After 18 months of work-from-anywhere policy, tech firm Sabre launches new wellbeing benefits

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With a regional HQ in Singapore, and offices in Kowloon, Shanghai, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, and more, all employees will benefit from access to Headspace, four days of paid time off per year to volunteer, and more.

Technology firm focused on the travel sector, Sabre has announced a new series of employee wellbeing benefits & initiatives, such as access to tools that support employees and their families, time to volunteer each year, and more. This "transformed employee wellbeing experience" comes after an update on the company's global 'Work from Anywhere' (WFA) programme, that Sabre stated "has been running successfully for over 18 months".

The company has around 8,000 team members globally, of which around 2,000 are located in APAC. All policies are available to employees globally.

Sharing the new initiatives put in place, Shawn Williams, Chief People Officer, Sabre, said: "We employ some of the world’s top talent and we’re focused on creating an environment in which they can reach their full potential, helping us reshape the global travel industry from the inside out.

"Investing in our people – both present and future – is a huge priority for us, and it is our aim to cultivate a culture that is rewarding, supporting and transparent."

In the employee wellbeing space, Sabre has created the following portfolio of new and existing offerings for staff:

• A global minimum of 12 weeks paid leave for new parents, for adoption or birth (launched three years ago),
• Host of new resources in employee wellness driven by the newly-created Sabre Wellbeing Advisor Network (SWAN), a council of team members from around the world who guide the conversation around wellbeing, capture best practices, and enhance tools and programmes. SWAN has introduced a partnership with Headspace, giving employees free, premium access to its mindfulness app.
• Complimentary access to mental wellbeing resources for team members and their families, which includes:
  • Sanvello, an app offering clinical techniques to reduce the symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress;
  • Talkspace, licensed therapists available 24 hours a day through talk, text and video;
  • BurnAlong – a platform providing on-demand physical, mental, and financial wellness classes, and
  • The 'Global Employee Assistance Programme', which includes five free counseling sessions per person, per topic, per year.

Volunteerism is another lens of employee wellness Sabre is trying to tackle, having donated more than US$20mn and logged over 300,000 volunteer hours as part of 'Give Together', its global corporate social responsibility (CSR) programme, over the last 20 years.

Among the new announcements in employee volunteering are:

• All employees are allowed to take four days of paid time off per year to volunteer for any ​purpose they choose.
• An expansion of the Give Together programme by partnering with Benevity, in order to help employees find the volunteer opportunities that mean the most to them, in addition to support towards STEM opportunities.

Other employee programmes announced by the Sabre team includes those in career development as well as inclusion & diversity (I&D), some of which are listed below:

• Global mentoring programme to help team members to develop technical and leadership skills in areas they believe they need support.
• Other initiatives to grow & develop staff include a leader speaker series, skill building series and peer coaching series where leaders coach and support each other.
• The Company’s I&D Council, made up of representatives across regions from all areas of the business and across multiple demographics, is defining a globally consistent approach to I&D as a business imperative.
• Sabre’s Inclusion Groups include Pride (to support members and allies of the LGBTQ+ community), BGOLD, (Black Generations of Leadership and Development), Women’s Career Network, Women in Technology (WiT) and Ascenders (a group for employees looking to grow professionally and personally).
• These groups also run events and speaker sessions, with recent examples including a special International Women’s Day discussion organised by WiT with Sabre Board members Phyllis Newhouse, CEO of Xtreme Solutions; Wendi Sturgis, CEO of Cleverbridge; and Roshni Joshi, Director of Customer Engineering for Google Cloud.

"With the pandemic creating an imbalance in work and life priorities, strengthening our team members’ purpose and pride in contributions they make for our community, customers and organisation help create a sense of belonging. From inclusive conversation guides to fostering communities of practices such as women in technology, we enrich each other through the diversity of thought, perspective, and experience", said Jaya Kumar K, VP & Managing Director, Sabre Global Capability Center, Bengaluru, India.

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