Balancing company growth and employee well-being: the Woola example

Startups are known for their dynamic environments, fast-paced growth, and the thrill of building something new. However, rapid growth comes with its own set of challenges, particularly in maintaining employee well-being. 

As a startup scales, the pressure on employees can escalate, leading to stress, burnout, and mental health issues. Balancing the demands of rapid expansion with the need to care for your team is crucial for long-term success.

At Woola, we take this matter seriously. After all, fighting climate change is much easier when you have people who have the energy and power to do it alongside you. 

The three biggest employee well-being challenges that startups face

Here are the key areas we focus on at Woola:

1. High workload and pressure

As the business grows, so does the workload. People wear multiple hats, and the pressure to meet ambitious targets can create a constant sense of urgency. We often say ‘Shoot for the Moon’ when setting goals, and everyone works hard to get there. 

In fact, one of our core values is ‘Below 100% is not enough’. We operate in an extremely competitive field, where only 0.6% of startups get funded, so we need to be outstanding to survive. Every employee at Woola has to give 100% because it directly affects Woola’s existence. 

While this hustle culture is a necessary - and dare I say exciting - part of startup life, it can quickly lead to burnout if not managed carefully. Research by Gallup shows that employees who are highly engaged but also highly stressed are at risk of burnout, which negatively affects productivity and retention.

2. Cultural shifts

As the team grows, maintaining the original company culture can be challenging. The close-knit, collaborative environment of the early startup days may evolve into a more formal, hierarchical structure. 

At Woola, many of us work remotely with team members from different countries, which adds to the complexity of maintaining the crazy cool culture we have managed to build here. 

If not handled well, these shifts can result in employees feeling disconnected or undervalued, negatively impacting their well-being.

3. Communication breakdown 

As our business and team grow, so does the amount of information we digest daily. At Woola, we believe in transparent and honest communication, but there is such a thing as too much information. 

We tend to overshare daily activities and project progress, making it difficult to filter out what’s essential. This strains our mental health. The fear of missing out (FOMO) also plays a role, as everyone wants to stay up to date at all times.

Additionally, as an international company with employees from different countries, varied communication norms can lead to misunderstandings or unrealistic expectations. To complicate matters further, most communication happens in writing over Slack, removing any physical cues and making communication even more complex. 

The result? Stress, anxiety, fatigue, or simply the feeling of being buried under a mountain of information.

The question is, how can we help employees in these situations, or better yet, how can we avoid them altogether? 

1. Focusing on time off 

Taking a holiday is not an option, it’s mandatory for all our employees, and we take this seriously. One of our internal rules is that when you are on holiday, you aren’t allowed to work. Overworking our people only leads to lower productivity in the long run due to fatigue and burnout.

To go a step further, we have introduced different time off types beyond legal holiday entitlements and public holidays. Each employee has 3 personal days a year to use as they see fit, an additional day off for their birthday, and we also implement a 4-day work week during the summer.

Time off for employees isn’t time wasted - if it helps people return more productive and full of energy, it makes perfect sense.

2. Encouraging physical activity

It’s no secret that mental and physical health are connected, so we make it a point to encourage our team to stay active. While offering sports compensation is one thing we do, competitive challenges have proven to really fire up our crew.  And we’re not alone in this – in April 2024 we even managed to mobilise a bunch of other start-ups for a sports competitionto raise money for Ukraine. 

Internally, we have smaller challenges to keep people active, such as counting steps over a month (our winner did a staggering 525,151 steps!) or tracking time spent outdoors. By making it fun, we ensure everyone gets involved and works on staying healthy together.

3. Awesome team events 

Maintaining our culture is no easy feat when most team members work remotely and live in different countries. We actively find ways to bring people together, whether it’s through business trips or company gatherings, where everyone can meet each other, socialize, and build relationships. 

For example, Woola’s ‘Strategy Gaala’ takes place twice a year – the entire team comes together to discuss company progress and goals and, of course, have a hell of a good time. We also have weekly “coffee break” calls that serve as an alternative to casual chats around the office – we simply jump on a call to talk about weekend plans, vacations, or anything else.

4. Regular 1on1’s 

While this may not be groundbreaking, it’s vital to set aside time for people to have the chance and a safe space to discuss anything on their minds. 

In addition to regular 1on1s with their manager, employees also sit down once a month with the Chief of Staff, providing a more neutral space to discuss overall progress on their goals or other, more personal matters. We recognise that personal life affects work performance, so having these touchpoints allows us to support individual needs and create an environment for people to be successful. 

5. Team learning opportunities

At Woola, we have very ambitious people who invest a lot of time and energy into making this business succeed. Part of it is also pushing themselves to learn new things and improve their existing skills. 

Most of the time, learning opportunities are handled case by case. If an employee finds a training or course that could help their professional development, we can provide financial support and the time to focus on their studies.

We’ve also introduced the Woola Talks series, which provides learning opportunities to the whole team. In short, we have breakfast together at the office and spend the morning learning together (remote employees call in for the educational part). Most recently, we have been focussing on mental health-related topics, to find little tips and tricks to apply to our lives to stay healthy and thrive. 

6. Travel allowance 

At Woola, we give each person a yearly allowance to travel and see the world. We genuinely believe that traveling inspires and gets our creative juices flowing. Stepping out of routine and into a different environment can relieve stress and be mentally stimulating in a way that benefits both the individual and the company. 

The only condition for this benefit is that after the trip, everyone has to put together a presentation with their best selfies and bring back a postcard from the destination. Easy enough! 

7. We trust each other 

This one is big. It seems like common sense, yet in many companies, it really isn’t. Trust is something we swear by at Woola.

It starts from obvious things like trusting people to work independently and remotely and extends to sharing sensitive information openly with the team. 

According to a study published in Harvard Business Review on the neuroscience of trust, high-trust workplaces see 79% higher employee engagement and 29% higher employee satisfaction with their lives. It's a no-brainer.

Wrapping it up

Employee well-being is gaining increasing attention, and it's about time we took it beyond mere ‘carewashing’. After all, without our people, we wouldn’t get very far.

The formula is quite simple: healthy & happy people = higher motivation & energy levels = greater productivity = higher growth for the company.

So, the question really isn’t how to balance growth and employee well-being. If you take care of your employees, growth should naturally follow.