Employees at the Manchester-based food giant who don’t want to watch the Wills and Kate nuptials told they can take the extra holiday whenever they like
FOOD giant Kellogg’s has taken the unusual step to give its head office workers an extra day’s holiday to celebrate the royal wedding but allowing them to take it on a day of their choice.
The royal wedding on April 29 was declared a public holiday by David Cameron but the cereal maker has decided to allow employees at its UK head office flexibility over when they take the break.
Kellogg’s said it hoped the move would help workers achieve a better work life balance.
Tanya Thornber, European HR director at Kellogg’s explained: “We wanted to offer our office-based employees real flexibility over the extra public holiday to celebrate the royal wedding. For some workers it may not be convenient to take the day off on April 29 or they may not want to watch the nuptials between William and Kate.
“As a global company we have a diverse and multinational workforce at the UK head office so we respect the fact that not everyone wants to celebrate the royal wedding. This sort of flexibility really boosts morale as it gives employees the choice to either take the day off and enjoy the wedding or come to work as usual and take it another day during the year when it may be more appropriate for them to spend the extra time with family or friends.”
Kellogg’s offers its head office workers a range of flexible working benefits including its summer hours initiative or “Kellogg’s Fridays” were staff can take Friday afternoons off from May to September*.
This year’s initiative will begin again a week after the royal wedding on May 6 until the end of September and a recent Kellogg’s employee survey revealed the summer hours scheme helped with motivation as 82 per cent of employees felt happier in their jobs because of it.
Ms Thornber added: “Flexible working is something we take very seriously at Kellogg’s and this latest initiative for the royal wedding and our annual summer hours programme are all part of a wider package that we offer to help boost motivation and productivity by ensuring that we provide work life balance opportunities to all employees.”
* The Summer hours scheme at Kellogg’s, now in its eighth year, runs from May to September and means everyone finishes work at 12pm on a Friday provided they have completed a full week of 36.6 hours.
About Kellogg’s flexible working scheme
Kellogg’s offers employees a range of choices to create an individual work life balance that works for them. These include part-time working, flexible working hours for all employees (Kellogg’s employees must work the core hours of 10am – 12pm and 2pm – 4pm), summer hours, career breaks, home working and a flexible benefits scheme. At Kellogg’s plant workers benefit from a rotating shift pattern.
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