allowance mean people can rest without guilt".
"Offering a lot to employees doesn't need to come at a super high cost, and when done thoughtfully, you'll have happy, engaged, and productive employees who stay at the company for a long time. Businesses cannot be successful without great people, so invest in them!"