Innovation Winners - Sarah Kingsbury & Alison Smith
We also give our people access to impartial advice (e.g. through an EAP1
Customer Service Winner - Talli Osborne
) if they are facing issues inside or outside
of work. Some of our businesses have introduced further initiatives to encourage their people to look after their own health and wellness, including:
• health assessments • dietary, postural, fitness advice sessions • on-site massages, yoga, running clubs • subsidised gym membership or personal training • provision of free or subsidised condoms • cycle to Work schemes (in the UK).
We are in the process of carrying out a global benefits audit which will enable us to confirm that all companies offer the health and wellness benefits we believe are a non- negotiable part of working at Virgin. We’ll also be able to identify areas of best practice to share across the group.
With employees’ spiritual and mental health in mind, we seek to provide a range of flexible working and family friendly policies for employees to utilise when the time is right. In many cases, Virgin companies choose to enhance the statutory provisions on maternity, paternity or adoption leave to ensure that people get to spend time with the people that matter the most – their families. Some of our companies offer their people the chance to
1. EAP = Employee Assistance Programme. A confidential personal counselling service funded by the employer. EAPs provide employees with access to professional counsellors with whom they can discuss their work- and non-work- related problems, which may be emotional, financial, legal, or anything at all really…
Example:
Virgin Active has a long-standing, successful innovation scheme in which employees can submit new ideas online to be considered by the business.
Virgin Active has approximately 4,600 staff and receives around 10-15 suggestions each day. Roughly three of these are implemented per month and for each successfully implemented idea the staff member receives a small cash prize in recognition.
The introduction of kettle bells into our Virgin Active gyms is a great example of an employee idea which was hugely successful with our members and a real commercial win!
Target: we aim to increase the number of vacancies that were filled internally to around 35% in the coming year. We have recently completed a new Careers Portal which provides a facility for our employees to see and apply for jobs in Virgin companies around the world.
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take sabbaticals during which they can pursue a personal endeavour such as travelling or further study. But it’s not all selfless - we believe that this kind of break results in more engaged and consequently more productive people, which is good for us as well.
However, as at the end of 2008 less than 1% of our employees were taking advantage of the company’s flexible working or career break programmes. As such we are in the process of reviewing these policies to ensure that what we offer strikes the right balance between commercial requirements and what our people need in order to make the most of their time away from work.
4. Developing our People
At Virgin we don’t aim to manage our employees’ careers through every stage of their development. As an entrepreneurial company, we expect our people to be pretty self-driven and to seek out their own next steps. We strongly encourage employees to move freely and pursue opportunities within the Virgin Group. In 2008 22% of our vacancies were filled internally .
Given our entrepreneurial heritage we try to put in place mechanisms which encourage and reward innovative thinking in our companies .
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