Impala

Impala provides a generous learning budget coupled with great learning/professional development platforms. A robust Professional Development roadmap allows for great feedback between colleagues both upwards and downwards.

Impala has always provided great benefits whether that's a generous monthly stipend, coaching sessions or social and health events and challenges.

Everyone cares about each other - they are always willing to help out. Impala even goes further, if you have to leave work for whatever reason - you just say that you are going, no need to give a reason or time you'll be back.

Impala places very high emphasis on employee wellbeing on multiple fronts: mentally, physically, and finacially. E.g. Impala actively encourages employees to be active, ranging from taking a walk during the day, joining the various types of online fitness classes during the day (yoga; HIIT; mediation) organised by the company with fitness professionals, running regular workshops focusing on different areas of wellness and mental health (e.g. stress; mindfulness; grief; productivity; burnout; imposter syndrome – to name a few), to giving employees financial education and professional resources to look after our financial wellbeing. Impala also gives employees one "Unsick Day" a year to do something good or preventive to promote or look after our own health and wellness. There is also a generous monthly subsidy for employees to spend on healthy food, gym membership, ergonomic home-office setup, and so on. Impala is always seeking new ways to look after employees' wellness, and the management team is also very supportive and empathetic in reaction to any concern raised by employees. Impala truly cares about its people and continuously endeavours to improve how they can look after employees even better.

Impala is confident of its own hires and trusts employees to be always trying to do their best job and managing their time properly and responsibly while also offers the considerate option of flexible working hours, which has been great help. Managers and team help are always there and are very responsive if we ever need any help or have any question. No one micromanages at Impala. I enjoy very much the autonomy I've been given since Day 1 and I take pride in owning tasks and projects whilst also knowing if I get stuck somehow or need any help (no matter how small/big), my team and manager will all be there supporting me. I love being trusted and I truly appreciate this autonomous work culture while support is always at hand when needed and knowledge is always actively and openly shared (across-team and within-team, horizontally and vertically).

Impala has already built an unique, very innovative product (Stay Data) – a successful proven track record – and then it pivoted to go on and build something even bigger, more innovative, more powerful and more impactful to the entire travel industry globally. It's going to be a total game changer that will reshape the future of travel. I'm so excited and proud to be part of Impala, its excellence and innovation. Knowing that we're building an innovative product that's going to change the future travel landscape, adds a very meaningful element to our day-to-day work.

Impala has a well established remote-first engineering team. Being trusted to do your job in an autonomous fashion is crucial for this to work effectively. In my experience, we live and breathe the trust-first mindset and the team is empowered to do what they need to in order to achieve their goals.

Trying to solve the challenges we need to in trying to disrupt the travel industry doesn't come for free and at Impala we all have skin in the game. In turn, the team works hard in a smart way. To balance the hard goals we face, there is a great culture of giving back to employees. Our benefits have been revised numerous times in the last year with a great emphasis on flexibility - you genuinely have a say if you think things can be improved.

Inclusion is a priority at Impala as we work hard to scale the business. Everyone in the company received unconscious bias training and a lot of effort was put into improving our interviewing processes to minimise this where possible.

Impala's onboarding was a hugely positive experience for me. It was leaps and bounds ahead of companies that are 10x the size. Lots of very clear and concise communication at all stages - at no point did I feel lost or unsure of what I should be doing next.

The people team put a lot of effort into making sure we are getting on well at work. From all of the fantastic benefits, to regular workshops focused on a variety of different wellbeing topics as well as the pop-up parties which sound cringey but are genuinely fun and well received.

Whilst Impala do put a lot of emphasis on employee wellbeing, they also expect high performance from us. We set quarterly objectives that are a stretch above what we think is achievable and challenge is on us to figure out how.

Impala is completely transparent in its decision making. Although not all members of the team are invited weekly to the leadership meetings, meeting minutes are recorded and actions are shared for all to see. All Impalan's have a clear indication of where the business is heading, what the company goals are and what is expected from us. The leadership team do not shy away from telling us the good and the not so good news. We are included and all our opinions are taken into consideration.

At Impala, if you have done something great or worked really hard you will see this being celebrated by all Impalan's via a dedicated communication channel #thanks or #wins. This always boosts individual and team morale.

I visit my family in North Wales every other weekend, so throughout the week prior to the weekend I intend to visit the family, I work an extra hour here and there, which then gives me the flexibility to finish early on a Friday to miss the rush hour traffic.

It's amazing to be treated like a human and not just a business resource. Impala recognise that we are human; we're going to have off days, we're not perfect and our mental health and wellbeing are important. They provide various types of support including professional coaching sessions. I was curious so I attended a coaching session to find out what it's like. It was so refreshing to have someone who just listened to what I had to say but also provide objective guidance.

I find it fascinating that given all the advances in technology and the significant impact it has had across industries, hotels are still restricted by their old systems and unable to easily connect with new suppliers and technology. I am excited to be part of a team that are in the process of liberating hotels and by doing so expanding the travel experience.

I love that I am able to make up my hours when it suit's me within the week. I have other commitments so working 9-5 isn't always ideal. Also sometimes I work better in the evenings. I think it's great that we have core hours where we know everyone will be working, should we need something.

At Impala we are encouraged to have open communication with our managers and to always raise any issues when we are facing them. We also encourage transparency when making mistakes so we can all learn from these as a team. Additionally, we have feedback cycles in which we are encouraged to provide honest and constructive feedback so we can all grow as individuals and foster better relationships with our colleagues.

Impala goes above and beyond focusing on employee wellbeing, whether it is by introducing flexible working hours, encouraging employees to take breaks and disconnect when the day is over. For employees facing difficult issues, you can easily arrange a coping scheme to fit your needs and ensure a good recovery overall so you can come back to work when you can.

At Impala we celebrate great work through various channels - whether it is in our Slack channels to thank or post a win for a team and share their dedication and effort or through our weekly update email where we highlight team members that have done great work and contribute to our mission and vision. We also highlight employees who actively live our values on their day to day.