Comvita (employer)

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Flexible working arrangements are just one part of Comvita’s commitment to creating a healthy workplace. The company manufactures a range of natural health products at its production plant in Paengaroa, half an hour’s drive south of Tauranga. As well as around 40 manufacturing staff, it employs another 200 people in New Zealand and around the world.

Many staff are set up to work from home on a regular or occasional basis. For example Organisational Development Manager Sonya Granitzer works four days a week.  She usually works from home on Tuesdays and will sometimes swap her day off in order to attend school events on other days.

“I drop my children off at school so don’t usually get to work until around 9am so I work a little bit later in the evening. Several other women have that type of arrangement and a solo dad has flexibility around his hours as well. Some people coach children’s sports teams so they can leave work early if they like and make up the time later.”

Sonya says the arrangements are reasonably informal and guided by what she calls “a wellness philosophy” rather than a set of rules. She acknowledges that the best laid plans can be stymied by reluctant managers but says flexibility is becoming a big part of the workplace culture and managers are happy for staff to change their hours to fit in personal commitments, such as exercise.

 “All the managers know that we encourage flexibility, working in the community and looking after your health,” she says. “We’ve been working on this for the last couple of years and it’s becoming part of our culture now. Our CEO Brett Hewlett is very much behind it and that makes a huge difference.”

Flexibility is always a challenge for production staff, but Comvita listened to the needs of its staff and adjusted shifts to suit them. “A few years ago the production staff asked if they could work their shifts over four and a half days during summer so they could have Friday afternoons off,” she says. “We readily agreed to that and they found it so helpful that we’ve recently made it a year-round arrangement.”

Sonya believes that Comvita’s proactive approach to wellness and flexibility contributes to its ability to access a large pool of potential employees, despite its rural location. “We’d really struggle to employ mothers if we insisted on a rigid 40-hour week,” she says. “This way we’re getting some extremely committed people who appreciate the benefits and are really focussed because of it.”

“People in manufacturing appreciate the fact that they’ve made a suggestion about changing their shifts, we’ve taken it up and it makes their lives much easier. Healthier, happier people are bound to be more committed and productive.”