Member Article

Middlesbrough company launches unique scheme to deal with unhappy staff

Middlesbrough-based Viral Effect has adopted a novel employee scheme designed to retain only those staff who are happy in their work.

The initiative, believed to be a UK first, operates on the premise of ’Don’t want to stay? We will pay!’, meaning the company will pay a bonus to any member of staff who wants to leave within the first two months of their employment.

Providing social media management, digital advertising, customer engagement and data collection applications, the company believes the new scheme will help to attract and retain the best staff.

Inspired by a successful scheme run by US shoe retailer Zappos, the initiative will see Viral Effect pay recent recruits up to 15% of their annual salary if they decide to leave the business.

In essence, the scheme is designed to make the digital marketing and customer engagement agency a uniquely happy place to work.

Viral Effect is no reportedly no stranger to alternative methods of staff management. Other initiatives introduced include flexible working, with flexible hours and staff allowed to work from home when it’s more convenient for them.

There’s also Barbeque Thursdays, with the company laying on barbeque food – or a takeaway during inclement weather - for all staff.

“Any member of staff who isn’t happy within the first two months of their employment, we’ll pay them to leave,” said James Pennington, managing director of Viral Effect. “We want people who want to work for us, rather than for the money.

“We want our staff to be happy in their workplace. If they’re not happy with us then we’d rather they left so we can replace them with someone who will be happy and productive.

“Too often people hang on in jobs and in careers they don’t really want to be in because they know they’d have to walk away with nothing. We will make it worth their while to leave by giving them a bonus.

“We’re building a community feel in the office, so before we start to train people, we’d like to know that they fit in with our office culture.

“I’m a great believer that a happy team is a productive team. If they’re not happy then we’ll pay them to leave. I’d much rather we do that than invest in people who will ultimately leave us anyway in the relatively short-term.

“Once that offer has been made and they still decide to stay, we’ll know they are here because they want to be, not just because of the money.”

Pennington, who is looking to recruit a business development manager and two more designers, promises to introduce more schemes to ensure the Viral Effect is happiness.

“I’m not a big fan of the current status quo of office work,” he said. “Everyone’s been working the same way for years but technology and the times have changed, so we need to change too.”

Viral Effect, whose largest clients are 900 Domino’s pizza stores across the UK, have increased their workforce to 15 by recruiting four new staff since January this year when they moved to bigger office space in Boho Four Gibson House.

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