Hays Travel improved its position in annual rankings of the best UK firms to work for despite staff concerns over pay.
The country’s largest independent travel agency rose to 74th place in the Sunday Times listing of 100 best mid-size companies to work for published yesterday, from 91stposition last year.
With 1,640 staff, 1,427 of whom are women, a typical travel consultant earns £15,450 a year plus a £1,604 bonus, “and it must be said that staff are at their least happy with issues around pay,” the survey found.
This is despite staff being rewarded with £100 for every year’s service with the agency when annual sales passed the £1 billion mark last April.
Sunderland-based Hays Travel occupied the bottom position among mid-size companies for the listings’ ‘fair deal’ factor, which rates how happy the workforce is with their pay and conditions, with a 44% positive score. Just 3% of employees earn more than £35,000.
“People are much happier with their managers, who they say help them fulfil their potential (77%), care about them as individuals (82%) and would be quick to respond if they showed signs of being under pressure (75%),” according to the study.
Founder John Hays, 69, is still very hands-on and regularly drops in on the 166 branches, where, the company says, he “knows most by their first names”.
The company takes on 100 apprentices every year and 80% of managerial vacancies are filled internally.
“The next three in line for the board all came to us from school,” Hays says.
Holiday accommodation rental firm Sykes Cottages is a new entry in the mid-size category top 100, in 80thposition, with 200 of the 416 staff in its five offices hired in the past 12 months. The company aims to have 20,000 cottages on its books by the end of next year.
“Rapid growth and job satisfaction do not automatically go hand in hand,” the reports said. “What sets this operation apart and wins it our special award for ‘best improver’ is that senior managers recognised their own failings on staff engagement and addressed them through new initiatives such as an employee forum and regular business updates.
“Employees now believe they can make a valuable contribution to the firm’s success, an 84% positive score, and feel proud to work for it (80%).
“Inspirational leadership is provided by chief executive Graham Donoghue (77%). People agree that he runs the organisation on sound principles (78%), which include ‘achieving together’ and ‘communicating honestly’.
“Respect for the environment and local communities is an important part of this tourism-focused enterprise. All staff can participate in voluntary activities during work time for one day a year. Colleagues agree that the business encourages charitable activities (84%), and say their teammates are fun to work with (83%) and go out of their way to be helpful (81%).”
Bridge Leisure Parks came in 85th place, down seven positions from last year, with more than half of the staff being part-timers “and they do not havehigh expectations of gaining valuable experience from the job – the 70% positive score on this question is the lowest in the survey of mid-size companies.
“Nevertheless they feel that work is an important part of their lives (81%) and they are generally happy with their work-life balance (68%),” the report added.
Bourne Leisure took fifth spot in the top 25 big companies, up one pace year-on-year, just one place above Marriott Hotels International.
Bourne was ranked first among best big companies for wellbeing, a 63% positive score, thanks in part to regular monitoring by managers.
“Staff believe they can make a valuable contribution to its success (83%, third). Work is an important part of their lives (80%, third), while teams have fun together (82%),” according to the study.
Business travel agency Click Travel’s ranking in the 100 best small companies was down to 67th from 58th place, however, it is the only travel company to feature.
More than half its people work remotely and 40% take up the offer of flexitime.
“Colleagues also enjoy perks such as performance-related pay and days off for birthdays and Christmas shopping,” the report stated. “They can also accrue extra holidays – on top of an allocation of 24 days – by taking shorter lunch breaks. As a result people are happy with their work-life balance (81%) and feel their managers care about them as individuals (88%).”