What is Payroll Giving?
Payroll Giving allows employees to contribute to a sustainable and social world by donating directly to chosen charities from their own salaries, with an opportunity to receive a tax benefit while giving. In addition, 100% of the donations are going to charities! Futurewhiz partnered with The Social Handshake to offer employees an opportunity to participate in Payroll Giving in July 2021.
Meet our Content Coordinator Renske, who tells what giving back means to her.
Why is giving back important to you?
“I feel that it is kind of my civic duty, and I believe that since I could spare some money, it feels selfish not to give something back. I find everything important, but I have decided to support causes that I care about the most: health, environment and arts. My grandmother has Alzheimer’s disease, and I find it important to support the health sector. Nature conservation is very close to my heart as well. I also care about stimulating arts for the children and that is why I am supporting a cause that provides more music lessons for children in elementary school.”
Why did you decide to join Payroll Giving?
“My reasons for joining were mostly because it seemed so easy; I was already a donor to several organizations, but I was often being hounded by tele-marketeers and asked to make additional donations. By joining Payroll Giving I could still give to causes I care about, but I was not being stalked. That seemed like the best of both worlds!
Now, a few months later, I don’t regret my decision in the slightest. I must admit, I don’t really think about Payroll Giving anymore. And I like it that way. My donations are automatically given to the causes I chose. And because it’s directly deducted from my pay, it doesn’t feel like an expense. This is maybe just a mind trick, but it’s one that definitely works for me!”
“I get to choose up to three different causes to donate too, which is gold for someone who thinks everything is important. Now I can at least choose three different areas to donate to, instead of just one. I want to feel like I’m making a contribution to the causes dear to my heart, and now I’m able to do that without having to sign up for several different donation programs.
I am glad I’ve given the opportunity to give something back in such a convenient way. I feel that as a B Corp, we are all very aware of the ways in which we are contributing to a society as a company, but also of how we as individuals can make a difference. Therefore, I think Payroll Giving is a very good match for Futurewhiz and I hope people will continue feeling inspired to use it!”
What is the ScaleUp Dashboard?
The ScaleUp Dashboard is one of the annual research publications around scaleups in the Netherlands. In this report, Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship analyses the latest developments of the Dutch scaleup ecosystem up to 2019: How many scaleups are there in the Netherlands and in which sectors? Have scaleups been growing and, if so, at what pace? And most importantly, what is their impact on the economy?
Why Futurewhiz?
Based on the ScaleUp Dashboard 2020, fast-growing companies can be the quickest to recover from economic shocks such as the Covid-19 crisis. Futurewhiz has been highlighted in the education sector, in which everyone experienced a massive change due to homeschooling and digital educational tools.
In total, the 250 scaleups on the list have created about as many new jobs as the Top 250 Scaleups before the pandemic,” says Martin Luxemburg, director of Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship. Futurewhiz has managed to continuously welcome new employees to the team and grow the Squla, WRTS and scoyo brands.
The companies that are nominated have managed a high-growth by continuously improving, accelerating and adapting the organisation to future challenges, says Dr. Justin Jansen, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Academic Director of Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship. The article can be accessed here.
Do you wanna be part of Futurewhiz? Let us know or check our vacancies!
The way we live and work fundamentally influences our wellbeing and our overall health. While looking after our mental and physical wellbeing is of course essential in everyday life, its importance has risen during the pandemic. Now that we are mainly working from home, gyms and other sports facilities remain closed, our social visits are limited to friends and family and we’re facing anxiety for a deadly disease, it is more challenging to remain healthy and active.
Continuing to care about health helps us to keep fit in the ‘new normal’.
“At Futurewhiz we recognize that we need to take care of our people, and help them take care of themselves. Taking care of yourself is not selfish, it is important. Self-care should always be your number #1 priority.”
– Nanique Dik, the Head of People
To support our employees balance work with health and wellbeing, we dedicated the full month of March to health by launching “Fit with Futurewhiz”. During this Health Month, we focused on promoting wellbeing as a whole and engaging employees throughout the company to make healthier choices. We chose a way that fits best our culture: by adding the element of fun and turning the month into a team-building competition!
Playfulness, games and competitions are a big part of our company culture. Our employees have often competed against each other either at the office with table tennis or football, or after work with board game evenings or bowling nights. Due to pandemic these activities have turned into online pub quizzes and radio shows, but having fun while competing remained to be the theme.
We partnered with the Health Challenge to create a month-long event for the whole company. With this event we challenged our employees to make healthier choices in everyday life, such as taking stairs instead of an elevator, eating fruit instead of a chocolate bar and taking a moment to relax and slow down in the middle of a busy work day. All employees were divided into teams, which competed with each other by performing health-promoting activities and logging them to the Health Challenge app. Next to completing activities independently throughout the day, employees participated in sessions such as workshops, bootcamps, yoga and meditation practices.
In addition we found a partner in the Happinessbureau, experts in creating happy employees, who organized a workshop on Happy & Healthy at Work. Through assignments, break out sessions and dancing they explained the importance of food, fun, connection, mindset, exercise and relaxing.
We closed the Health Month with the launch of Inuka chat-coaching. Through a short and simple survey employees can test their level of resilience, after which every employee can sign up for several coaching sessions within a year. The sessions are practical and easy accessible for all employees. With this last initiative we continue to highlight the importance of wellbeing going forward.
“All the work we do is built on teamwork, creativity and courage. We can only be this great place to work when we have healthy and happy employees that are able to perform at their best.”
– Serge Bueters, the CEO of Futurewhiz
