ACEVO – Winner 2025, Best Small Employer
ACEVO recognises that recruitment and retention of talent is critical to its success, and so has nurtured a culture of support that enables everyone to perform at their best and gives them a competitive edge.
Progressive policies
ACEVO has moved to fully remote working, but within that, additional flexible working arrangements are available. Within the team, long term adjustments have been made, such as compassionate leave, compressed hours and fluid flexibility to manage the sometimes-unpredictable nature of caring. In one recent instance an extended period of six months’ compassionate leave, combining paid and unpaid leave, was offered to a team member needing to focus on their caring responsibilities at a particular time. Job adverts are fully transparent about salaries and all roles are fully home based, to encourage the most diverse range of talent to apply. Fully paid paternity leave is available, as is paid time off for ante-natal appointments. Shared parental leave provision is matched to maternity leave. Bereavement leave of up to five days is offered as standard to all staff, with the potential for that to be extended with further compassionate leave on a case by case basis. In their spirit of adaptability and willingness to progress, ACEVO is currently trialling a four-day week whilst retaining full pay, and will be assessing its impact on services to members and staff wellbeing in the autumn.
Leading from the top
The senior executive team work flexibly, and actively model prioritising childcare when needed. Amongst the leadership team is a champion for carers, who is a carer themselves and demonstrates their commitment to carers’ issues by being a trustee for a carers charity. When a senior manager openly used the carers leave available, the visibility of support enabled colleagues to respond with compassion and reassured them of the support available. Guidance is provided to managers on how best to support parents and carers, which promotes consistency across the organisation.
Supportive culture
The culture is founded on trust in an individual’s ability to manage their workload in a way that suits them, whilst maintaining strong team connections and commitment to the organisation’s overall needs. The remote model has enabled recruitment of the best talent from across the UK, and enabled staff to move across the country as needed for family reasons without needing to seek new employment or causing disruption to their roles. ACEVO’s focus on a culture of support empowers employees to be open about their wellbeing needs, and team members across different teams and functions will lean in to cover where needed.
Measure of success
ACEVO’s team reflects the geographical spread of the members they serve, with more than half of the staff team being based outside of London. Surveys show staff satisfaction holding steady year on year at between an impressive 96% and 98% and are at a consistent 100% on specific measures for flexibility and staff morale. Sickness absence levels average under 2% a year. The organisation plans to continue to build on their success, through cross-team learning and development and providing technology to support effective working as well as investing resources into updating policies to reflect working practices, including carers’ leave and a bereavement policy.
