Smart50 Workplaces 2023: Scratch

Founders: Michael Halligan, Doug Spiegelhauer
Headquarters: Collingwood, Victoria
Year founded: 2018
Employees: 5-20
Industry: Consumer goods
Website: scratchpetfood.com.au

Scratch recognises that 70% of its workforce is in marketing or customer service, “two occupations prone to burnout and mental health issues for different reasons”. It therefore goes to great lengths to try and put the wellbeing of its staffers first. It’s part of hiring for culture too.

Scratch’s Smart50 Workplaces entry includes some extremely strong and people-focused approaches to mental health support, culture and employee experience.

“We joke to potential hires that Scratch is a place for recovering workaholics, and though I think we’re just about world-class at providing a supportive place to correct habits that lead to burnout, our team have still had plenty go on in their lives and need help keeping themselves in fit mental shape from time to time,” says Scratch’s entry.

The brand is proud of its employee assistance program and works to support its people in this regard so far, saying: “The program has contributed to Scratch not having a single leaver in the past 12 months and only two ever.”

Scratch also prioritises sustainable growth as: “The single biggest defining factor to supporting a healthy environment for our brains and health.”

Scratch avoids the growth-at-any-cost mindset, and this is “culturally reinforced in lots of ways and crucially allows us to set a workload and expectation that supports a healthy work environment”.

Culture and values at Scratch