What you get from life at innocent can be broadly separated into two pots; the important stuff (the reward package, the opportunity to earn a share of the company, the personal development etc) and the nice stuff (the bits that make work simply a more enjoyable place to be.)

In a nutshell, our philosophy is that everyone should get something, but the people who contribute the most should get the most. This dynamic is delivered in various ways;
Pay - an annual pay review ensures that high performance is rewarded by increasing capacity to earn.
Profit related pay - every year if we hit our targets we all get the chance to share in some of the profits.
The nest egg - a scheme for high performers to buy shares in the company at a heavily discounted rate each year to still further share in the upside. The higher your performance rating, the more we add to your investment with free shares.
innocent promise - a little stake in the company, given on the anniversary of your joining, so everyone gets some skin in the game.
Opportunities for development – please click here to find out more. We take this stuff seriously if you do too.
Private health care – in case you do yourself a mischief in the annual table football competition, we have private health care to cover those trips to the physiotherapist.

Annual nature weekend

The annual nature weekend has, in previous years, featured snowboarding and other outdoors stuff and has taken place in exotic locations such as Switzerland, Austria, France and Italy. We try to make sure we all get away once a year together to relax, get to know each other better and sprain our ankles.
There are no hard and fast rules for this trip - so we don't know what it will be next year - other than it will be all of us, being at one with nature somewhere, perhaps taking the chance to sample local food and wine. And the odd disco.

innocent scholarships

From Christmas 2002 applications for innocent's first scholarship were accepted. Three £1000 scholarships are up for grabs every quarter, so if you've ever wanted to learn the Japanese art of origami or would like to take moped lessons, you can apply for a scholarship. Everyone then votes for who they think should receive it. Obviously bribes can be accepted.

Innocent foundation scholarships

In 2007 we also started doing innocent foundation scholarships. Once a year we give someone the opportunity to personally make a difference with one of our innocent foundation projects for two weeks. We give the lucky person an extra week’s holiday and pay for all of their expenses whilst they are supporting the project. In April 2007 for example, Helen went to Chengelpet in South India, where she spend two weeks working with the Irula Tribe Women’s Welfare Society (ITWWS) designing their website. During her stay she visited some of the villages where the organisation is working and saw first hand how ITWWS has been helping improve the lives of Irula women. Then in May 2008 Andrew D got to go to Malawi to help on one the projects that the innocent foundation supports out there, through the MicroLoan foundation. Click here to read all about his trip and see his blog.

Company meetings

We love talking. And we love making sure that everyone feels a part of innocent, where the business is going and is involved in making decisions about what we do. Therefore we make sure we get together twice a year and learn about what has gone on during the past six months and what is coming up in the year ahead.
We have one meeting in the summer at the nature weekend, and the other one happens just before the Christmas party.

Clubs

We contribute to the cost of doing some of our people’s favourite activities, so if you really like doing something and there are others in the business that want to get involved too, we may well help out. Here are some of our clubs:

Wakeboarding – only during the summer as we don’t really like cold water
Martial arts - this keeps us fit and safe and gives some of us a chance to growl loudly once a week
Climbing – as Yazz and the plastic population once put it so eloquently, ‘the only way is up baby’ until you get to the top, get scared and have to come down
Racquets – so far this encompasses tennis and squash, we have yet to enter the realms of ping pong or fives
Cheese – one a month the cheese enthusiasts amongst us get together and well, eat cheese

Innocent gym

We have a little gym that anyone can use for a very small fee. It has everything you need - cardio vascular equipment to get you sweaty, somewhere to stretch and somewhere to ‘pump some iron’. Plus a scary shaking machine that makes your bum wobble.

Ride to work scheme

You can buy a bike to ride to work and don’t have to pay tax on the money you spend. Everyone’s a winner - keeping money away from the taxman and you get to wear lycra.

Wedding bells

We all love a good wedding, the chance to dress up smart and see all the family. We like them so much if you are lucky enough to get married or enter into a civil partnership we give you an extra 5 days off to recover.

Childcare vouchers

If you have a little one that is in childcare whilst you are at work, we can help out by allowing you up to £243 per month tax-free from your pay to go towards the cost of your childcare. This means you can save 20-40% of what you'd normally pay. Not too shabby.

Massages and yoga

It's really important to relax in the hustle and bustle of everything that is going on; this is why we have a masseuse visit Fruit Towers once a month to help us unwind and our weekly yoga club to help us keep centred and bendy.

Breakfast

According to our company nutritionist (Dr Shilpee) breakfast is the most important meal of the day, followed closely by second breakfast, brunch, elevenses, lunch, afternoon cake, tea, dinner, and supper, not forgetting biscuits at bedtime. So we provide breakfast for everyone - quality breakfast foods, free of charge, so that everyone's brains can start cranking from the moment they get here.

Lord or lady of the sash

Every month we all vote for the person that has been extra special, gone that bit further than they needed or just been really nice. They get a sash and a top hat/tiara and get to have tea made for them by their minions.


Circle of death

Now this may sound a bit odd, but it only happens to everyone once a year and no one escapes, not even if you are on holiday. On the anniversary of your birth someone will bake you a cake and then in a mass stealth pincer movement, everyone in the building will land on and around your desk and sing happy birthday, normally very badly. You then get to give a little speech, tell amusing anecdotes or recite poetry. It can be pretty scary but you do get cake.

Friday beers

We like to wind down properly before the weekend - so every Friday at 17:30 someone goes round with the drinks trolley and we crack open some beers and wine. On the last Friday of every month, we head for the local pub, where we engage in debate about recent political news and perhaps play cribbage over a glass of dry vermouth.

Smoothies

Free smoothies, all day long, which is kind of what you'd expect.