Flight Centre scores ‘Employer of Choice’ title

By Hannah Edensor

It’s been a good couple of months for Flight Centre, and now they get to cap it off by being named an Employer of Choice in a new award ceremony.

The Australian Business Awards 2017 were announced last night, and in the employer of choice category, named Flight Centre as one of the handful of companies worthy of the title.

The Australian Business Award for Employer of Choice recognises organisations which have developed leading workplaces that maximise the full potential of their workforce through practices that demonstrate effective employee recruitment, engagement and retention.

Carole Cooper, Global Peopleworks Leader, Flight Centre Travel Group, said,“Our people are our greatest asset and our biggest investment.

“We are so thrilled to receive this award in recognition for our wonderful workplace and the people who make it a success.”

From the travel and hospitality landscape, Flight Centre was also joined by Amadeus IT Pacific, Brisbane Airport Corporation, Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, and Cruise Whitsundays.

FCTG employs more than 20,000 people globally in 20 countries but its brand new Brisbane-based global headquarters is the jewel in the crown.

“Our new head office is a true celebration of our company’s irreverence and focus on culture. It’s a physical representation of our company’s celebration of culture and the importance we place on our people,” Cooper added.

In October 2016, Flight Centre Travel Group moved its headquarters into the brand new Southpoint building in South Brisbane, Queensland.

The new HQ merged 1800 staff from four Brisbane-based offices into one state-of-the-art headquarters and provides a whole floor of purpose-built training rooms and facilities for its frontline consultants to support their growth and education.

Office perks include a 24/7 gym, beauty salon, roof cafe and a-la-carte restaurant, two-story slide, and unique meeting rooms in the shapes of planes, cruise ships and a Top Deck bus.

FC’s Employer of Choice submission showcased the company’s extensive training, development and education support, work/life balance and company-wide staff benefits such as access to money coaches and financial planners, personal trainers and beauticians.

The company’s youth leisure brand, Student Flights, also recently introduced an Unlimited Leave policy.

Over the past two months, Flight Centre has branched out considerably across the travel space, acquiring a hotel management company, DMCs, an agency in Canada, and both corporate and leisure mobile agency networks in New Zealand.

Most recently, Flight Centre announced it had also acquired Sydney-based Travel Partners, in what they called a “low-risk” entry into the home-based agency landscape in Australia.

It ruffled a few feathers too, with two major home-based agency leaders, Travel Counsellors and TravelManagers, having their say on the venture.

TC’s MD Fred van Eijk believed so many different business angles would see the home-based network suffer, while TravelManagers chairman Barry Mayo was confident TM would remain the market leader.

Flight Centre’s MD Skroo Turner has, however, been both optimistic and humble, telling Travel Weekly that this was always part of the plan, and that he didn’t believe they were growing too rapidly.

The TravelPartners acquisition was revealed as the last major announcement from Flight Centre for the short to medium-term future.

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Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au

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