Its a TOTAL joy

A stimulating career for its employees and a great working environment have seen Watford-based TOTAL UK become the only oil company to rank in The Sunday Times Top 100 Companies to Work For list, achieving 82nd in this years survey.

Employees rated their own company as excellent in the areas of personal growth and a positive working environment. 71% of TOTALís employees cited they felt stimulated at work, which was a top 50 score, and 77% felt they could make a real contribution to the success of the company. This positive employee morale is reflected in its very low turnover of staff - less than 8% last year.

TOTAL, an Investors in People organisation, was commended for its focus on personal development - all 27 senior managers and directors appointed last year were internal candidates. Employees are encouraged to develop their personal skills with Educational Assistance, as well as learning a language. TOTAL is also committed to the local community, and employees are entitled to take two days a year at full pay to work as a volunteer on community causes, an example being TOTAL employees spending time at the Watford Football Club Learning Centre.

An open working culture is evident across the company, and a strong team spirit is highly valued, helped by TOTALís commitment to sports and social activities - evident by 94% of employees indicating that they laughed a lot with people in their team.

This positive sentiment is also echoed in more than two thirds of employees believing that TOTAL works to protect the environment, a score good enough to rank the company in the top 25 among the 100 best companies.

Aidan Dwan, Director of Human Resources, was delighted at the result: We recognise that itís vitally important for our employees to be happy and motivated at work, and are delighted with our placing in The Sunday Times list. In the future we hope to enter the many other business areas within the TOTAL Group in the UK.