Park Resorts operates 39 holiday parks on the UK coast, offering a quality service and leisure experience to around one million holidaymakers and holiday home owners every year. The business has a permanent workforce of over 620 employees, which is supplemented by seasonal employees who grow staff numbers to over 2500 people.

Park Resorts first introduced an employee Benefits programme for its permanent employees in October 2009. The Benefits on offer represent a blend of core and voluntary Benefits that are available to all permanent employees, regardless of their grade, role and geographical location within the business. The business is committed to delivering an employee Benefits selection that offers something for everyone.

Core employee Benefits

• 25 days annual leave + 8 days public holidays
• Access to stakeholder pension
• 3 x salary death in service benefit
• 25% holiday discount for friends and family (peak season)
• 50% holiday discount for friends and family (low season)
• £500 discount off a holiday home

Voluntary employee Benefits

• Team member assistance helpline
• High street discount vouchers
• Discounted ‘Virgin Experience’ days
• Childcare vouchers
• Discounted Home Insurance
• Breakdown Cover savings
• Access to Personal Taxation Service
• Access to Personal Finance & Mortgage Advice
• Discounts on Distance Learning programmes
• Company sponsored healthcare scheme
• Voluntary Group Income Protection Plan

In addition to these Benefits, a number of Park level roles within the business, such as general managers, holiday homes sales managers and holiday homes sales advisors are eligible for a generous bonus scheme. Regular sales incentives are also available for Park Resorts employees.

“We’re a relatively young company that was founded only nine years ago and Benefits have played a key role in developing a solid corporate culture that has helped bring all parks within the group together,” explains Beverley Murphy.

"We recognised how important it was for the team at Park Resorts to offer a meaningful Benefits package for their people," comments Katrine Johnston, director at Personal Group.

"It was important that the Benefits available to employees supported Park Resorts' goal to be an employer of choice and enable them to stand out and be different from competitors in the market. The business wanted to clearly demonstrate how much they value their people - a desire that's reflected in their overall Benefits investment," she says.

When it comes to Benefits communication, Park Resorts makes the most of a range of channels, tactics and techniques that ensure all employees are reached and can access the information on the Benefits programme, as well as the latest offers and discounts.

“Given our diverse workforce we do rely heavily on paper-based communication to share Benefits information with employees. All employees received a printed copy of the Benefits book when the programme was launched last year and all subsequent recruits were given a copy of the Benefits book with their employment offer letter,” says Beverley.

“In addition, we regularly circulate posters from Personal Group, to highlight seasonal offers and discounts to employees, as well as reminding people about the programme and how it can support them,” she explains.

Face-to-face communication is critical to the effectiveness of the Park Resorts Benefits programme.

"Strong communication has been central to the ongoing success of Park Resorts' Benefits programme; we invested significant time building a rapport with local park managers, for example, and all employees had the opportunity to meet with a Personal Group representative to review the core and voluntary Benefits on offer. These sessions give people time to discuss how specific Benefits, such as voluntary group income protection, can support them and their personal circumstances,” explains Katrine Johnston.

“Although all employees receive a hard copy of the Benefits book, this face-to-face interaction really engages people with the Benefits offer and ensures they can make the most of the services and discounts on offer. It also gives employers reassurance that employees receive the same information and latest news about employee Benefits,” she says.

Feedback is an important element of the Benefits programme and Park Resorts is committed to giving their people the opportunity to share their thoughts and experiences with senior management, as well as those responsible for the development and delivery of Benefits.

“In addition to formally reviewing the Benefits programme on an annual basis, we rely on our teams to tell us how they feel about the employee Benefits scheme and if they would like to see any changes with it. The user stats and reports provided by the Personal Group are very helpful in highlighting to us what Benefits are important to our colleagues. We also encourage employees to contact our chief executive, David Vaughan, directly with any comments or feedback via our ‘Dear David…’ email address,” explains Beverley.

The business recognises this feedback is a valuable resource to measure the impact of the Benefits programme and complements the regular take-up reports produced by Personal Group. Park Resorts also participates in the ‘Sunday Times Best 100 Companies to Work For’ scheme and uses this as a key measure to assess the impact of employee Benefits on the organisation and its people.

“Initial feedback from the Sunday Times scheme has indicated that we need to focus on ‘giving back’ to our people, introducing a ‘fair deal’ and employee health and wellbeing. We have used Benefits to launch and push our focus on these issues and look forward to publication of the Results later this year,” she says.

The development and implementation of the Benefits programme has been relatively straightforward for Park Resorts.

"Our senior managers recognise the positive impact the Benefits programme can have on the business and its workforce and, as such, they are keen to support the project." says Beverley. "Alongside this, it’s always hard to introduce any people-focused initiative that serves a number of sites and seeks to support a diverse workforce, but for us it simply meant that we needed to plan the programme, its launch and its ongoing communications more effectively,” she says.

“We’re confident that our Benefits programme and the communication that has supported it has delivered lasting and positive Results for our permanent employees and as a result we are always keen to see how we can progress this and move it forward.” concludes Beverley Murphy.