Wellbeing at Nevado

When hiring, we at Nevado talk a lot about work-life balance, wellbeing and a focus on mental health. These topics are easy to speak about, but harder to implement and sustain. If I were a candidate, I'd wonder what wellbeing at Nevado really meant, and I'd be interested in hearing about specific examples of what the firm does in this regard. So, let's get into it!

The best place to start is with what people on our team say about Nevado:

Nevado truly cares about us. Since starting here I really feel like I’ve joined a welcoming little family who prioritise the wellbeing of both myself and my dependents. My colleagues are never too busy to lend an ear and I feel very supported in an environment where I am able to flourish.

Tess, QA Test Lead

At Nevado it always feels like we're being looked after, from the generous wellbeing allowance which gave me the nudge to sign up for the gym which has improved my life dramatically. And then small things like being encouraged to rest when sick, take screen breaks and not feeling like you have to work excessively long hours make a big difference.

Will, Development Team Lead

Read on for the philosophy that led to these results.

Happy people do extraordinary things

When we founded Nevado in 2006, we set out with a simple mission. We wanted to:

1. Make cool stuff
2. Be a great place to work

These two goals were intertwined from the start, because the best cool stuff is made by people who are happy in their workplace. So to produce the best work we could for our clients and joint ventures, we categorically had to be a great place to work.

Where could we start with architecting this workplace? Well, we knew that the people you work with are a massive contributor to your day-to-day job satisfaction (or dissatisfaction). And this meant that we had to find the right people.

Finding the right people

What this means is finding people for whom our culture is a great fit. Like any relationship, it's a two-way thing: you need to be right for us, and we need to be right for you. We have a finely-honed recruitment process that has a superb track record in finding people who will feel comfortable in themselves and around their colleagues. If we offer you a role, we have a high degree of confidence that you'll thrive. The process is a little unusual, but it has worked, time and again.

In the beginning, we had a disastrous interview or two. We'd put out a job ad that largely focused on technical skills, and then we'd shortlist candidates based on their CVs and haul them in for interviews in which our focus was largely on testing their experience and capabilities. We didn't get to know them properly, and we figured we'd work out their personal fit based on gut feel. This mistake was borne of inexperience, and we quickly rectified it.

So, the upshot is: if we offer you a role, we are confident that you will get along really well with your colleagues. You'll do great work with them, you'll learn from them, you'll teach them and you'll have fun with them. The absence of friction between our people is noticeable and a big contributor to everyone's wellbeing.

Right, you find yourself inside teams of people whose company you enjoy. But are they all working madly, despite talk of a work-life balance?

What work-life balance means to us

Nevado is interested in sustaining the delivery of high quality work over the long term because most of our clients and ventures are long-term relationships. We achieve this by avoiding behaviours which would endanger it. If people are working too hard for extended periods, they will start making mistakes (so quality will drop) and ultimately they will burn out and leave (ruining our long-term plans). And if your work life cannot at least to some extent shape itself around your unique personal life, your satisfaction and ultimately the quality of your output will fall.

So, at Nevado, we:

• Do not have an "always on" culture: during your working hours, you'll be productive and work hard. But, when the working day stops, barring occasional exceptional situations, work stops. And that means not checking Slack after dinner with your family, not sending emails at midnight, not having your boss call you on the weekend with some urgent task. We actively discourage this kind of behaviour.
• Are flexible around your life: life is complicated. Doctors' appointments, school assemblies, elderly parents needing help, the electrician coming to fix your boiler: these things are all out there, demanding your time during working hours. As long as you communicate in advance, don't leave anyone in the lurch and do your best to make up the time, we'll accommodate your personal life's day-to-day needs.
• Have a hybrid working policy: we understand that working from home can make a massive difference to some people's personal commitments. Some of our staff are fully office-based, others do a few days a week in the office and others are mostly or entirely remote. How well a hybrid approach will work really depends on each individual role and this is something we will discuss in detail with you during the recruitment process.
• Are happy to consider occasional (very) remote stints: some of our team have roots and families in far-flung places. When travelling to see loved ones far away, it often doesn't make sense to travel for short periods, but you won't have enough leave to cover an entire trip. On a case-by-case basis, we will be happy to look at making your trip a blend of work and personal time as long as you'll have a good internet connection and will reliably be working when you say you will.

It's important to mention that we're not saying our approach is the best. We're just saying it's right for us and, if we get the recruitment bit right, it'll be right for you. I'm reading Walter Isaacson's book on Elon Musk, and by all accounts Elon operates very differently, driving people to achieve genuinely incredible things through intense periods of all-consuming work in high conflict environments. The cost of this is burnout and high staff turnover. That (clearly!) works for Elon's businesses but wouldn't work at Nevado.

Now, as mentioned, when you are working, you'll be focused and productive. And it's all too easy to forget about our physical health when working hard. So what do we do about that?

Happy body, happy mind

Your physical health is yours to look after, but here's how we help:

• We provide corporate health insurance: this gives you access (with some industry standard limits) to private healthcare. You'll be able to have a video call with a GP within a few hours of booking one. These appointments last longer than those at your local NHS GP, and the GPs are able to issue prescriptions and referrals. Therapies like physiotherapy are also covered.
• We provide an annual wellness benefit: each year you can spend ￡300 on something related to wellness. Send us the receipt and if we judge it suitable, we'll reimburse you. People have used these on gym fees, yoga classes, fitness trackers, paddleboarding and more.
• We promote regular screen breaks: it seems like a little thing, but the science points to regular breaks from sitting at desks and staring at screens to be one of the best things you can do to maintain the health of your circulation, muscles, nerves and eyes. We have encouraged everyone to install apps which remind them to have short breaks every twenty minutes, and we have noticed a snowball effect: seeing others taking a break encourages you to take one. Personally, I duck into the fitness studio at the office once a day to do some stretching, which is very helpful in maintaining my aging Gen X body!
• We encourage proper lunch breaks: you should take the full hour for lunch. Get away from your desk, go for a walk, sit in the café chatting to colleagues over your food rather than sitting at your desk watching a video, find a nook and read a book, listen to a podcast or (I'm thinking of a particular person on our team) take a nap. You'll come back refreshed and do better work in the afternoon. I take a walk in Wimbledon Park every day, and (I need to get better at sticking to this) sometimes fit in a 5km run (there are showers at the office).
• We go out for lunch once a week: on the note of lunch breaks, on Tuesdays those in the office go out for lunch at a local restaurant. The choice of venue is very democratic: we vote using emojis in Slack. ???????????????? (For clarity we don't advocate eating tennis balls, but the ?? is the best representation for voting purposes of Drop Shot, a local tennis-themed restaurant)

Coffee

This doesn't quite fit in anywhere else, but our policy of sponsoring barista coffee for staff in our office has landed very well. There's a nice mental boost which comes from knowing at some stage in your day, you can go ask a nice, friendly barista to make you the coffee of your choice. ?

Check-ins

Because we're not a big company (we have fewer than 30 team members), we are able to keep aware of how everyone is doing, and if we notice that someone seems not quite themselves, we make an effort to reach out gently and check in with them. If they don't want to share any more (or if we're wrong!) then we'll leave it there. But often people find it liberating to talk a bit about whatever's going on, and this then opens us up to being able to help: maybe with a little extra flexibility, or a temporarily reduced workload, or some advice on resolving the problem. Maybe we can encourage them to speak to a relevant professional, potentially through the corporate health insurance. It really depends on the case, but what matters is that we do our best to care.

Happy (and healthy) people do extraordinary things

I hope this gives you some insight into how we at Nevado walk our talk about wellbeing, work-life balance and mental health. Now I'm going to take a screen break and exchange ten dead leaves from the hanging plants above me in the workspace for a flat white from the café upstairs (don't ask) before cracking on with making some cool stuff. I'll leave the last word to Kirsten below.

Andy (Strategy Director)

The initiatives put in place which focus on wellbeing and work-life balance help you to really make the time to focus on yourself outside of work, and I think that definitely carries through into the quality of work that everyone produces at Nevado. Nevado is a great case study for how happier, healthier employees, who are given the space and tools to focus on things outside of work, produce higher quality work and a better working environment overall!

Kirsten, Business Analyst