Taking good care of your team is vital. Here at First Edition Translations, we have a wide range of measures in place to foster positive mental and physical wellbeing in the workplace. In this article, we sum up how we keep our staff members happy and healthy.
Remote working
As you may already know, we made the transition to remote working back in 2020. Whilst we have a fully equipped office in the quaint town of Cambridge available to our team members, we give them the freedom and flexibility to do what works best for them. Our HR team conducts regular remote workplace assessments to ensure everyone benefits from an ergonomic set-up in their chosen location.
Our Cambridge office is adorned with the many books and brochures we’ve translated over the years
Although we work remotely, we make sure to touch base daily using a secure instant messaging tool, where problems can be resolved collaboratively and effectively. Given that our project managers speak a laundry list of languages, this tool is also great for helping each other out with quick linguistic queries. Importantly, we foster a positive error culture, where any mistakes can be discussed openly so we can quickly resolve them rather than brush them under the carpet.
What’s more, our executive and project management team all come together virtually in regular calls to discuss our individual projects past, present and future so that everyone is kept in the loop. These offer a good opportunity to talk through and solve any pain points as a group too.
We’re a social bunch!
A few times a year, we also invite all our staff members to in-person socials at our HQ in Cambridge, where we discuss the overarching company operations and objectives and head out for a meal together. Last but not least, we host two big get-togethers every year – one in the summer and one in the run-up to Christmas – where team members can bring their family along and celebrate together.
Our company get-togethers always prove a big hit
Speaking of Christmas time, over recent years, we have granted our staff members the last working day before Christmas as paid leave. As a company, we recognise the importance of spending time with your nearest and dearest, and we really encourage our staff to use this ‘Christmas gift’ to spend some quality time with their loved ones.
Committed to staff wellbeing
Of course, we also implement standard procedures covering key topics such as diversity and inclusion and compassionate leave. In addition to these core documents, we manage an online space dedicated to wellbeing topics, where team members are free to share inspiration and ideas. Since April 2023, we have also operated our compressed hours scheme, which allows everyone to take one day off every two weeks to give them greater work-life balance. It’s fair to say that the scheme has given a great boost to staff morale.
It doesn’t stop there: All our permanent salaried staff benefit from a life assurance scheme, because although we sincerely hope that a claim is never needed, we believe it is imperative that our loved ones are provided for as best as possible. Through Help@hand, we also offer remote GP appointments, mental health support and nutrition consultations.
At both First Edition Translations and our sister company Cintra, we are extremely grateful to our stellar team members who go to great lengths to deliver top quality to our private and public sector clients. We implement such wellbeing initiatives not only as a means of showing our recognition, but also to ensure our staff are happy in their work and always at the top of their game.
Find out more about our translation or interpreting services
If you would like to know more about the translation services First Edition offers, you can reach out to our multilingual project managers. If you are looking for interpreting services, be that in person, via video or over the phone, you can send an enquiry to the friendly interpreting coordinators at Cintra.