The Travel Franchise, which has doubled in size in the last twelve months - both in terms of sales and recruitment - has launched its new rewards and wellbeing programme to thank its highly skilled team, in a bid to become “the number one place to work in travel”.

“We’ve been fortunate to grow at the fast pace we have due to the hard work of the whole corporate team - and so we want to say thank you. Our growth strategy isn’t only about recruiting the best talent in the industry, it’s about looking after the people we’ve got. As a company, we’re focusing far more on both customer experience as well partner experience,” said co-founder Paul Harrison.

The Travel Franchise’s Head of People, Donna Stonehouse, conducted the company’s first employee engagement survey. Some of the initiatives were designed around the feedback.

The raft of wellbeing initiatives and benefits include private medical insurance including dental and optical care, life insurance, 24/7 mental health and wellbeing support, including external mental health support for both employees and their families; readily available counselling services; specialist support lines for personal concerns - divorce, family issues, neighbour disputes, debt, grief; plus a support line for health concerns.

The company also has a wellbeing platform which covers nutrition, exercise, sleep, meditation, plus a range of retail, fitness, food and supermarket discounts.

As well as a commitment to continuing flexible homeworking, the company has increased its annual leave allowance by five days, plus birthdays off and the option to purchase further holiday.

In addition, The Travel Franchise is giving each corporate team member £500 each year to spend on developing their own skills - either for the workplace or in their personal lives.

Paul Harrison, co-founder of The Travel Franchise and its consumer-facing travel consultancy brand Not Just Travel, said: “There aren’t many companies which give you £500 to learn to code, make bread or kickbox - whatever you want.

“We want to empower people to develop their own skills and interests. We’re at a size now where we can do things to say thank you that we couldn’t do before. It’s our way of giving back to our incredibly loyal team.”

Donna Stonehouse, Head of People said: “We believe in constant growth and career progress at NJT and it happens quickly when we see the right skills and attitude. We support individuals regardless of level or length of service - empowering ownership of Learning & Development and removing the red tape often associated with such opportunities. We believe it’s pretty groundbreaking.”

Stonehouse continues: “We’re giving our team autonomy over their learning and development. They can choose to spend the money on IT training, a photography or gardening course, first aid training, or a finance-related course. It could be the Headspace or Calm app; it could be an online fitness programme; an A-level or equivalent; the options are endless.”

One staff member said: “The Learning and Development policy made me cry. I’d been thinking of doing a course to help my autistic children and didn’t know how to pay for it; with the new policy, it’s covered. I’m so excited about it and the difference it will make”.

Paul Harrison concluded: “Our goal is to become one of the top voted places to work in the UK. We want to create an environment when people come to us wanting to be hired, not where we have to go looking.”