RealWorth Employee Handbook

Hello! We are RealWorth

We help organisations to identify, optimise, measure, and communicate social change and assist them to achieve better, more sustainable outcomes.

Our ultimate aim is to support the eradication of inequality by creating places which enable everybody to realise their full potential. This aim is central to our culture and management practices and is reflected in our employment practices.

We need and encourage all of our people to be the best version of themselves that they can. We set great store in the principle of trust. We only recruit adults, and we treat everyone as such. We believe that if we provide you with some sensible boundaries and outline guidance, we can trust you to use your good judgement in all situations.

So, a very warm welcome to our RealWorth employee handbook. It aims to be high on personality and low on rules. We’d like to continue improving it, so if you have any ideas on how to do that, please just let us know. Happy reading!

Things that matter most to us

You probably already know that most businesses say that they share a number of similar values. We think it’s to be expected. After all, which employer wouldn’t say that they valued inclusion, honesty, and personal choice? At RealWorth though, we reckon it’s more useful to pick out the things that we feel should shine out in everything that we do.

So here they are. We encourage everyone to point out to each other whenever we begin to lose sight of these principles.

We are people people and are passionate about places and neighbourhoods. Everything that we do has a ‘people first’ feel to it.
We are long-term thinkers, because being so will help us to make a difference by delivering better, more sustainable outcomes.
We are dedicated professionals, living and breathing a pro-social and pro-environmental attitude.
We are imaginative and resourceful in our approach, proud of the rigour that our knowledge and experience provide and happy to share it and collaborate with others.

Your early days

We’ve all been the newbie and experienced what it’s like when we don’t know who anyone is, where anything is and how anything gets done.

It’s pretty hard to figure out how to change that, so our approach is to say instead ‘hey, don’t worry’. It’s actually okay that you don’t know everything. In fact, we encourage you to bombard us with questions, suggestions and ideas right from your first day.

We’ll make sure that your line manager is around to welcome you on your first day and to support you in putting together a plan for your early days with us.

Your first few days is likely to consist of a combination of reading and shadowing. Reading will help you to get up to speed with our methods and some of our current projects. Shadowing will begin to give you a real feel for some of our customers, partner organisations and simply how we do things around here.

So, it’s important to be in learning mode from the day you arrive. Feel free to ask anything at all. We would love you to tell us if you think we can do something better. The early days are perfect to capture those moments of “I wonder why they do it that way?”.

How we work

What, not where

We believe that work is something we do rather than a place that we are. So, we work in a way that is focussed on outcomes, rather than inputs. In other words, it is less important that you are sat at a certain desk, in a certain place, at a certain time, than it is that you deliver goals that we have agreed together.

We each manage our own time, but we do it in a way that ensures we can support each other, our clients, and our business. Our core working hours are 10am to 3.30pm from Monday to Friday. Beyond that, we allow people to work flexibly to support personal choice.

Collaborative

RealWorth is a team, and we recognise that we all bring something different to the table. Therefore, it makes sense that we take care to listen to and support each other. We take this approach with clients, partners, and associates.

Problem ownership

A problem is only a curve in the road. We believe that the best people to navigate it are the ones driving. Team ownership. Non-hierarchical. Simple!

It’s all about learning

When we learn we grow. When we share knowledge and learning, we all grow together. We actively seek opportunities to develop in order to strengthen our team.

What if something goes wrong?

Mistakes happen. It’s okay if something doesn’t go to plan. When this happens, we work as a team and figure out how to put it right. What we ask is that you are open about anything that that might be going awry. A failure to communicate well is much more likely to end in a disaster than a well-intended mistake.

We operate from a starting point of trust. We believe that if we are able to find people that are a good fit with each other and with RealWorth, everyone will be working together trying to do the right thing. If we get this right, any issues that arise should be resolvable in an informal way.

How am I doing and how will I know?

Because we are focussed on outcomes rather than inputs, we deliberately avoid a traditional and bureaucratic appraisal process.

However, it is really important for everyone to know what is expected of them, what they are doing really well and what they can do to continue to learn and improve.

We will make sure that, within your first eight weeks with us, we agree with you what success will look like in your role and how we will measure it. However, it’s important to acknowledge that things change and as our business evolves and new work is secured, priorities may shift.

Once you’re established, it will be up to you to seek feedback from your colleagues, and we will build this into a team and peer review process.

Pay and benefits

Your annual salary will already have been agreed with you and you’ll be paid monthly in arrears, on or around the last working day of each month.

You should record any expenses you incur in doing your job on our FreeAgent portal. These will be reimbursed to you at the end of each month. Any big costs (e.g., flights, accommodation) will normally be booked and paid for by us.

We think that looking after yourself and staying healthy is key. So, RealWorth benefits are focused on supporting just that.

Leave Allowance – Taking time away from the office is important and good for the soul. So, in addition to our generous holiday allowance, we offer colleagues the option of buying an extra week’s leave. We recognise that holidays are not everyone’s thing, so you can also sell us a week back. Just be sure to let us know your plans within the first three months of your leave entitlement period,

Wellbeing allowance – whether your idea of staying well is using a meditation app, taking a yoga retreat, or joining a gym, that’s ok with us. We want to encourage you to do this by reimbursing 50% of the cost you incur in your chosen route. For permanent full-time employees this benefit is a maximum of £500 each year.

Employee Assistance Programme – we all need support from time to time and RealWorth provides access to a 24-hour EAP, which includes counselling support and legal & financial advice for you and your close family members. Find out more here. .

Professional development – Your professional development is just as important to us as the work that we do. We encourage you to find and take advantage of skills-based formal training as well as other professional development opportunities (such as conferences or online training) and will support you to do so financially by reimbursing the costs. We do this to help our employees grow as professionals and as people, and when advanced positions at RealWorth arise, we will always look first to promote internally first.

What if I am unwell?

We trust you to decide whether you are well enough to work and where the best place to do that is. If you are feeling up to it, then a home working day or two might be best for you and avoid passing on germs to others. Just keep us informed and up to date.

As in most businesses, periods of sickness that go beyond seven days must be supported by a fit note from your GP. After three months service, up to 10 days certified sickness in any 12-month period will be covered by our occupational sick pay scheme – in other words, you will receive full pay, inclusive of statutory sick pay.

Regardless of the length of illness, please just keep us informed and in the loop.

Policy pages

To be a responsible employer, we need to have policies. However, these documents do not define who we are as an employer. Instead, it is about creating a great place to work and ensuring that you feel able to bring along the best version of yourself each day.

Even so, the reality is that to ensure we meet our legal responsibilities and to give you confidence that both you and RealWorth are protected, we need to make some policy commitments. However, we don’t think it should take reams of paper to do this and we don’t think it should send you to sleep. So, here they are, RealWorth employment policies, in a few boxes and a few links at the bottom of this page!

Anti-bribery

Bribery is a crime.

Don’t do it.

Tell us if someone tries to bribe you.

You must declare any gifts that you receive.

Anti-tax evasion

Tax evasion is a crime.

Don’t do it.

Don’t facilitate someone else doing it.

Tell us if you suspect it.

Disciplinary and grievance

Act with honesty and in good faith at all times.

We will always aim to openly discuss any concerns that we have.

We encourage you to do the same.

In the unlikely event that you or we need to resort to a more formal process, the disciplinary and grievance policies below will be followed.

Health & Safety

We are all responsible for ensuring the health & safety of ourselves, other colleagues and anyone else who may be affected by our actions.

Take care.

No compromises.

Report any and all H&S incidents to a RealWorth director.

Equality, Diversity & Inclusion

We welcome and respect difference of any kind. We believe it makes us stronger.

We make employment decisions based on skills, knowledge, experience, capability and attitude. The rest is irrelevant.

Be kind and respectful to everyone.

Email and internet usage

Conducting some of your home affairs using our system makes sense. It will help to keep you sane, and we are okay with it.

Do the right thing. Only access legal and appropriate material.

Protect RealWorth’s reputation.

Giving back

In line with our overall aim, RealWorth encourages and supports you to volunteer for pro-social and pro-environmental causes. We all need to do something. Everyone at RealWorth is expected to. Full time employees are encouraged to take up to three hours each week in paid time and use RealWorth’s infrastructure to help you really make a difference to your chosen cause.