National award shortlisting for Zen leads to call for change

We’re absolutely thrilled to have been selected as one of the shortlisted businesses in the Employer of the Year category of the SME National Business Awards 2020. 

Judges were particularly impressed with our commitment to championing every member of the team, and in supporting each individual to have complete autonomy over their role, their future, and the growth of the agency itself.  We were also commended for our pioneering evolution of the traditional working week, which has seen the usual 9am-5pm day well and truly abolished.

Our fabulous MD Fliss explained: “It’s a huge honour to be shortlisted and we’re absolutely delighted to have been recognised.  This last year has naturally been a challenging time for us, as it has been for every business, but it’s also presented us with opportunities to further evolve the agency and introduce new and innovative ways of working.

“We’ve embraced flexible working for a few years now and introduced many of our initiatives pre-COVID - already having the systems and processes in place to ensure safe and effective working from home.  Many businesses are claiming flexible working arrangements at the moment, but they’re simply not structured to operate these in the ‘normal’ world.

“Whilst we’re of course immensely proud to be leading the way in the adoption of true flexible working, it’s a very real tragedy that what we’re doing is considered to be remarkable and not the norm.  The outdated 9-5 working day has not been fit for purpose for a long time, but particularly now when we find ourselves in a very different world than 12 months ago. 

"We absolutely owe it to our teams, our clients, and our businesses to make flexible working so much more than a convenience or a tick box just for now – instead we need to adapt and develop our approaches for the long-term.”

The winners of each category of the SME National Business Awards 2020 are scheduled to be announced later this year.