Jayva’s tenth anniversary celebratory initiatives
2024 marks a significant milestone in Jayva’s history: it’s our tenth birthday. To commemorate this special occasion, we’ve devised a series of twelve initiatives (one for every month of 2024) as a way of thanking everyone who’s made this milestone possible – that’s you, our valued employees, clients, associates and partners.
We’ve come a long way since 2014. Back then, we launched as the first certified independent consultant for LEAP Legal Software in the UK, providing technical support and training services to law firms choosing LEAP. In the intervening years, we’ve partnered with LEAP in America, Ireland and New Zealand. On top of this, we’ve expanded our service offerings for the wider legal marketplace, encompassing project management, legal accounting and training services.
In our first ten years, we’ve flourished into a 30-strong team located in offices in Cumbria and Manchester (UK), Hingham and Boston (America), Dublin (Ireland) and Auckland (New Zealand), gathering an abundance of glowing testimonials from countless clients serviced along the way.
Take a look at what’s in store this year and join us in the activities if you can. After all, we wouldn’t be where we are today without your continued support.
1. Mental health focus
We recently reported on social media about donating £250 to the mental health charity, Mind (at the same time as pledging £250 to Macmillan Cancer Support). We’re becoming trailblazers in fostering a holistic workplace by investing in training 10% of our global team as registered mental health first aiders. That way, we can identify, support and promote positive mental health within our organisation and wider network.
More and more people are suffering with poor mental health. Thankfully, there’s an openness and willingness to talk it up and reach out for help. We’ve seen both these trends mirrored in our employees and their families. So, we’re joining the international campaign for mental health, beginning with a charity donation and continuing with mental health training.
2. Birthday party
To celebrate a decade of success and growth, we’re hosting a party to bring our international team together for the first time since our inception, some of whom have never met face to face due to being so disparately spread. The event will feature heartfelt speeches, awards (more on this below) and entertainment to mark our company's many achievements, and set the stage for the next decade of progress and innovation.
3. Employee awards
We understand the crucial role that our workforce plays in our ongoing success. Nurturing a culture of excellence, we’ll be recognising outstanding employees with special awards and bonuses. Categories will encompass traditional performance-based accolades such as ‘Employee of the year’ and ‘Innovator of the decade’, to long-service awards, to out-of-the-ordinary decorations like ‘Pet of the month’, ‘Ray of sunshine’ and others. We’ll be cheering on our colleagues, honouring victories, commending teamwork, and generally showing our employees how much we value their dedication and contributions.
4. Ten-day festive holiday
Having just enjoyed the season’s festivities, this year we’re extending the holiday period to ten days. Our CEO Nicola Moore-Miller sowed the seeds for this in 2023 by taking a longer leave of absence over Christmas and New Year to spend quality time with family and friends (as discussed in her Christmas message). These seeds have turned into a plentiful harvest for all staff in 2024 with a generous ten-day holiday for wellbeing and work-life balance benefits. By bestowing everyone with a well-deserved break, we’re underscoring our ethos of valuing our greatest asset – our people.
5. Ten-day physical challenge
With our company’s roots in Cumbria, home to our founder Nicola and others, we’re embarking upon a set of outdoor, team-building challenges over the course of ten days in the Lake District National Park. With its bounty of mountains and lakes, these challenges are likely to combine walking, hiking, biking, canoeing, swimming, paddleboarding and more to take advantage of our natural surroundings – all while undergoing a transformative adventure of collaboration and camaraderie.
6. Ten acts of kindness
We’ve got a renewed focus on giving-back programmes, so we’re organising community service projects that make a real-and-tangible difference to people, animals and the environment. It’s our employees in the driving seat here, coming up with ideas to do the things they love in order to help our local communities. From charity fundraising to volunteering, watch this space to discover upcoming plans about ten distinct acts of goodwill to take our corporate social responsibility commitment to another level.
7. Work from anywhere
Embracing the evolving dynamics of the modern workplace and encouraging our staff to visit far-flung corners of the world, we’re advocating ’work from anywhere in the world’ over the summer months. Our team will be operational from a range of global destinations, thereby experiencing different cultures and places while keeping up the great work of Jayva and demonstrating flexible working at its finest. Blending professional responsibilities with personal aspirations, our staff could be getting tranquil at a coastal retreat, immersing in the bustling energy of a vibrant city, whatever… all within the freedom of a location-agnostic operational model.
8. Share the wealth
It’s vitally important to Jayva to give back. Although we’re lucky to have had many years of rapid growth, profitability was not always a fact of life for our business in the early years. Now, as our business stabilises and our team develops, we’re fortunate to have a profitable enterprise and we want to share that with the people who’ve made it possible… our employees. We’re intertwining strong financial results with philanthropic endeavours by creating a substantial bonus pot for the fiscal period ending 30th June 2024 to share between employees and charities close to our hearts. Everyone at Jayva will have their say in these decisions with conversations now taking place about beneficiaries and the outcomes being announced imminently. Not only do we wish to forge a compassionate culture, we’re exemplifying the potential of businesses as a force for good.
9. Decade of impact report
Having conducted evaluations on various projects from the past decade, we’re transparently chronicling the positive impact our company has made thus far in our history. From influencing sector change by being an active part of conversations on technology developments, to passing cost savings onto clients by switching to fully remote service offerings, to giving back with community involvement schemes, join us on our journey over the past ten years when our report’s published. As well as taking stock of past triumphs, we’ll be setting ambitious goals for the future, reaffirming our willingness to join hands in shaping a sustainable tomorrow.
10. Customer appreciation campaign
As a client-first organisation, showing our appreciation comes naturally. You, our clients, are literally central to everything we do and your unwavering loyalty brings deep satisfaction. Our enduring bonds transcend transactional interactions. It’s your devoted support that drives our success ever onwards. We’re taking our gratitude a step further with a special campaign coming your way soon because you really do mean the world to us.
11. Time capsule
In a nostalgic nod to our rich heritage and forward-looking vision, we’re creating a time capsule for future Jayva-ians filled with corporate memorabilia, predictions and hopes for the future, pivotal moments in our history, and employee messages in video format. Once buried, it’ll be opened on our 20th anniversary in 2034. It’s our way of preserving today’s important artefacts and documenting our business here and now for the next generation. A treasure trove in the form of a time capsule is a fitting celebration of our milestone year and continues our legacy.
12. Anniversary podcast series
Celebrating with a blend of reflection and forward momentum, we’re launching a podcast series that’ll take listeners on a compelling narrative journey, by weaving together interviews with key employees, clients, associates, partners and guest speakers who’ve played a significant role in our company's success over the years. These podcasts will tell our story through this dynamic medium, spotlight achievements, point out challenges faced and overcome, and chart the course of our next chapter.