Griffin has operated as a remote-first company from day one. While this gives our people a lot of control over where and when they work, we’re also aware that working from home all or most of the time can lead to blurred boundaries. (As the saying goes, “I’m not working from home, I’m living in my office.”) That’s one of the main reasons we take the mental wellbeing of our people so seriously, and proactively embed benefits, tools, and policies to support them to feel their best.

Read on to learn more about some of the initiatives we have in place to make sure Grifflings are empowered to find a healthy work-life balance and can access extra support quickly and easily when they need.

Walking the walk on flexible work

Flexible work is deeply ingrained into our culture. We’ve chosen to run the company this way because we know no one feels 100% all the time and life can throw all sorts of challenges and complications at us, big and small, on a daily basis. When people feel like they don’t have the option to step away from work to take care of themselves or others, their mental health suffers, which means their work performance suffers, which inevitably means their mental health suffers more. If this cycle goes on unchecked, burnout is inevitable.

At Griffin, we believe in trust and autonomy. In practice, this means we assume our Grifflings are the experts on managing their time in a way that makes sense for them: so we work with them to support rhythms of working that suit their life, their role, and their team and help them do their best work.

This philosophy is formalised in our approach to time off. Along with standard annual leave and sick days, we also provide dedicated time-off for life-changing circumstances like bereavement and “private wellness” days for anyone going through something that doesn’t fit neatly into an established category. We can’t always predict the impact a major life event will have on us: our policy makes room for that unpredictability so our people don’t have to stress about justifying why they need time off when they need it.

Dealing with stress as it comes

Even with the most flexible work environment in the world, stress is a fact of life. Learning how to recognise symptoms of stress early‍—‌both in ourselves and others‍—‌helps us understand how and when to make the best use of our wellbeing benefits. It also helps us identify when someone we’re working with may be struggling and in need of support, which helps take care of each other and improves overall team wellness.

All Grifflings have access to wellbeing training via Minerva, our internal learning and development platform. These trainings help us both manage our own mental health issues and give us the tools to support anyone who may be going through a rough time.

The Life of Grifflings

The Life of Grifflings is our internal blogging and talk series where Grifflings share their experiences and perspectives, with a particular focus on how they’ve navigated difficult or unique challenges. Participation and attendance is completely voluntary, but so far, it’s been really popular across the organisation.

Through storytelling and frank discussion, the Life of Grifflings encourages us to reflect and share, and helps us to really get to know and empathise with each other. Every other month, a new Griffling takes us for a walk in their shoes: the topics are wide ranging, from discovering neurodivergence as an adult, to managing chronic health conditions, to grief and bereavement, to parenting as an immigrant or growing up as a child of immigrants. Sharing like this helps us see that none of us are alone in our struggles, that everyone is dealing with something even if they seem completely on top of things in their day-to-day work. This series also helps us embrace our diversity in a concrete way: rather than discussing “diversity” in the abstract, we encourage meaningful conversations about others’ lived experiences in a way that fosters understanding, connection, and empathy.

Ramping up mental health support with Oliva

Oliva is a one-to-one therapy and professional coaching platform, and we’re happy to be partnering with them to offer Grifflings even better support for their mental wellbeing.

Oliva gives everyone at Griffin access to a totally confidential therapy pathway, where they can get extra support with all kinds of stressors and life events. Grifflings also get access to a coaching pathway to help with workplace issues like burnout, managing others, requesting feedback and work-life balance. The goal is not just to support our people when they’re feeling down or struggling, but also to proactively give them ways to level up their personal and professional growth when they’re feeling good.

We believe every Griffling should have access to mental health support at any time they need it. A tool like Oliva helps us do that in a simple, accessible way and offer resources that are tailored to individuals’ specific needs and circumstances.

We’re just getting started

Building a bank from scratch is very difficult, which is why we emphasise the importance of resilience as part of our culture. But at Griffin, we don’t believe “resilience” just means gritting your teeth and toughing it out when things get hard. True resilience is about self-awareness and being able to pace yourself: knowing when it’s time to push and knowing when it’s time to take a breather and come back stronger later on.

We’re always looking for ways to improve and expand the mental wellbeing benefits we offer, in a way that prioritises autonomy and flexibility for all Grifflings. Even when things are hectic at work or overwhelming at home, we want our people to know we’ve got their backs every step of the way.