Taking Advantage of SHIFT’s Work Perks

As you’re reading this post, our Boston office sits empty. No, we haven’t all come down with the flu – we’re touring Boston Harbor on our annual Summer Outing, just one of the many work perks at SHIFT!

There are seven core values which drive everything we do at SHIFT. These values encourage us to be connected, honorable, creative, smart, positive, dedicated and ballsy (yes, ballsy). Even before an employee is hired, we ask a series of questions to ensure their cultural fit, as finding the right person to join our family is more important than just filling empty seats. We hire based on values; we fire based on values.

To help promote and reinforce our culture, SHIFT has a Cultural Committee in every office that plans events and work perks throughout the year – including our annual Summer Outing. Work perks at SHIFT got far beyond annual outings, however. Here’s an overview:

Salary and Benefit Reviews
The Agency undertakes bi-annual salary and benefits reviews to ensure it remains competitive and consistent with the market.

Team Social Budgets
Each team is given a budget to plan a monthly team-building event. The only rule is that it has to be fun and foster team bonding, like in the shot below:

Healthy SHIFT
The Agency launched this health and wellness initiative two years ago and has a committee in each office to develop programming such as lunchtime salad bars and wellness challenges. Employees also receive a health/wellness reimbursement that helps cover the cost of anything from registering for a road race to taking yoga classes.

Culture Reimbursement
Speaking of reimbursements, SHIFTers are encouraged to get out and explore their cities through a $250 yearly reimbursement for cultural-related activities.

Training and Professional Development
SHIFT has a dedicated Learning & Development Coordinator to help drive the Agency’s internal trainings and onboarding process and promote professional development opportunities across all four offices.

Office Exchange
If employees have travel plans in our four office locations, SHIFTers can make arrangements to work out of that local office for the duration of their visit and not have to take vacation time.

Vacation Policies
SHIFTers hail from far and wide – even internationally – so the Agency provides generous vacation policies that include the week off between Christmas and New Years.

Green Task Force and Social Good Committee
Two additional committees created by passionate SHIFTers to encourage giving back and improving our communities:

Elected time off
SHIFTers are offered eight hours of volunteer time each year, as well as time off for voting.

Ejector Seat Thursdays
Every Thursday we have a staff meeting to catch SHIFTers up on all the latest that week. In addition to these updates, a name is often chosen and that employee gets EJECTED… for the day, that is. They’re immediately told to unplug, pack up and go enjoy their personal life. The assumption is that “your team has your back.”

These work perks sound too good to be true? They’re not! They’re good and true. Find out for yourself – we’re hiring!

Emily Mong
Senior Marketing Analyst and member of SHIFT’s Cultural Committee

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