HousingAnywhere lets employees choose when to spend time off

Rotterdam, June 5, 2019 - Employees of housing platform HousingAnywhere can now decide for themselves if they wish to take time off on a public holiday, or save the holiday for a later date. With this, the company offers its employees, who come from all parts of the world, the freedom of choice to celebrate what is special to each of them. “Inclusiveness is a given for us,” says Djordy Seelmann, CEO of HousingAnywhere. “It comes naturally from who we are and what we do.”

HousingAnywhere employs around 90 people with 28 different nationalities. Every person has different preferences regarding which holidays are important to them. This may be for cultural or religious reasons, but it may also be that someone, for example, simply prefers a few extra days off in the summer instead of during the Christmas season. The Netherlands recognizes eleven ‘official’ holidays, including two days for Christmas. Djordy Seelmann:

We felt that these fixed days did not reflect the diversity of our team well enough. That became increasingly clear as we grew and became more international. Our team comes from all over the world and it is precisely this diversity that is our greatest strength. We feel our personnel policy should reflect the culturally diverse nature of our employees. Why take time off for Christmas when you would rather celebrate Eid al-Fitr to mark the end of Ramadan?

Contrary to what the term ‘official holidays’ suggests, HousingAnywhere is headquartered in the Netherlands, where no statutory holidays exist. Most employers choose to include the holidays in the collective labor agreement as days off. However, a survey among HousingAnywhere staff revealed that the majority would prefer to make their own decision regarding their participation in Dutch public holidays. Therefore, the company decided to implement a flexible holiday policy by including the eleven days to the total number of holidays that employees spend at will. The new policy is effective immediately. Seelmann:

We want everyone to feel at home with us, that means allowing employees to take time off on the days that matter personally to them. You can take time off on Ascension day, but it’s no longer obligatory. Maybe you’d prefer to celebrate Easter, or maybe you’d rather take time off to attend your favorite Star-Wars convention instead. Everything is possible!

The 90 employees of HousingAnywhere are from the following countries: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belarus, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Croatia, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Turkey and Ukraine.

Want to meet our beautiful team? Check out this video!

About HousingAnywhere

HousingAnywhere is the world's largest housing platform for international students and young professionals with over 50,000 active advertisements and over 5 million users in over 60 countries. The housing platform allows tenants to interact directly with landlords and enter into medium-term rental agreements. More than 160 partner universities recommend their students to use the HousingAnywhere platform. The Rotterdam-based platform currently employs 90 people.

For more information or to request visuals, please contact

Simone Pouw, PR Manager
press@housinganywhere.com
https://housinganywhere.com/press-releases