Designing work around people

How Evenbreak uses personalised work design to create an inclusive organisation where people can work around their individual needs, strengths and circumstances — while remaining accountable for the outcomes they deliver.

The idea

Evenbreak is a global disability job board run by and for people with lived experience of disability. Its mission is to create a world where disabled people have the same opportunities and choices to enter, progress and thrive at work as non-disabled people.

That purpose doesn’t just shape the work Evenbreak does. It shapes how Evenbreak itself works.

Rather than asking people to fit their lives and abilities around predetermined jobs, Evenbreak starts with the work that needs to be done and the people available to do it. Roles, hours, locations and ways of working can then be designed around individual strengths and circumstances.

The result is a highly personalised approach to work — underpinned by trust, responsibility and a shared commitment to delivering what the organisation needs. 

What they do differently

Personalise work around the individual.

Evenbreak focuses on what needs to be achieved rather than prescribing exactly who should do it, when they should do it or how.

Roles can evolve as people’s strengths and interests emerge. Parts of jobs can be “carved” out and reassigned to colleagues who are better suited to them, enabling people to spend more of their time doing work they enjoy and excel at.

For example, one employee joined as an Account Manager before recognising that her strengths lay in creativity and content. After discussing this with the organisation, she moved into marketing. Another joined as a Social Media Manager but demonstrated particular strengths in processes and understanding how different parts of the organisation fitted together; within months, she became Chief Operating Officer. 

Agree outcomes, then trust people to deliver them

Team members co-produce the deliverables expected of them and are then trusted to achieve those outcomes in ways that work for them.

This shifts the emphasis from hours and presence to contribution and impact.

Evenbreak’s ambition is to take this further. At the time of the case study, salaries were still related to hours worked, but the organisation wants to eventually evaluate roles according to their outcomes and value to the business rather than the amount of time spent working. 

Work digital-first

Evenbreak’s team works remotely, using digital tools to enable both synchronous and asynchronous collaboration.

Online coffee and afternoon-tea sessions create optional opportunities for informal connection, while in-person events and get-togethers are available but aren’t compulsory.

That flexibility matters because different people have different needs. Rather than requiring everyone to participate in the same way, Evenbreak creates multiple ways for people to contribute and connect. 

Design inclusion together

Personalisation doesn’t mean everyone simply gets their individual preference. Sometimes people’s needs conflict.

In one example, a team member needed colleagues’ cameras on during virtual meetings so that she could lip-read, while another needed her camera off because of ADHD. Rather than prioritising one person’s needs over the other’s, the team found a shared solution: people switch their cameras on while speaking.

Similarly, after one colleague explained that receiving meeting agendas in advance helped her process information, Evenbreak adopted the practice for everyone.

People are encouraged to explain what they need, while also considering what colleagues need from them. 

The Workstyle Model in practice

Organisational environment

Purpose

Evenbreak’s mission around disability inclusion informs not only what the organisation does, but how it designs work for its own people.

Culture
Trust, inclusion, integrity, professionalism and openness enable people to ask for what they need and challenge established ways of working.

Structure
Remote, digital-first working and adaptable roles allow work to be organised around people’s strengths and circumstances rather than fixed assumptions about jobs.

Leadership

Autonomy + Trust

Leaders don’t need to control when, where or exactly how work happens. They agree what’s needed and trust people to find effective ways of delivering it.

That creates greater independence for individuals while preserving the interdependence required for an organisation to perform.

Personal productivity

Responsibility to Self × Dependability to Others

People are expected to understand how they work best, communicate what they need and take responsibility for delivering their work.

In return for that freedom, they must remain dependable: fulfilling commitments, communicating with colleagues, collaborating effectively and adapting where individual needs intersect.

That’s perhaps the most interesting Workstyle lesson from Evenbreak: personalisation isn’t the absence of responsibility. It works because individual autonomy and mutual dependability operate together. 

What happened?

Evenbreak believes this personalised approach gives it access to talent that conventional approaches to work might exclude.

One particularly striking example is an employee with severe ME who can work only two hours each week, split into 20-minute periods. Evenbreak reports that he nevertheless performs important work extremely well and, at the time of the case study, had worked with the organisation for 12 years.

More broadly, Evenbreak attributes its approach to helping it attract and retain talented people regardless of location or working requirements, while supporting motivation, engagement, productivity, innovation and low sickness levels. 

Ideas worth stealing

Start with the work, not the job.
Define what needs to be achieved before deciding how responsibilities should be packaged into roles.

Let roles evolve around strengths.
When someone’s capabilities emerge, consider redesigning the role rather than assuming the person must adapt to the original job description.

Agree outcomes before offering autonomy.
Clarity about what someone is responsible for makes greater freedom over how they deliver it possible.

Treat different needs as a design challenge.
When individual requirements conflict, look for systemic improvements to ways of working rather than defaulting to one standard approach for everybody.

Make connection available, not compulsory.
Create different opportunities for people to build relationships without assuming everyone needs to connect in the same way.

The question for your organisation

What talent might your organisation be excluding because you’ve designed work around conventional jobs rather than allocating the objective to the people most equipped to succeed?