Jet2holidays was recognised as the best large travel company to work for at the second Best Workplaces in Travel awards.
Panache Cruises was hailed as the best small employer while easyJet holidays scooped top spot in the medium-sized category, at the ceremony held in central London on June 13.
There was also reason to celebrate for Ski Solutions as it walked away with the ‘we try harder’ award, handed to the company which achieved the biggest increase in its overall staff satisfaction score versus 2022.
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Santa Claus Trips was recognised as the happiest workplace in travel.
Staff satisfaction was measured via a survey distributed by Best Workplaces in Travel which asked every individual within the companies which entered to rate what’s important to them at work and how their employer scores.
Speaking to Travel Weekly after being crowned winners, Jet2holidays operations director Sean Ablett said: “We’re genuinely surprised as this is the first time we’ve entered anything like this.
“We’ve done a lot of work over the last five years around staff engagement and motivation so it’s great that it has all culminated in this.”
Ablett said the recognition was “particularly satisfying” as the award was voted for mainly by contact centre staff, who can “often feel detached from a company”.
Matt Callaghan, customer and operations director at easyJet holidays, said: “Awards voted for by our people such as this one are the ones we’re always super proud to win.
“We’re a young company with big growth plans so we’re always looking to attract brilliant people, and recognition like this only helps us do that. We’ve worked really hard on making our colleague experience just as good as our customer experience, so this is special.”
Panache Cruises founder James Cole said: “One of the fundamental values of this business is looking after our staff, so this means everything to us.
“We make sure that nothing is too much trouble for our colleagues and we will do everything we can to give them the best life, not just work life, and this award is proof of that.”
Best Workplaces in Travel is the brainchild of Gail Kenny, founder of Gail Kenny Executive Recruitment, and workplace culture firm Purple Cubed.
Kenny hailed the quality of this year’s entrants, saying: “We introduced these awards last year with the view to help drive employee engagement, and to improve our industry’s reputation, with the objective to showcase travel as a great industry to work in,” she said.
“I’m delighted to congratulate the brilliant travel brands who made the list – the calibre of entrants was outstanding. We’re excited to already be planning next year’s awards, which will launch at the end of the 2023.”
Photo: The Jet2holidays team with their award