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Expectations are a beautiful thing.
We like to break them 💔
This ‘book’ will be a guide for your first days, weeks and months at Future Group. But who’s to say it can’t be a manifesto for how to build a progressive future? Or a challenge gauntlet thrown down, as if to say: “This is yours now - let’s see what you can do.”
Future Group is about progress not perfection, so we’re constantly trying to make things better. We’ll teach you how we work, what we do for you, and what we ask in return. Then, we’ll listen when you tell us what’s missing and what we can do about it.
Most importantly, we march to the beat of our own drum 🥁
Here’s some 🎶 the Future Group crew enjoy listening to.
Let’s get started, shall we?
Our Purpose
(why we exist)
To create a prosperous future free from climate change and inequality 🌏💪🏽
Our Vision
(what the world looks like when we succeed)
That all of Australia's retirement savings will be invested to drive positive social and environmental impacts.
Unique. Progressive. Rebellious....
We used to have a list of values, but we realised no one knew them 🤷🏻♀️
So we hit delete. Future Group is constantly growing, improving and evolving. Our culture and how we work doesn’t come from a set of rules. It comes from people. Everyone who walks through our doors contributes to our values. So, rather than pigeonhole who we are, we just keep working for the things we care about and let the rest take care of itself.
One thing that will never change is that everything we do is on purpose and for purpose.
Others: "Super is retirement savings"
Future Super: "Super is power"
That’s a key philosophy that makes us different. We like to think of Future Super as community organising with a truckload of money 🚛
The value of super totals over $3 Trillion, which is hard to imagine 🤯 Needless to say, the impact of super investments can be huge. We give people the chance to invest that money in a better future while they save for retirement.
That means that our most important asset is our members. They are the people who validate our vision for the future and their support means success or failure. Super is a personal choice, but it doesn’t have to be individual. We invest with a set of values (and rules), and that makes the work we do a powerful form of collective action.
Of course, we still have to make money for our members. In fact, there’s an important rule called the Sole Purpose Test that goes like this:
"The fund needs to be maintained for the sole purpose of providing retirement benefits to your members.”
The upshot: We can’t compromise members’ finances for ethics. And we don’t plan to. Thankfully, protecting the future our members retire in goes hand-in-hand with their financial needs.
It all starts with Simon and Adam really.
A community organiser running a national grassroots organisation meets a guy from Broken Hill (the BH in BHP) who developed a passion for divesting from fossil fuels and an expertise in ethical investing. Frustrated with the slow pace of progress, Simon and Adam focused their attention on ways to solve the many problems presented by climate change.
And Future Super was born 🐣
If you had walked into Future Super on the first day, it wouldn’t have looked like much. In fact, it’s hard to believe that this place was a start-up not that long ago. It began with six.
Six members. That’s all we had. Imagine those people who had faith in what we were doing before we had any of what you see today.
Around Future Super, you’ll find people who remember sharing offices with other companies, doing finance and marketing jobs at the same time, and having company meetings at someone’s house. These days we’re all pretty specialised and you’re never the newest person for very long.
Along the way there have been milestones. And they’ve been coming at us fast.
🌱In 2017 something happened that changed the way we do super. We collaborated to create our first ethically screened ETF with Betashares. That meant that we could execute our screened investments more quickly. It also meant that people who weren’t Future Super members could buy ethical investment products that we helped to create. Since then we’ve created lots more. ETHI, FAIR, GBND and ERTH are all Future Super approved, publicly available investment products.
In 2017 we also had our first ever month where 500 people joined 😱 "Is that a lot?” we hear you asking. Not anymore. But, at the time, this was a huge milestone for Future Super. 500 people saying they wanted their super to be with us! Now it’s a blip on the radar.
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In 2019 we organised over 3,000 businesses to strike for climate action in our Not Business As Usual campaign.
Member growth is unpredictable, and we learned that in 2020. A super fund ten times our size might be lucky to get a few hundred new members in a month. 8,000 was a little more than we bargained for when a single Youtube video sent our joins rocketing. That year, when most businesses were struggling, our purpose resonated with people so much that we doubled in size. And we did it all while working remotely.
2020 became a groundbreaking year for us. When most of the super industry struggled to deliver a positive return, Future Super became one of the top performing super funds in Australia, proving that ethical investing can pay 📈
In 2021 we launched our Not Mute On Climate campaign to put pressure on Australian leaders ahead of COP26.
Before closing out 2021, we passed a huge milestone: 🤑 One billion dollars of super in Future Super managed funds and three billion dollars across all our investment products.
Then we got thinking. How could we rapidly increase our growth to have a bigger impact?
So in 2022, we acquired another fund, making us the biggest sustainable super fund in Australia!
🌤 The sky's the limit. It’s time to make some more memories, milestones and achievements happen.
💪🏽 Here's how we’re going to do it...
OKRS 🎯
At Future Group we use Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) to drive decision making and work. OKRs are ambitious annual targets that reflect the overall business strategy. We set the bar high, so if we achieve all our OKRs it’s a sign that we weren’t ambitious enough. We set and revise our progress against Key Results to let us know if we're heading in the right direction as a business.
Future Group uses 3-4 OKRs to organise our teams around the same objectives each year. That means we all contribute to the same things even though our jobs are very different.
What’s our OKRs for this year? Read about it here.
🌏Purpose-led
Everything we do as a business has climate or equality driving it. We’re here to make money for people, but they chose us because of the way we’re going to do it. That means our choices are on purpose and for purpose.
📝 Test and Learn
We move fast. We prioritise action over doing nothing and we try to change the way our industry works by getting new content, policies or product changes out the door as long as they’re safe to try. And then we take the time to measure, reflect, learn and take more action.
🔍 Transparent
We don’t believe the highest paid person in the room always has the best answer. We share information openly because good ideas can come from anywhere. Some of our best business decisions originated from staff-led support groups pitching ideas to management.
🏋🏽 Progress over perfection.
Nothing is ever perfect. We’re here to make things happen, and so we balance our desire for what’s best with the reality of what’s possible. It takes strength of character to see the big picture and change one piece at a time.
🌈 Inclusive
Not just socially, but professionally. We want to be a place where everyone feels comfortable sharing ideas and knowledge. So we try to create an environment where everyone feels safe and valued, and where continuous learning is a prized quality.
⚖️ Work life balance
We want you to have a life outside of work. Do you have any quirky interests, niche hobbies, are you part of an activist group? Do you describe yourself as a bookworm or do you Netflix hard? Now that we are working from home, sometimes the line between home and life can get blurred. If you are working flexibly, please support your teammates by making sure you only send messages and emails between our regular work hours (let’s say 8:30am - 5:30pm NSW time). Find out how to do this on Slack here and Gmail here.
Distributed-first manifesto
☕️ Future Group is a distributed-first workplace. That means employees get the opportunity to decide whether they’d prefer to work at home, in the office, from a cafe - or wherever they think they’ll do their best work.
📈 Working is not something people come to the office for, it’s something they do. Effectiveness can’t be measured by number of hours people spend in the office. Instead, by giving people the freedom to choose where they work from we can boost effectiveness.
🔨 And in doing so, we must set up our systems, tools and staff to be able to do their best work remotely. Not just duplicate the office environment which has always had a lot of its own problems.
🤩 By becoming distributed-first we’re pushing ourselves to improve our collaboration practices, processes and tools to match the 21st century. If we want to change the industry to be more people and climate-focussed, we need to start with ourselves.
💃 Working remotely improves the ability of our people to be better parents, friends and a thriving life outside work, while significantly decreasing our company footprint.
Benefits & disadvantages
Benefits for staff
🧘 More flexibility in everyday life.
🚌 No more time and stress spent on every day commuting. Move when it works for you.
🚖 It’s less carbon intensive. Commuting means our people have to burn fossil fuels unnecessarily.
👏 When we set up the systems right, we can work with reduced interruption stress and increased productivity.
✈️ Ability to travel to other places without taking a vacation.
👣 Freedom to relocate and be location independent.
Benefits for Future Group and our mission
🌏 We’re able to hire great people no matter where they live.
📈 Employees are more productive with fewer distractions as long as we equip teams with the right tools, structure and culture.
🤑 Increased savings on office costs.
🎯 We focus more on results than hours in the office. In the end, this helps deliver our big picture mission more than presentism in a shared space.
😇 We naturally attract more self-motivated people because working remotely requires a higher level of self-direction and autonomy.
🌊 When something happens in the world like a pandemic, flood, bushfire or other, we’re able to continue working without as much disruption then if we were office based.
Disadvantages to be aware of
📘 Onboarding requires more self-learning.
That’s why we have new starters partner up and we write down a lot about how we work so new starters can easily get up to speed.
😕 Employees transitioning from a traditional office setting can feel lonely.
That’s why we have check-in questions at the start of meetings (check out and add to this list, or use a check-in question generator if you’re stuck for ideas), have access to Hub office space in every capital city and have entertainment budgets for teams to socialise in-person.
📞 If we aren’t deliberate about how we connect and share information, remote work can cause a breakdown in communication.
That’s why we have specific tools, offer training and set principles for the ways to best communicate remotely.
🛌 Some may find it difficult to work in the same setting as they live and sleep.
This is why we don’t assume you’ll work from home 100% of the time and why we offer a home working allowance to staff with a salary of <$120K, so you can set up a space that feels separate to the rest of your house.
📆 Team members in different time zones may have to compromise on meeting times.
That’s why we consider meetings as a last resort and try to collaborate asynchronously as much as possible through shared documents and tools.
⏱ Remote work requires each staff member to be a manager of one. To manage your own time, be self-motivated, disciplined and organised.
That’s why we try to attract employees who have a high-degree of value on autonomy and set goals so people can make their own decisions about how they accomplish where we want to get to.
Lots of workplaces use meetings to look busy when in reality they’re just wasting everyone’s time. Not on our watch 👀
Your experience of meetings at Future Group should be that they’re useful and constructive. Meetings should have a set agenda that makes it clear what you want to achieve and how you plan to do it. We use a couple regular formats.
If you want to learn a little more about what makes a good meeting, have a quick squiz here.
All Hands 🙌🏽
Our full company meeting takes place once a fortnight on Friday mornings. We meet on Zoom to include everyone working remotely. At your first All Hands, you’ll give a short presentation to introduce yourself (no more than 5 minutes). At these meetings we also usually end by nominating a charity for our Workplace Giving Program and passing the Adam Mug on.
Stand Up/Huddle/Start of Day 🌅
This is the morning meeting that you will do with your team each day. It’s a quick one designed to keep everyone across the work being done and allow anyone to raise problems they need help with in order to progress work.
Retros 🧠
Short for retrospectives. These are meetings we use to reflect on work that has been completed. We brainstorm the things that worked, what went wrong and come up with ideas on how we’ll improve going forward.
Scoping and Team Charter sessions ⚽️
These sessions are used to plan out project work. Sometimes people who aren’t working on the project will facilitate or contribute to these meetings to help provide additional perspectives.
Compulsory Training
For new starters
There are some courses we expect everyone to do when they first start with us. These are designed to give people an idea of what behaviour is acceptable at Future Group, as well as some basic security and cultural knowledge that we think is essential.
❌ Anti-Workplace Bullying
🖤 Cultural Competency: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures
🎣 Fishing with a Ph: Cyber Security
📖 ASFA Super Essentials (not compulsory for Member Advocates or people with super experience)
🌈 ACON Training - LGBTQ+ inclusion training
For everyone
❎ Anti-Racism
🧠 Mental Health (every 2 years)
Optional (but highly recommended)
📣 Acknowledgment of Country workshop
🥪 We do more trainings from time to time and lunch and learns
🚃 And don't forget your training budget!
Employment Hero
Employment Hero is our main HR platform. It’s the only account you’ll use your personal email for and it organises things like payroll and leave applications. You should have received an email in your personal inbox a few days ago, but if you haven’t set your account up - now’s the time! The Unicorns (#peopleandculture) have the low-down on how to use this platform.
Payroll
At Future Group, pay rolls around every fortnight on a Friday so you can spend up on the weekend. To make sure you get paid, you need to update your bank and super details in Employment Hero. Your payslips will arrive on the day you get paid. Find out more about making concessional contributions or updating your bank and super details here.
Leave
There’s lots of different types of leave available at Future Group and this is where you apply for it. Understanding which one to apply for could save you annual leave. We’ll go over all the options available to you later in the handbook, but you can also check it out yourself here on Confluence.
Discounts
Employment Hero offers discounts for some online shopping, wellbeing resources, training and events.
Equality is part of Future Group purpose, which means it's part of the reason we exist as a company.
We all play a part in pushing for equality in the workplace, and good intentions don’t always do the trick. It takes a lot of work to create a culture where everyone can belong without fear of judgement, and part of that is normalising respectful discussions about difference.
We keep an open mind when it comes to instituting policies and practices that improve equality at Future Group. If you have thoughts on how we can improve, we’re always happy to listen and learn. Here’s what we do already to foster equality in our workplace.
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Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Strategy
We have our very own Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer who helps hold Future Group accountable to becoming a diverse, equitable, inclusive workplace where people can feel a true sense of belonging. Check out our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion strategy here for the next few years ahead.
SuperGlobal, SuperGenders and SuperPride groups
These support network groups provide safe supportive spaces for culturally diverse people, cisgender women, trans men and women, non-binary folks, the LGBTIQA+ community and people who are otherwise marginalised. Use these spaces to share experiences and bring ideas to the table if they feel appropriate for you. Please speak to Lydia, DEI Officer if you want to join SuperGlobal or SuperGenders and speak to Leigh, Chief People Officer if you'd like to join SuperPride.
Reporting pay gaps and employee engagement by gender and cultural diversity
We crunch the numbers so we’re accountable. We track our pay gap live, which you can see at anytime in Confluence. Our DEI Officer updates the business quarterly on how we measure up on equality in these key areas and how we’re tracking more generally in our DEI Action Plan.
14 weeks paid parental leave (non-probationary staff only)
Oh baby! We offer a generous parental leave package which includes 14 weeks of paid parental leave. Our Parental Leave Policy is currently under construction. If you want more information about our current parental leave package, please speak to People and Culture.
Baby Bump parental leave superannuation package
Baby Bump is an offering we make to all Future Super members. We refund the annual dollar-based administration fee for the time you are on parental leave, check it out here.
Additional 1% super for employees earning under $120k
Pour a little sugar on it. We want our staff to get a good head start on their super. If you’re on a junior salary, this sweetener will help fatten up your super balance.
6 days menstrual and menopausal leave per calendar year
At least half of us bleed on a regular basis. For some, it can be almost impossible to function while that’s happening. In the interests of equity, we offer anyone who menstruates or experiences menopause 6 days of paid leave per year in addition to sick leave, to help manage the symptoms of periods or menopause. Find and read our Menstrual and Menopausal Guidelines on Confluence or read more about why we implemented them here.
🏳️⚧️
30 days paid Gender Affirmation Leave and 12 months unpaid leave
Transgender and Gender Diverse people face barriers to employment and health care and we want to do our part to help remove those barriers, or at least lend a helping hand over them. Check out the Gender Affirmation Guidelines on Confluence.
👯
Our Mentoring Program
Mentoring programs have been shown to increase employee well being and reduce new starter job anxiety and stress. Our program matches mentors and mentees for a 6-month period. We hope by participating in the program employees can share personal career questions in a safe and confidential space. Read about the program here.
We’re really into self-care and healthcare.
🧘🏾♀️🛁💆🏻♂️🏝🚴🏽♂️🎷
We’d love you to be happy and healthy while working at Future Group. Take that holiday you’ve always dreamed of and definitely brag about it in your calendar update and Slack status. But life doesn’t always go to script. That’s why Future Group has some extra perks and quirks, in addition to the usual entitlements, to help you look after yourself.
Keep in mind, if we don’t have you here full-time or permanently, some entitlements may be prorated relative to your hours, or may not apply to you. You can click on each of these entitlements to view the full policy or speak to People and Culture for more information.
We think this is a pretty awesome list of ways to smash that work-life balance though. Please use them to improve your quality of life while working at Future Group.
🧠
Mental Health and Well-being Policy
Experiencing periods of poor mental health is really common, but the stigma around mental health is rife, especially in the workplace. We drafted this policy to establish Future Group's commitment and initiatives in creating a safe and healthy workplace. Check it out here.
1 day mental health leave every two months
We threw everyone a bone at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and gave permanent full-timers a paid mental health day every two months. In addition to other leave entitlements, you can take a whole day or two half days. But listen up - it’s use it or lose it (it doesn’t accrue). It’s now been officially made an ongoing benefit, but there are some guidelines, read all about it.
Uprise Employee Assistance Program for mental health management
Let’s do the work. Being proactive about your mental health can be super important. The Uprise app helps you manage your mental health and gives you access to professional advice and services paid for by Future Group. Everything is confidential and you should feel free to share the services with your family and partners if they’re in need. Learn more about it here.
📔
Mental Health Training
We want to make sure you are equipped with the skills needed to identify symptoms of poor mental health and understand how you might support someone who is not feeling their best or might be suffering from a mental illness. This training is offered every year and is mandatory for team members and managers.
Working from home
We got better at flexible working since the pandemic and we are now a remote-first company. We have co-working spaces with Hub Australia in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra for any staff wishing to go into the office. Reach out to Lydia if you would like to access Hub.
4 weeks annual leave per year
Take lots of small vacays or save it up for a big holiday. We don’t mind. Check out all the leave we offer here on Confluence.
10 days sick and personal carer's leave per year
Feeling rotten? Maybe you’re just in a sticky childminding situation on school holidays. Your sick leave accrues for you to use in these circumstances. We generally trust that you’re using this for its intended purpose, but we may ask you for a medical certificate to cover extended absences.
Compassionate leave
Life sometimes throws you a curveball at inopportune times. But we’re all people first. You have access to 2 days of paid compassionate leave whenever someone in your immediate family or household passes away, suffers serious illness, injury or an emergency.
Free annual flu vaccinations
To reduce the risk of sickness spreading through the office, we provide the flu vaccine for all employees. If you prefer to get the jab from your regular GP, we’ll reimburse you.
💉
COVID Vaccination Leave
As a business we're very supportive of our team getting vaccinated - we signed up to the Great Vaccination Drive and made Vaccination Leave available to everyone. You can access 1 day of paid leave per vaccine dose, amounting to a total of 2 days of paid leave if you are unable to work due to a COVID-19 vaccine related appointment and/or COVID-19 vaccine related symptoms. Find our COVID Guidelines on Confluence for more information.
Annual membership to Bicycle NSW or equivalent
Future Group will cover the cost of your membership to Bicycle NSW or any other bike insurance that’s comparable to encourage you to reduce our emissions by riding into work or just to get around.
We see employment as a give and take relationship. We want to get the best out of you, but we also want you to learn and grow while you’re at Future Group, so you’re prepared for what comes next. That could be advancing within Future Group or taking up another exciting opportunity. Here’s how we invest in your personal and a professional growth
1:1s with your Manager
Mentoring and candid feedback is part of working at Future Group. In these regular catch-ups with your Manager, you can troubleshoot work and discuss performance and opportunities. Expect helpful advice and honest conversations so that nothing comes as a surprise.
$2000 Personal Development budget
Want to improve your public speaking? Do a public speaking course. Finding it difficult to say how you really feel at work? Buy Radical Candour. Think conferences, events, and courses related to your role. This budget can be used for any learning that will up-skill you and set you up for success. You can track your spending budget on Confluence, have a look here.
Regular educational training
Workshops and training provided by Future Group include things like anti-racism training, First Nations cultural competency sessions, lunch and learns delivered by guest speakers and other educational opportunities as they arise.
Annual remuneration review
Remuneration reviews occur in October of each year. Future Group will assess your pay in relation to the market, your performance, your tenure and the company targets for pay equity. Have a look at what the process looks like here.
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Employee Share Ownership Program
A piece of the pie. Future Group has opted not to pay bonuses because they can be problematic when it comes to fair remuneration. Instead, the board extends an invite for certain employees to become shareholders in Future Group as a reward for loyalty and performance. Check out the FAQs here.
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Performance reviews
Future Group believes in providing consistent and constructive feedback on employee performance. By giving this style of feedback across the company, we all strive to continually improve throughout the year.
In saying that, all employees have performance reviews with their Manager each February and August to discuss their progress in the role and in the company more generally. Read more about it by heading here.
🫀
Engagement surveys
We love hearing from you! Every quarter, we send you an engagement survey (sometimes called a pulse check) to help us understand how you are feeling about us and anything else going on in the business. The People and Culture team (A.K.A. ‘the Unicorns’) reports on these results as well as focus areas off the back of your responses. Check out our past engagement surveys here.
Working at Future Group is a privileged position to be in. We’re in an industry where money is a readily available resource.
We know we benefit from living and working on stolen land. We recognise the importance of not only acknowledging it, but actively looking at ways to learn, give back, share, and build relationships with and learn about local communities.
We aim to share the advantages of our success as a business by finding constructive ways to give back. Here’s what we do now:
Workplace giving program
Double your dollars and multiply your impact. If you donate any amount from your pre-tax income, Future Group will match every donation. Each participant nominates a registered charity and every fortnight all the donations go to one of the nominated charities. That means your donation could mean hundreds of dollars reaching an organisation you care about. You can read more about the program and sign up by checking out this Confluence page.
Paying the rent
This isn’t our house. As of 2021, Future Group is paying the rent by donating an amount equivalent to 10% of what we pay in rent each year to First Nations organisations. Check out where this has been going here.
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Ethical Supplier Guidelines
If we’re in the business of screening investments, then our business should screen its suppliers. The power of money is real, and we recognise that our operations can have a real impact on the environment and social inequality. Our first port-of-call is using Supply Nation, a database of verified Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander businesses. Our next port-of-call is using local suppliers. Check out the full guidelines here.
Paid volunteer leave
Giving the gift of time has never been easier. You’re entitled to 2 days of paid leave per financial year to volunteer for a registered charity organisation. You’re welcome to arrange more unpaid days with your Manager if you have a regular volunteer commitment.
Unlimited climate emergency leave
It’s getting hot in here! If you are directly affected or displaced by catastrophic environmental events, or you volunteer for organisations that directly manage the response to these events (E.g. Australian Red Cross, Rural Fire Service and State Emergency Services) then Future Group offers unlimited, paid climate emergency leave.
👋🏽 There you have it folks, we've come to the end of this aforementioned manifesto. Hopefully you've found this guide to be useful. Please refer to this book at any time.
We also recommend you read our Standards of Behaviour if you haven't already.
For more information on people related things, you can check out the Unicorn's Confluence page, otherwise feel free to reach out to the team on #peopleandculture if you have any questions or feedback.
Here's a nice goodbye song if you're feeling sentimental.