By launching an in-house benefits platform, increasing our therapy sessions, expanding our hybrid work model to include work-from-abroad option, and creating more opportunities for our people to embrace a healthier lifestyle and connect in-person, we ensure our Equilibrium programme is better aligned to our colleagues’ needs.

Aiming to create a wholesome experience inside and outside the office, in 2016 we launched Equilibrium, a holistic benefits programme inspired by Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, covering the four pillars that come together to support our wellbeing: social, physical, emotional and work-life fusion. Since then, we’ve continuously adjusted our Equilibrium programme to respond to our people’s interests and current realities.

2022 was the year we took the hybrid model several steps forward, enabling our people to tailor their experience and ensure they thrive. We introduced a brand-new in-house benefits platform, piloting new initiatives to help our colleagues boost their overall health and increasing the number of ways our people can do their work, connect and exchange ideas.

Introducing a More Flexible Way to Access Benefits

Aiming to help our colleagues tailor the benefits that best support their wellbeing, we launched an in-house platform, which brought more flexibility to how we access benefits.

With a user-friendly interface, it provides a real-time overview of all the available benefits and can be used to easily tailor them based on each person’s needs, interests and annual budget.

Our colleagues can keep track of their budget while they navigate the variety of benefits available: from special discounts, spa vouchers, gym membership, private healthcare packages, and eyeglasses reimbursement to home office accessories or contributions to private pension funds.

"Our Equilibrium programme constantly evolves by integrating our colleagues' suggestions and meeting their needs and interests. With the launch of our in-house benefits platform last year, we were able to provide our colleagues with more flexibility in choosing the benefits that suit them the best and improve their wellbeing. We’ve continued our in-house sports classes and added new opportunities for a healthy lifestyle and mindset, such as one-day hiking trips or bootcamp challenges. We've also continued to support our colleagues' emotional wellbeing through coaching and in-house therapy sessions introduced as early as 2016.” Camelia Creosteanu, Head of Employee Benefits and Relations at Accesa

Adding New Initiatives to Improve Our Physical and Mental Health

Overall, more than 200 online and outdoor sports classes and 15 sports races, hiking trips and biking tours helped our tech teams boost their health and enjoy more social interactions outside work.

“In 2022, we kept our community active by organising weekly sports classes, one-day hiking trips or bike tours around Cluj. Having a weekly schedule helped our colleagues integrate healthy habits into their routines, improving their physical and mental wellbeing. Additionally, we’ve supported them with personalised workouts, encouraging them to join local sports races such as Crosul Companiilor, Crosul de Noapte, The Beard Run, Swimathon or Walking Month.” Calin Timicer, Personal Trainer at Accesa

Inspired by our colleagues’ openness to embrace an active lifestyle and develop a healthy mindset, we launched two pilot projects, Active Bootcamp and the Healthy Habits Club.

Designed as a weekend retreat in the mountains, with sports challenges, hiking activities, yoga sessions and spa moments, Active Bootcamp proved to be an exciting opportunity for our colleagues to learn more about their body and physical limitations and reconnect with their teammates.

Almost 15% of our colleagues joined the Healthy Habits Club. A pilot project meant to boost their ability to create and sustain a healthy lifestyle, it's structured on different levels and sets our people on a journey towards improving their health but also bringing them closer to their teams.

"The Healthy Habits Club started as a challenge for many of our colleagues that slowly turned into a journey of self-awareness around the hurdles we face when making even small changes in our lives, but also how these small changes bring noticeable benefits. For example, being aware of our posture and standing rather than sitting throughout the day can alleviate back pain. The Healthy Habits Club is all about small changes that make a big difference and that are in our power to incorporate into our routine; made easier since we’re all working as a team to be consistent, one day at a time." Calin Timicer, Personal Trainer at Accesa

Fostering a Healthy Work-Life Balance

We believe that the workplace in which people thrive adapts to where they can do their best work, so we expanded our flexible working model to include a work-from-abroad option to our existing remote, hybrid, and in-office ones. We support our colleagues who are interested in working up to 90 days/ year from the EU countries, but we also consider requests from those planning on working from the non-EU ones.

“Imagine after work you get to relax with a swim in the ocean, visiting a museum or a castle you’ve wanted to see for a very long time. It makes even a hard day much more manageable. For me, no task was too hard, no meeting was too long, my alarms didn’t feel like they were ringing too early in the morning.” Patricia Reidel, Service Manager at Accesa

Our flexible approach to the workplace not only enables our people to tailor their professional experience, but also increases our national footprint with colleagues working from Bucharest, Sibiu, Brasov, Timisoara or Iasi in addition to the ones from Cluj-Napoca, and Oradea.

Creating More Opportunities For Our People to Build Genuine Connections

In 2022, we increased the number of opportunities for our colleagues to connect by redesigning part of our Cluj-Napoca office and launching another pilot project Accesa Coffee Shop. Established as a collaboration with two central venues in Cluj-Napoca, the Accesa Coffee Shop provides unconventional spaces where our problem-solvers can have 1:1s meetings, brainstorming sessions or get-togethers while enjoying free coffee or non-alcoholic beverages.

As we foster a healthy work-life balance, these benefits are available only during Accesa’s working hours, encouraging our colleagues to meet or catch up within their regular working schedules.

In 2023, we plan to create more opportunities for our strong tech teams working remotely from different locations across the country to connect in person and discuss technical and business topics or exchange ideas with the broader IT community.