New Possible’s British HR Awards sets out to discover and celebrate the organisations that are truly passionate about delivering a world-class people experience.
In our new Sharing Success series, we interview British HR Awards 2024 Winners to shine a light on the inspiring projects that are improving workplaces across the UK and beyond. In this article we chat with Sue Lilley, HR Manager at Shorefield Holidays, who were Winners of both the ‘Employee Wellness Initiative of the Year’ and ‘Hospitality & Leisure Company of the Year’ categories.
Introducing Sue Lilley and Shorefield Holidays
Sue Lilley has been an employee at Shorefield Holidays for almost 38 years. Sue began her career in 1986 in the Housekeeping department, and then held various positions before transitioning to HR Manager in 2008.
Founded in 1958, Shorefield Holidays remains a family-owned business, offering holiday accommodations that cater to all budgets - from caravans and lodges to luxury houses with hot tubs and decks. Situated in locations including Dorset, Hampshire and the New Forest, their properties provide an ideal setting to explore the stunning coastlines and nearby New Forest National Park.
A holistic approach to employee wellbeing
Shorefield Holidays has developed a holistic approach to supporting employee wellbeing, including the launch of financial, physical, mental and social wellbeing initiatives.
Sue commented: "Hospitality is generally an industry that attracts younger workers, who need that extra bit of cash as students, and very few realise that our industry (Holiday Parks) offers much more than F&B roles. We have a multitude of careers to offer as we are very self-sufficient, leading to a very diverse workforce, age-wise. We knew we had to enhance our offerings to retain our team, and we constantly review other companies' offerings. We decided to ask the team what benefits they felt would enhance our offering, via our employee survey and at our annual team meeting. We already provided everyone with a membership for our onsite gyms and pools, but felt we needed to offer much more.”
“Small wins included menopause meetings, and having suffered pretty badly myself, I was very eager to assist others, which the company understood and supported.”
“HR Huddles, to encourage the team to communicate freely, and Medicash also proved to be a great tool, so we expanded the offering to all employees from 4 weeks of service and included those with seasonal contracts of 8 months or more. We also decided to pay the taxable benefit for all as well, making it completely free to the team."
Shorefield Holidays also shared how they supported financial wellbeing by giving a cost-of-living raise to all employees, alongside working with external partners to offer pension and mortgage reviews.
To further promote health and wellbeing, they also introduced initiatives like the ‘My PT Hub’ app, which lets employees join in physical activities.
Additionally, recognising the importance of social wellbeing, Shorefield Holidays encourages team bonding by allocating budgets for team-building activities.
Judges commented on a 'great submission' by a company that 'clearly cares for its colleagues with their wellbeing being at the heart of their offering'.
Sunny side up: A 12% improvement in retention
By investing in employee wellbeing, Shorefield Holidays managed to lower their employee turnover by 12% in one year (from 40% to 28%), compared to an industry average of 30%+.
Employee survey scores also improved, with 89%+ satisfaction across all questions.
When asked what initiatives made the most difference, Sue said “Two things, and I might be biased on the first! But I think the menopause meetings have been very helpful. The group is not big, but the fact that we give them the time to attend and share their worries and tips, and also what clothing material is a problem etc, so we changed the material of the uniform! The other is Medicash and the many things it covers, including the counselling service it provides. This has been a great source of support for many of the team, who are also eager to recommend it to others if needed.”
These results echo New Possible’s own research, which found that employees with higher levels of wellbeing are more likely to recommend their workplace.
What other advice would Sue Lilley give to organisations that might want to implement similar initiatives?
“Listen to your team. Even though we can’t satisfy everyone, listening and acting on even the smallest thing is a huge win. Benefits are not cheap to implement, and while we wish we could do more, we have to balance the costs. Setting up groups within the company is a great way to reach out to the team, and relatively inexpensive too.”
About New Possible
New Possible is the people insight platform that’s committed to your success. We work across a range of sectors to provide clear, actionable, and benchmarkable insights across the employee lifecycle. Our NP360 survey helps leaders gain meaningful insight into the broader people experience, measuring 7 themes, including satisfaction, culture, and wellbeing.
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