Today, The Perfume Shop is celebrating coming 38th in The Times Top 100 Best Companies To Work For for the second year in a row as one of a small number of retailers that made the top 50 in the 2013 survey.
The supplement, published Sunday 3rd March, sees The Perfume Shop achieve Top 20 high rankings in a number of areas including My Team (16th), Wellbeing (17th) and My Manager (20th).
With the majority of the workforce (nine out of 10) being female and with many employees having family responsibilities, The Perfume Shop offers staff an array of flexible benefits including staggered working hours and keep in touch days for workers on maternity leave. Some 88% of employees come back from maternity leave with 64% of requests for flexible working hours being honoured. Supporting working mothers is a key attribute with employees confirming they do not spend too much time working – The Perfume Shop netted a score of 65% positive, a top ten ranking exceeded by only nine other companies on the list.
The Perfume Shop has been trading since 1992 and continues to grow year-on-year with over 250 stores nationwide. However, the business’ new accolade highlighted that it hasn’t forgotten its roots with staff agreeing there is a strong sense of family and 81% of staff saying that people go out of their way to help each other.
The business’ foundation is based on a strong belief in its people and its success is testament to its on-going staff development and training schemes. There are a number of success stories, including Managing Director Jo Walker who worked from shop floor to head office with the support of the business. This is reflected in the staff’s appreciation of The Perfume Shop’s down-to-earth attitude with 79% of employees saying they had a great deal of faith in her, which is a top 20 ranking.
The other area that The Perfume Shop was praised for was its process of appraisals and reviews with 81% of staff feeling that their job roles and what was expected of them was clear and concise. Mentoring and staff support scores highly with 80% of staff agreeing that their managers provide them with resources to do their job effectively.
Michelle Fellows, HR Director at The Perfume Shop commented, “Securing a place in The Times Top 100 for a second year running is a fantastic accolade for the business and is a great representation of the family culture within the business. We are very proud of our teams, and their commitment and passion not only to the business but also to their customers. This achievement provides us with the perfect platform on which to build on our successes and we look forward to continuing to invest in our staff and their own personal development.”
