Last year the company took the decision to provide all our employees, regardless of service length or job seniority with private medical insurance. After a full market review, the company selected Vitality because of its heavy focus on wellness, not just on looking after employees when they're not well. As part of our PMI cover, the employees can take advantage of heavily-discounted spa days and breaks, and gym memberships which promote relaxation and lower levels of stress. They are also rewarded for having a healthier, more active lifestyle, with free cinema tickets, iTunes credits and Starbucks drink incentives, as well as receiving discounts with a variety of retailers. Employees can also select heavily discounted private medical insurance for their families as part of the flexible benefits package, subsidised by their flexible benefits allowance. The company also has an employee wellbeing programme called “Opus Energise” through which they promote physical activity, healthy eating, good mental health and stress management, all of which contribute to general wellbeing and therefore lower levels of stress.

The company has a comprehensive performance management scheme which is designed to encourage, recognise and reward high performance throughout the business. The scheme also encourages employees to put the company values into practice in their day-to-day roles. Every employee is given a copy of "A useful guide to Opus Energy's Performance Management Scheme" during their induction when they attend a training session about the scheme. Each employee is responsible for their own performance and progress with guidance and support from their manager. The performance management scheme works on a six-monthly cycle and at the end of each six-month period each employee's performance is scored out of 10, which is applied as a percentage of the salary paid to the employee during the six-month period. This is then paid as a performance-related bonus. The three areas that are measured as part of the bonus calculation are "individual objectives", "team targets" and "competencies".

Every month a group of our employees go to Rainbows Hospice for Children and Young People to volunteer as a team. This can involve speaking to supporters on the phones, doing fundraising admin or even packing orders from Rainbows' Christmas catalogue! As part of the local community recruitment initiative, the company work with Northampton College to source and develop apprentices for their apprenticeship scheme, they take on between 5 and 10 apprentices per year on permanent contracts. The company's HR and Resourcing teams were recently involved in a pilot run by the Northamptonshire Enterprise Partnership aimed at improving career guidance, employability and aspiration within the county. The teams spent time in local schools with students and teachers helping them to improve their skills and business understanding. The pilot has now been signed off and is in the process of being introduced across the country. The company have also supported nationwide initiatives such as Women in Engineering week, where employees visited a local Oxford school, and Small Business Advice week, where some of our internal business area experts contributed articles to our website that offers free advice for small and medium enterprises.