In the Employee Experience series, sponsored by Irish Life, we ask leading companies’ HR departments about their employee engagement initiatives and how they have created the most optimal workplace for their staff.
PARTNER CONTENT IN ASSOCIATION WITH IRISH LIFE
What is The Taxback Group?
The Taxback Group has grown from small beginnings to become a global financial services group with 1400 staff worldwide. The Taxback Group is parent to a family of brands which provide finance, tax and travel services. Our global footprint encompasses 30 offices worldwide and we do business across 100 countries on a daily basis.
The entrepreneurial spirit which characterized our inception in Ireland has continued to shape the products and services which we create. Unlike many other companies, we recognize that one size doesn’t fit all. That’s why we strive to create bespoke services that exactly meet the needs of our diverse client base.
Finger on the pulse
In a jobs market where there is almost full employment, the war for talent among top companies is very real and savvy employers know that they must benchmark against the best in terms of what they can offer recruits.
“I find that people come to us for the fantastic opportunities for career progression and personal development that we can offer here in The Taxback Group,” says Brendan Ahearne, HR Director, The Taxback Group. “However, with an increasingly competitive jobs market, our benefits package is proving to become a more and more important factor in retaining key talent. It is important that we keep a finger on the pulse of the ever-changing environment, ensuring that our packages are reviewed regularly.”
Being a Great Place to Work
Brendan credits entering the Great Place to Work Initiative in 2013 with encouraging the organisation to sharpen up their focus: “Much of our policy changes and engagement strategies have improved in the years since,” Brendan says.
Every year, The Taxback Group employees take part in a survey based on a trust index and a culture audit. “The result of this has been the benchmark for gauging improvements in employee empowerment and engagement,” Brendan reveals.
“We also redeveloped our core values to assign meaning to everything we do and brought new additions to our culture. Our engagement strategy helped us open the line of communication between staff and management and helped us to become an inclusive and proactive company.”
Having an outside organisation to partner with has been a very fruitful experience for The Taxback Group, and one Brendan recommends highly: “Since we partnered with Great Place to Work, it has had a really positive impact on our trust, communication and engagement levels.”
Health and Wellbeing
Continuing to improve the care and benefits for employees, The Taxback Group have recently developed and implemented a comprehensive Health & Wellness program. “We provide health checks, advice from onsite healthcare professionals and monthly wellness videos,” explains Brendan. “We also run an annual Health and Wellbeing week, which has received extremely positive feedback to date.”
In addition, contributions to health insurance are backed up with a Sports & Social initiative and healthy food options including fruit and fruit juices are offered.
To ensure that employees are actively engaging with initiatives, and the messages are being transmitted effectively, they have also taken on board a specialist Employee Engagement Officer, who, Brendan says, will “focus on driving our employee engagement initiatives forward.”
A diverse workforce
“At The Taxback Group we pride ourselves on a diverse and inclusive workforce, with 26 different nationalities working across all our office locations, ” Brendan reveals.
In their line of work, making sure that global business runs smoothly an international workforce is crucial to make it happen.
“We understand that a diverse workforce helps us establish that competitive edge. We employ workers with cultural and language skills that lead to a greater reach for the business.”
The Employee Experience Award sponsored by Irish Life will be held 4th October and category winners will be announced soon after.
