In today’s busy business world, it can be difficult to achieve a good balance between your time at work and your time at home with your loved ones. With deadlines to meet, meetings to attend and targets to hit, somethings got to give and often it’s your social life. However, while these work commitments can be unavoidable, too much work and no play is no good for anyone in the long-run.

So, even though it’s not always easy to achieve, we think it’s essential that every member of our team, from our directors to our administrators, is encouraged to find and maintain a good balance between work and having a social life. Not only is this important from a productivity standpoint, but it can also help the team feel more appreciated and satisfied when they’re at work and promotes good mental health.

To make sure every member of our team is able to get the right mix of work and play, whilst also keeping their health and wellbeing in check, we like to take an active approach. We regularly encourage our team to take their lunch breaks (which is rare in this industry), so they can get out of the office and not be in front of their screens all day. We also promote the use of the local gym before, during their lunch break or after work, which can be a great way to de-stress and keep their mind and body healthy.

We believe that people should work smart and if that means they are able to complete their work on time, then we want everyone to leave work on time and spend time with their friends and families; instead of being in the office late into the evening. In addition to this, we also host monthly socials where the team can interact outside of the office and an annual summer day where the team spends the day in Hyde park playing games and enjoying a picnic together. This is great for morale, lets us get to know one another on a more personal level and gives us all something to look forward to. 

Doing group challenges has also proven to be a fantastic way of socialising outside of the office. As part of our charity efforts for Whitechapel, we recently completed the Three Peaks challenge, where the team got the chance to not only raise money for a worthy cause but also to get fit and build relationships with one another. 

We’re dedicated to creating a positive, work environment where the members of our team feel they can talk to us about any obstacles that might be stopping them from achieving a good work-life balance. Just recently, our Life sciences and FMCG consultant Vishal shared his concerns about possibly having to leave our company due to the high property prices in London. He had aspirations to buy a house for his young family and felt that York was the best place to do this; unfortunately, the commute to and from the office would be extensive.

As a valued member of the team, we wanted to keep Vish engaged and very much a part of our business, whilst also making sure he wasn’t spending too much time away from his family. It was decided that Vish could work from the office one day a week and then remotely from his new home in York for the rest. By utilising video conferencing tools, we now have Vish on a live video stream on the days he is not here, so he can still feel part of the team and communicate with his colleagues as easily as if he were sat at his desk.

Here’s what Vish had to say about the transition from full-time office worker to a remote worker and the benefits it has already brought to his home life:

“The leadership team at Deltra were extremely supportive and hugely open to what was seemingly a very innovative change for the business. We sat down and discussed the situation at length and came to a productive solution for all parties. The leadership team have shown confidence and belief in my ability to make this transition work, we even spoke about the possibility of opening an office in York or Leeds in the future to grow the business. This made me feel valued as an employee and has given me a greater ambition to accelerate the growth of the business.

 In the limited period, I have been working remotely I have found I am more involved with my family as a whole, which in turn has had a positive impact on my work life balance. Initially, it was challenging but I seem to have adjusted to it well, and with regular exposure to the office via Microsoft Teams – video conferencing for meetings and a live stream throughout the day makes the transition is even easier. I feel I’m more productive in some aspects of the job for sure.”

While we may not be in a position to offer remote working to all of our employees at this time, we are open to see if there are other ways in which we can use technology to help further our flexible working policy in the future. We also want to continue listening to our employees when they come to us with a concern and work with them to find a suitable solution. We hope that, with this open-minded approach and continued input from our employees, we can continue to promote a healthy balance between work and play and create an environment that continuously evolves to suit the needs of both the business and our team.