We’re proud to share that Zepto has been recognised as a finalist in the prestigious 2025 AFR BOSS Best Places to Work list — a reflection of the exceptional team we’ve built and our inclusive, forward-thinking culture. Rebecca Michael reports.
The AFR BOSS Best Places to Work awards gala was a superb celebration of some incredible companies creating workplaces with positive employee experiences at their core. You can read about some of those companies here.
As Chief of Staff at Zepto, I’m excited to share what makes this a truly special place to work, particularly our unwavering commitment to fostering belonging and achieving balance in an on-demand tech world.
At Zepto, we're revolutionising real-time payments, but at our core, we're a team of "good humans" dedicated to creating a better way to pay. This finalist position is a testament to our commitment to building a workplace where Zepto people feel valued, respected, and empowered.
"I'm relentlessly proud of Zepto. We're no strangers to AFR Boss awards, having been a Most Innovative Companies winner and finalist in recent years. As a payments technology infrastructure provider, we're passionate about tech. But we also obsess about creating an environment for good humans to thrive. This result is reflective of that obsession.”
Matt Cheers, CEO and Co-founder
A Culture of Inclusion and Belonging
Zepto proudly embraces a culture of inclusivity and belonging. We understand that innovation thrives when barriers are removed and diverse perspectives are welcomed. In 2024, we released Zepto’s Social Impact and Sustainability Policy, reaffirming our commitment to gender, diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging.
We’ve fostered an environment where each Zeptonian is encouraged to ask questions, share diverse perspectives, and participate in decision-making. To enhance feedback sharing within a remote workforce, we utilise Officevibe’s real-time Pulse Surveys, seamlessly integrated into our daily workflow. This empowers our leaders to respond promptly to feedback and continuously enhance our employee experience.
Our “Zepto Collectives” organically foster a deeper sense of inclusion and belonging, enabling team members to lead initiatives that are important to them and unite colleagues through common interests and passions.
"Zepto Collectives was initially inspired by an employee's passion and advocacy for sustainability,” says Zepto’s People and Culture Associate, Evie Erickson.
“Since its inception, we’ve seen great success with our Women’s Collective and Watch Club for the film buffs. We all know how important belonging is, and this initiative reflects the warm and welcoming culture we’ve fostered since day one.”
Evie Erickson
While we embrace the flexibility of remote work, we’re deeply aware that the power of in-person connection strengthens relationships and binds community by anchoring to purpose and mission. This leads me to one of our most impactful initiatives: the NXNE (North by North East) Summit.
A nod to SXSW, NXNE is a three-day gathering focused on connection, alignment and inspiration. It is uniquely tailored to address both our people’s and business needs, while also fostering camaraderie and having a lot of fun! It tackles big ideas, strategic priorities, customer insights, product deep dives, cross-functional collaboration and celebration.
NXNE has demonstrably boosted our eNPS scores, highlighting its profound impact, and leaves the team guessing on where we will be heading next!
Empowering Wellbeing and Balance
Supporting a healthy work-life balance is paramount to our team's wellbeing and their ability to thrive both personally and professionally. To support our team, we’ve created a Wellbeing Menu that provides 24/7 mental health support through the Uprise Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and additional Wellbeing Leave. We utilise unique Slack status emojis to represent an employees wellbeing status and it allows us to support and connect with our team in the moment without the limitations of being remote. As a result, 97.4% of employees feel supported when dealing with personal or family issues but we will continue to strive to ensure every person feels this way.
We allow employees to work from anywhere in Australia, with Hub locations available for connection. We encourage employees to take time off, with leaders setting the example by sharing their own leave plans. 97.6% of employees feel they have the flexibility to take time off which is something that we are truly proud of.
While many companies are mandating a return to the office, Zepto prioritises output over time-at-desk, fostering a better work-life balance. We’re proud to share that 97.6% of employees believe they are supported in flexible work arrangements.
The Future of Work: Balance
Looking ahead to 2030, we believe balance will be the cornerstone of a "Best Place to Work". This includes balancing workload and work-life, skills and aptitude, global growth and local priorities, AI and human connection, in-person and remote work, purpose, people, and profit.
Life at Zepto
Building a truly inclusive and balanced workplace is an ongoing journey and we’re certainly not perfect, but we're constantly learning and evolving. We’re dedicated to listening to our employees, adapting to their needs, and continuing to build a culture where everyone can thrive.
At Zepto, we're not just building a company; we're genuinely building a community. And at the heart of that community are our people. We invite you to experience the Zepto difference. Explore our videos, delve into our blog articles, and connect with our team to learn more.
We’re focused on building a company that is a great place to work, and a leader in the real-time payments space.
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