Milestones for Diversity & Inclusion at Voi with new employment benefits

Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) is undoubtedly a topic hotter than ever, indeed also at Voi. For us, it’s important that D&I don’t end up as buzzwords, which is why we’re happy to disclose two new benefits added to our package: Flexible Public Holidays and Paid Parental Leave. 

At Voi, D&I is a cornerstone of what we want to stand for, but as many others have some way to go. To bring us closer to our goal, we continuously and consciously move towards a higher bar by taking specific actions towards it. Two significant steps towards this are introducing these two new employee benefits to support our D&I strategy.  

Being a company present in 11 countries, with over 55 nationalities represented, there are inherently many differences. One of those differences is what holidays you choose to celebrate. For some, Christmas is an important tradition – for others it might be Pride, Diwali or Persian New Year, so why shouldn’t you be able to use your vacation days to celebrate what matters to you?

We want to ensure that our Voiagers – regardless of background, beliefs, interests – have the opportunity to find a balance between doing meaningful work at Voi and living the life they wish to lead. In the end, it’s about being human and using differences as a strength rather than creating a homogenous mass of like-minded thinkers. 

“We want to ensure that our Voiagers – regardless of background, beliefs, interests – have the opportunity to find a balance between doing meaningful work at Voi and living the life they wish to lead.”

As a step towards our personalised benefits offering, adopting the “flexible public holidays” concept was a given. That means that if you are employed in a country where Christmas is a public holiday (which all Voi locations currently do), you can instead exchange it to celebrate another holiday that is more important to you. Small steps, but yet an important step for inclusion.

Our second new benefit is a major milestone in Voi’s history: paid parental leave. In Sweden, where Voi was founded, this is of course not exceptional and is moreover a prerequisite – however, if you zoom into the start-up scene, it is more the exception than the rule! Definitely a common occurrence by tradition. However, much less prevalent in the start-up scene and even less so in many other countries. By implementing paid parental leave, we want to take a stand.  Implementing paid parental leave ensures that everyone within Voi, regardless of location, gender or biological bond to their child, can have the financial possibility to take time off with their new family member to adjust to their new family life. 

Parenthood, no matter what form it comes in, poses a big change – and more often than not, a lot of stress. With some extra financial support from the company, we want to ensure that our talent will be able to stay with us for the long run, with significant pressure taken off the family finances.

As a wise person once said: diversity is being invited to the party, inclusion is being asked to dance. At Voi, we ride together – and use our differences as a strength.