Celebrating Five Years of Genuine Flexibility at Zen!

At Zen, employee wellbeing has always been at the core of how we work, but we believe that the foundation of any wellbeing strategy is genuine flexibility. This week, we’re proud to be celebrating five fabulous years of flexible freedom!

Back in the midst of the Covid-19 lockdowns, we made a bold move. We completely abolished the traditional working week, gifting our team full autonomy over when, where and how they work. We’ve always championed a life-work balance (in that order), but the pandemic presented a unique opportunity to take flexibility even further - and we embraced it wholeheartedly.

Naturally, we were apprehensive. How would we measure it? How would we ensure optimum productivity? Would it change our team dynamics? And could it truly work? To address our concerns, we developed a clear (and non-negotiable) success metric: every decision must be a win for our clients, our team, and the agency. With this guiding principle in place, we trusted that empowering our team with true flexibility would yield positive results. And five years on, it’s still the best business decision we’ve ever made.

This isn’t about a late start to do the school run, or shifting lunch to fit in a dentist appointment - we’re talking about full unrestricted flexibility - no core hours, no set days, no permission needed, and no guilt required. Our team are trusted to manage their time to suit their personal lifestyles and energy cycles, ensuring they achieve true life-work balance. Whether it’s food shopping on a quiet weekday, attending the school sports day without dipping into annual leave, or taking a mid-morning walk to reset - they’re in complete control.

And the result? Our team work when they’re most energised, motivated, and productive, meaning that we get the best version of them - and so do our clients. No more unproductive hours spent staring at screens out of obligation. Instead, we work with our flow, not against it.

That said, we know that remote working can get lonely, so we’ve kept connection at the heart of our culture - with regular coffee catch ups, walking meetings, and team get-togethers and social events whenever possible. Whilst we initially kept our office as a fall back, we chose to go fully remote last autumn. Now, if we fancy a team day, we meet up at each other’s homes or our favourite local coffee haunts. And client meet-ups are always a highlight!

The feedback from our team has been overwhelmingly positive. Reduced stress, better time management, improved physical and mental health, and more space for life’s important moments. No more wasting time or money commuting, no more using annual leave for routine appointments or school events. Genuine flexibility allows our team to blend their life and work with ease - and without compromise. Life is generally easier if it can all flex and bend as necessary, and in a demanding world where it’s so important to take time out for ourselves, we’re delighted that the complete flexibility we afford our team ensures they can do just that.