Continuously improving our company culture

Company culture is important to employees because staff are more likely to enjoy work when their needs and values are consistent with their employers.

How do we continually evolve our strong company culture at Kirk Roberts? One thing we have found extremely valuable is listening to our employees, understanding their needs, and implementing initiatives around their feedback. We understand we are better together, working as one team and when our people are respected and empowered we can do great things.

9-day Fortnight

The 9-day fortnight was in response to staff requests for more flexible work arrangements. The Tauranga office trialled the 9-day fortnight for 6 months and found a positive impact on all 29 measures of work and life satisfaction. The trial was then extended to the whole company for a year, and those who participated found a positive impact on their work-life balance, energy, and productivity. Over half our staff have chosen to work a 9-day fortnight, and new employees are excited about the option when they join us. We are driven to care for our employees and ensure they are happy, so offering a flexible way of working was key for supporting wellbeing and balancing work with life responsibilities.

Having recently wrapped up our 9-day fortnight trial we wanted to integrate client feedback into the decision as to the way forward.

Seeking client feedback in both November 2021 and July 2022 we surveyed client’s satisfaction levels and feedback on the initiative.

The results were overwhelmingly positive!

Overall satisfaction with Kirk Roberts is 78%
86% believe the 9-day initiative has not impacted their business
29% claim the initiative has a positive impact on their view of Kirk Roberts

Both customers’ satisfaction and reaction to the 9-day fortnight are consistent with the work we conducted last year mid-trial with the concept generally viewed positively (progressive, employee-minded).

Outstanding Employee Engagement

Our employee committee is another key part of working at KR. As a team they create and deliver diverse, fun and engaging monthly employee events across the country. From nights out, to local picnics bringing the team together, to national employee weekends away to celebrate the organisation’s achievements, they focus on driving our team culture forward.

And we had outstanding results in the 2022 employee engagement survey about this team and all they do, with scores over 90%.