Rewards and benefits if you work for us

We want to be sure that every member of our staff feels valued and rewarded for their individual contribution. We offer generous rewards and benefits that are designed to support your wellbeing and help you perform at your best.

Competitive salaries

Our salaries are competitive and based upon the nature and level of the role you undertake. Our pay scales are incremental so you can expect to receive an annual increase until you reach the top of your pay scale. See Salaries for further information.

Generous holiday entitlement

We have a generous annual leave entitlement starting at 27 days per year, this increases to 32 days per year after 5 years continuous government service, this is in addition to Bank Holidays. There is also the option to purchase up to 10 additional days leave per year through our salary sacrifice scheme.

Please note, the majority of our buildings close for business in between Christmas and New Year, therefore there is a requirement for staff who are based in those buildings to use a number of days from their annual leave entitlement to cover the closure period (this is usually 3.5 days). This does not apply to staff in roles where there is a requirement to provide essential support during the festive period.

Flexible working

As a family friendly employer, we can see how flexible working helps our people with their work-life balance.

Many of our roles offer flexible working between the hours of 7.30am and 7.00pm. This flexibility can give more freedom to arrange your working day to best meet our customers' needs, it also enables you to accrue up to 13 days flexi leave per year.

All our full-time vacancies are open to job share unless stated. We also offer other flexible working options including home working, compressed hours and flexible retirement where applicable.

Hybrid working (home and office working)

We have a variety of working styles that enable our people to work smarter whilst ensuring we are meeting the needs of our residents and the organisation and supporting our people to achieve a work/life balance.

We operate a hybrid working policy where a model of two days in the workplace and three days at home/remote will apply. This model is pro-rated for part time roles and arrangements are at managers discretion, alternatively you can work all contracted hours within the workplace if you prefer.

Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS)

Staff are entitled to join the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) which is an excellent contributory career average pension scheme.

We also offer a Salary Sacrifice Shared Cost Additional Voluntary Contributions scheme (SSAVC) for members of the LGPS. AVC deductions paid through the SSAVC scheme will save on both tax and National Insurance contributions, meaning the cost of saving extra for your retirement is reduced even further. Unlike other salary sacrifice schemes, this scheme does not impact your main LGPS scheme benefits as we still use your notional salary (salary before AVC deductions) to calculate your main scheme benefits.

Vivup Employee Benefits Portal and Lifestyle Savings Scheme

Vivup is a staff benefits portal that enables our staff to easily access information about our staff benefits online or via the mobile app. The portal provides access to Vivup's Lifestyle Savings scheme which features discounts across a host of major retailers.

Learning and development

Working with us offers hundreds of career pathways and provides great opportunities for career development too. When you join us, you can expect a comprehensive induction and regular Personal Development Reviews throughout the year. We also offer an excellent range of learning and development opportunities to ensure your personal and professional development is supported throughout your career with us.

This includes:

a wide variety of courses (elearning, virtual and face to face) which can be accessed via our Durham Learning and Development System
a leadership and management development programme
service based learning and development programmes
apprenticeships
coaching and mentoring opportunities
access to professional qualifications

Health and wellbeing

Our approach to health and wellbeing is hugely important to us. We are proud of the strong and comprehensive wellbeing support we provide to our staff.