Independent digital and creative agency, WiredCo, has launched a new initiative, 'Public Holidays Just Got Personal', to give staff the option to choose when and how they take public holidays.

Part of the agency's WiredWellness offering, the policy acknowledges talent's cultural needs as the diversity of the business shifts in terms of ethnicity, intergenerational working, beliefs, and ability.

The handling of Australia Day has been a focus for many businesses, but WiredCo believes the issue is broader, with a study by Perkbox Australia showing that 58% of respondents want flexibility on how they use public holidays.

WiredCo Partner, David Kennedy, said: “The more diverse our business becomes – not just in ethnicity, but also intergenerational working, beliefs and ability – the more obvious it has became that the fixed traditional public holiday approach was no longer right.” Angela Hampton, WiredCo. Founder & Managing Director, added, “For us, it wasn’t just about finding a solution to Australia Day. We also had to think about people who don’t celebrate Christmas and Easter for religious reasons, and those who don’t celebrate The King’s birthday because they don’t place value in a monarchy.”

“For us, it wasn’t just about finding a solution to Australia Day. We also had to think about people who don’t celebrate Christmas and Easter for religious reasons, and those who don’t celebrate The King’s birthday because they don’t place value in a monarchy,” said WiredCo. Founder & Managing Director, Angela Hampton. "WiredWellness wasn’t a response to the pandemic lockdown working environment, it started long before that. We wanted to give our team space to decompress, so we created our monthly ReWired events. Then we gave our people access to a counselor to help them manage their mental wellbeing, so we made access to that unlimited.”

The initiative has the full support of the team, explained WiredCo Partner, Michelle Hampton: “When we consulted our team, we discovered they were 100% in favour of ‘Public Holidays Just Got Personal’ because it showed trust, cultural-connectiveness and helped them create a personal working style that was respectful and effective for them.”

And whilst the initiative is something the three WiredCo partners knew they had to do, it wasn’t without its challenges.

“We’re an independent business, so any change presents a host of questions. We had to think about how to track these days, how best they accrue, how the team take them and how they communicate that flexibility with their teammates and clients,” said WiredCo CFO, Nikki Cranley.

Kennedy reports that WiredWellness has helped achieve 95% team happiness, 97% job satisfaction and stabilised retention at 81%. The business has almost quadrupled in three years, which they attribute to the success of WiredWellness. WiredCo. was one of the pioneers in remote working and in 2023, became the first Australian business to offer parental leave for pets, named Pet-ernity.