Cynch Security

Owner: Susie Jones and Adam Selwood

Location: Victoria

Industry: Information technology and cyber security

Founded: 2018

Employees: 6

Website: cynch.com.au

When the team at IT and cyber security business Cynch switched to working from home in mid-March, co-owner Susie Jones says her biggest concern was the wellbeing of her people.

The team developed a daily ritual where, during video meetings, everyone would rate how they were feeling on a scale of one to 10. So, when someone’s number was low, Jones says she knew that employee needed extra support.

Jones also adopted a more flexible approach to the workday, allowing the team to choose their own working hours. As a result, employees with children worked later at night to allow for homeschooling in the morning and other part-time team members opted to spread their hours over more days than usual.

Cynch employees have even received random care packages of chocolates and cheese delivered to their doors and piloted the health app WellAware.

Jones says the underlying values of flexibility and maintaining connections have helped her team perform well despite working remotely.   

“Flexibility has been key to the support of all our team members, and has allowed our bonds to grow closer — even though we haven’t seen each other face-to-face in over seven months,” Jones says.

Overall, it was a busy year for Cynch, a small startup which offers small businesses cyber security tools.

Next year, Cynch hopes to expand and partner with more businesses and industry bodies to increase its pool of small business customers.

“This absolute dumpster fire of a year — and the need for workers to stay connected even when they’re working from home — has only strengthened the team’s resolve for our commitment to helping small businesses improve their cyber security practices,” Jones says.