What is eXpress badging's employee lifestyle plan?

eB is a lifestyle business not only for the owners but for the rest of the team as well!

Holiday Time

During holiday seasons we want to pass on the lifestyle surrounding time spent with family and friends. In some cases, not only do we provide the holiday itself as a paid time off, but also surrounding dates allowing for continuous time off. This accounts for approximately ten paid days off a year, or two weeks a year. 

Here are the observed holidays:

1. New Year’s 
2. Memorial Day
3. Independence Day
4. Labor Day
5. Thanksgiving
6. Christmas

PTO

Paid Time Off is a category used to cover time off that is not for vacation purposes. We do not set a limit on PTO and it is granted discretionarily by either an executive or your department director. We choose not to set a limit on this category because we know that in life things happen that you are not anticipating. We want you to feel comfortable that you have our support through those times financially. eXpress badging also wants to allow you personal-issue time if you need it (without vacation time being impacted). 

On the same token, if we feel like the use of PTO is being taken advantage of, we will call Crystal Clear and have a realignment conversation. During times of peak business activity your request may be denied unless it is an emergency. These times are rare, but we will always do everything we can to grant PTO time. If we cannot, we will be crystal clear as to why. 

As a general rule of thumb, if your department is operating smoothly in a low to average capacity, and your team feels like they will be able to manage without you then PTO will be granted if it is a non-emergency request. Emergency requests or being sick is addressed with your direct manager and in most cases will be granted.

What counts as PTO?

1. Illness; common cold/flu, COVID, etc.
2. Health emergency; injury, dental, optical, etc.
3. Family related issues; emergencies, funerals, pregnancy related, etc.
4. Vehicle servicing, home issues
5. Taking personal-issue time

Vacation

It is important that you take time to get out of the office and away from your home to reset! After 6 months, you are granted 40 hours of vacation time in a calendar year. We request that you give us notice a month in advance so we can appropriately plan for your time away. 

Vacation Time:

6 months + : 40 hours

Lifestyle Remote Time

While eXpress badging does not support full time remote positions, we do see the advancement in remote work capabilities as a way to offer a new kind of benefit to our team! A way for you to be able to spend extended time in other places you may be interested in or just a way to spend more time at home with your family.

Once a quarter you get an allotted time to work remote based on your tenure here at eXpress badging; starting at the 2 year mark.

2 Years: 1 week per quarter

4 Years: 2 weeks per quarter

 5 Years: 3 weeks per quarter

Details:

• All L-10 meeting must be attended
• You must log at least 30 work-hours each week during remote time, and you will be paid for the actual time worked.
• We ask that only one person from your department is remote at a time.
• Bookending with vacation time is encouraged.
• This is a non accruing benefit. Meaning use it or lose it within the quarter. 
• Upon each tenure threshold you must plan accordingly and schedule approved by your manager. 
• If you are going to be in a different time zone, agreed upon work hours will be set 3 week prior to the start of the remote time.
• If you are working in a different country you must confirm that you have access to a minimum of 50MBPS of internet speed. Your hotel/airbnb can run a speed test prior to booking to confirm.
• You will be provided a laptop that is to be used for work purposes only if you do not have one already as your main work station. Before you leave, it will be pre configured with the VPN and remote desktop connection tool (only if you need QB access). You will then make sure you configure it just like your main PC before you leave and test it thoroughly so that it is ready to go. This must be completed and successfully tested at least seven days prior to your first remote day.
• If your position is not transferable to a work remote setup (Production only); a schedule must be clearly defined by you and approved by your director two weeks before your remote time. There are two options: 
  • 1: Some of your production accountabilities can be done remotely. Your schedule will list out all of those accountabilities. It will also include the name of another employee, who is in the office, that would handle the accountabilities that must be done in the office. Some examples are: badge printing, order packing, shipping, and slotting. This schedule will also serve as a process guide. Telling you and the employee assisting you how, for example, to print an order from beginning to end. 
  • 2: The other option is a full position swap. You would assume the role of another equivalent. In this instance, each employee must create a document that lists out all daily accountabilities (including needed programs and login credentials).  Two weeks before the remote employee leaves, training would occur where the roles would be switched with the other present for the first week, and then switched again for the second week.    
    
    

Scheduling and approval:

- Remote time must be brought up to your director for approval no less than a full week before the desired remote time. Ideally you are scheduling this out a month or so in advance. Especially if the person going remote has in office accountabilities to plan around.

• This requires planning as remote credits do not roll over. If you request remote time less than a week prior and there is only a week left in the quarter, you will not be granted that time and will lose it. 

- Both the Integrator and the department director of the person requesting remote time must review and sign off on the requested dates.

- Remote times for each qualified employee are tracked by the integrator in the designated spreadsheet. 

- Express Badging needs at least 70% of all staff in person during a given work week so if there are already more individuals than this out of office, your request cannot be granted (Currently 13 ppl, no more than 3 out of office). 

- When remote time is approved, it is entered into the team calendar and immediately shared with the department team members. The week before the remote time begins, the employee going remote will let the entire team know as well. 

 

• Remote Computer Start-up Process:
  • Upon starting up your laptop, the ZeroTier VPN will auto connect to the EBS server. You will open the file explorer, on the left hand side scroll down to the "network" icon and click into it. From there the "expresssvr" icon will pop up. Double click that and it will prompt you to sign in (make sure to select the "remember your credentials" checkbox, sometimes it will not work unless you check that). After successful sign-in, the file explorer will automatically open a screen containing all the network drives; you can now access them all normally. 
    • The signin process can be a little weird sometimes, if you get any error messages just cancel out, try again a few times and it should work. If you cannot get in after trying for a few minutes, call Olive Branch for assistance. 
      • Common errors:
        • After clicking on "expresssvr" server icon you get an error asking you to run diagnostics. Just cancel out and try to double click again. After getting that error for the 3rd-4th time just close out of file explorer and reopen, try again. On rare occasions, you may just need to do a full laptop restart.
        • After typing in your login information correctly, the signin window may pop-up again with some red error text below. Log in again and make sure the "remember my credentials" box is checked off. 

• • If you need QuickBooks: Open the remote desktop connection tool
    • In the "Computer:" type box enter your assigned IP: Currently they are assigned as follows
      • Nick: 10.147.20.241
      • Luke: 10.147.20.242
      • Deb: 10.147.20.243
      • Dalton, Neil, and Michael: Remotes into their in office PC.
    • In the "User name:" box enter "EXPRESS\yourPCusername". Select connect. It will load and then ask for your password. This will get you into the virtual PC. From here you can open QB and login as normal. 
  • Now you have everything you need to work and you can go about your work day! 

Quarterly Fun-Time

To create a fun and active work place, we encourage the scheduling of one event a quarter where all employees can get together in a social atmosphere outside the office. 

Examples of fun-time:

• Extended lunches (Food truck to the office)
• Inter-office social/sport engagements 
• Drinks and snacks at favorite places
• Launch time
• Use of eB fun room
• Holiday parties