A Welsh company is taking its whole staff on vacation as a reward for pandemic work
A Welsh recruitment company is treating its entire staff to an island vacation, imbuing the phrase "work-life balance" with a whole new meaning.
Cardiff-based Yolk Recruitment Ltd. announced on LinkedIn that it's taking more than 50 employees across all divisions to Tenerife in the Canary Islands, saying it's likely among the first area businesses to offer a companywide, all-expenses-paid employee vacation.
"Our purpose is building a culture where everyone wins! Which means no one can be left behind on this all-inclusive company holiday," it wrote.
The offer applies even to new employees hired in January and February, and the company is evidently hoping to bring even more people on board by then. It advertised more than 20 open positions in that same post.
The four-day trip will take place over a long weekend starting on April 1, the company told the BBC. It will cost more than £100,000 (or $135,515).
Chief Commercial Officer Pavan Arora described the initiative as "employee care," telling the BBC that the company wants to make sure employees feel appreciated for their hard work during the pandemic.
"2020 was a really tough time on our whole industry — we went from the jobs market being put on hold to going into overdrive," Arora explained. "Our staff have been on a journey, from going to remote working to hybrid back to remote ... so we just wanted to put our arms around everyone and say thank you for the last two years."
The pandemic has pushed workers across industries to their limits, with burnout widespread and resignations piling up.
In one (interesting) attempt to solve the problem, some companies have turned to creative attempts to encourage their employees to use their time off, The Wall Street Journal reported last year.
For instance, Citigroup has offered companywide days off with the aim of getting everyone to take a break at the same time, and PricewaterhouseCoopers is offering U.S. staffers $250 for every full week of vacation booked, up to $1,000 a year.
This story originally appeared on the Morning Edition live blog. [Copyright 2022 NPR]
