The Sunday Times recently released its 2024 edition of the Best Places to Work after analysing 70,000 UK organisations. Employee satisfaction experts, WorkL, powered the survey, using the six factors of reward and recognition, instilling pride, information sharing, empowerment, wellbeing and job satisfaction as qualifying criteria.
All businesses that made the shortlist were chosen based on the decisions of a panel and the employee data collected by WorkL. Chester-based ecological consultancy, Arbtech, featured within the list of Best Medium Organisations for companies with between 50 and 249 members of staff.
Specialising in surveys to support planning, Arbtech is headed by CEO, Robert Oates, who has made it his mission to offer the fairest salaries, the most flexibility and the best working environment and make Arbtech the number one career destination in the ecology sector. He believes in the importance of putting employees first and providing them with generous benefits. This helps contribute to a happy workplace culture with low staff turnover and employees who are happy to go the extra mile for clients and each other.
Current perks of working for Arbtech include a 40-day holiday allowance, a subsidised gym membership, a free Fitbit, a selection of free subscriptions (Audible, Pret A Manger etc), an unlimited continued professional development (CPD) fund and a ‘Cheers Mate’ scheme that enables employee-to-employee bonuses from individual wish lists any time someone goes out of their way to help another member of the team.
Most recently, Arbtech started a ‘Paid As You Level Up’ scheme whereby employees receive a bonus for completing books from a reading list that will benefit them both personally and professionally. With surveyors situated all over the country, Arbtech also allows remote working and the ability for employees to arrange all-expenses-paid social events as an opportunity for staff to come together and reconnect in a relaxed setting.
Another recent addition to the list of company incentives has been the introduction of sabbaticals for long-term employees in exchange for a temporary salary deduction. It means that an Arbtecher with five, 10 or 15 years at the company will be entitled to a pre-arranged one, three or six-month period away from work respectively.
“Given the exceptional socials on offer – including a recent skiing trip to Austria – you won’t go long before your colleagues become some of your closest friends,” Emily Kempson, Senior Arboriculturist at Arbtech said.
Through nationwide coverage and specialisms in a multitude of areas, Arbtech offers tree surveys, ecology surveys, biodiversity net gain plans, numerous protected species surveys and an array of other services related to planning. On average, the team at Arbtech assists more than 8,000 projects every year and has so far supported over 50,000 projects since starting work in 2005.
Oates said: “At this company, employees come first. Every time. Ask the directors of the firm you work at currently, what’s at the heart of their business’ strategy and success and they start talking about client relationships. What they should be talking about is employee relationships.”