Acquia Recognized as a Centre of Excellence in Wellbeing by Great Place to Work UK

Last week, Acquia was officially certified as a Great Place to Work and received an award naming us a Centre of Excellence in Wellbeing for our commitment to creating a positive workplace culture where employees feel valued and fulfilled. We are especially proud to receive this honor right now as the world still grapples with the uncertainty and challenges of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. We are committed to providing the best environment for our employees as they navigate these difficult times.  

As it became apparent in March 2020 that the world was about to shut down due to a global pandemic, Acquia’s primary concern was the health, safety and wellbeing of every Acquian. We have our roots in communities across the globe, and that has played an important role in how we’ve adapted at Acquia. One of our core values is that we are stronger together. Here are some ways that we have come together to support Acquians and adapt our employee experience to ensure they can continue to be successful. 

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To prioritize the safety of our employees and ensure business continuity, we switched our entire global workforce to work from home even before the UK government announced the official lockdown. From a technical perspective, the switch was pretty seamless for Acquia, as 30% of our workforce is remote, and we already utilise  cloud-based technology to help us function globally.

Flexible work practices have enabled Acquia to face the challenges COVID-19 presented. We have introduced even more work flexibility–enabling employees to work on different schedules than usual, supporting homeschooling, elder care and other personal commitments, using phones to take walking meetings and encouraging everyone to take frequent breaks.

We evolved our hiring and new employee experiences–from interviewing on Zoom, to remote onboarding of new hires to virtual meetings across the globe. These actions allowed us to stay connected and remain productive. We remained committed to our mission to provide the best digital experiences for our customers as well as our employees, overcoming challenges to achieve excellent sales results for the quarter.   

Earning the Center of Excellence in Wellbeing award demonstrated our efforts to support the physical and mental health of every Acquian. Along with our top benefits and employee assistance programs, we created a wellness calendar with fitness and stress management activities. To counteract initial fear around how COVID-19 could be transmitted, we invited a virologist to come and speak to Acquians in a virtual session, to provide information about COVID-19 and dispel social media myths.  

We also provided webinars on topics such as How to Cope with Anxiety, Stress Management and Remote Learning Tips for Parents. The HR team posted suggestions to help manage work-life balance and launched a wellness Slack channel for everyone to share self-care strategies. We also prioritised social activities, such as virtual coffee meetings and happy hours to bring people together with coworkers outside of their day-to-day work.

Acquia’s CEO, Mike Sullivan, and other members of our executive team have provided regular business updates and demonstrated a commitment to “overcommunication” to ensure transparency and provide assurance to all employees. These updates also give Acquians the opportunity to speak directly with our leadership and share what is on their minds. 

We have launched a new partnership with the meditation and stress management app, Headspace. All employees received an annual membership and unlimited access to all premium mindfulness training and meditation content free of charge. 

Navigating this situation has brought our global community even closer. We have learned more about each other, and to compensate for the lack of an office environment, we have taken more time to socialise. This makes us more confident in the power of Acquia’s culture and our capabilities to cope with unprecedented challenges, whatever the future may hold. We are proud to see our efforts recognized by Great Place to Work UK and will remain committed to the well being of our employees.