Why Our Staff Stick Around: Loyalty, Flexibility and the Four-Day Week at Zipex
Manufacturing these days has a retention problem, and most people in the industry will tell you that. Skilled roles are hard to fill, and even harder to hold onto if someone else offers a slightly better offer. So it’s worth asking why, at Zipex, that isn’t really our experience.
Decades, not years
Our shortest-serving team member has already clocked up 8 years with us, and a large chunk of our staff have been here somewhere between 15 and 30 years. Our longest serving colleague only recently retired after an incredible 43 years with the company. That kind of tenure isn’t something you see everywhere in this industry, and it’s not an accident either. It’s the result of a fairly deliberate set of decisions about how we treat people once they’ve joined us, not just how we recruit them.
Built around trust: the four day week
In 2023 we introduced a four day working week, at the same pay as five. The thinking behind it was simple: we believe people can be just as productive across four focused days as five, and giving everyone an extra day back, whether that’s for family, hobbies, or simply switching off, tends to make for a happier, more motivated team. Two years in, we’re very happy with how it works and so are our staff!
Flexibility where it counts: parents and school holidays
We also know that juggling work and family life isn’t always straightforward, particularly during the school holidays. So we build flexibility in for parents during these periods specifically: as long as contracted hours are completed and the needs of the business are still met, our team can start earlier, finish later, or rearrange their week to fit around their family. We trust our people to get the job done!
Why this matters beyond the factory floor
When someone’s been with us for 15, 20 or 30 years, they carry an enormous amount of knowledge and experience that simply can’t be replaced, about the machines, the materials, the customers, the thousand small judgement calls that never make it into a manual. We’d always rather flex around a good employee’s changing circumstances than lose them because a rigid working pattern stopped suiting their life. That’s not just a nicer way to run a company, it’s the most sensible way to run one too. It’s also, quite directly, why our quality holds up order after order: the same experienced hands are the ones on the line, year after year.
Get in touch if you’d like to know more about how we work!
More from the blog soon: staff bios are next, so you’ll get to meet some of the people behind this blog directly.
