Darlington Building Society has been named as an outstanding employer to work for, maintaining its 2 Star Best Companies accreditation, for the second year in a row.
In keeping with the ‘two for two’ theme, the Society has given all employees two ‘birthday holidays’ to celebrate in their success.
Best Companies benchmarks employee engagement, so its results are based on what staff feel about their employers. Results are extracted from Best Companies’ independent annual staff survey.
A 2 Star accreditation is given to “outstanding organisations”. Best Companies explains that: “Achieving a 2 Star accreditation takes a BCI score of at least 696.5, made possible only through an ‘outstanding’ commitment to workplace engagement.
In addition, Best Companies recognised Darlington Building Society once again as:
- One of the Top 100 UK mid-sized companies to work for.
- One of the Top 30 Best Financial Services companies to work for in the UK
- One of the Top 30 Best North-East companies to work
Andrew Craddock (pictured), chief executive, said: “This is a fantastic achievement for Darlington Building Society. To be recognised as an outstanding place to work, for the second year running, feels that much more meaningful when the results stem from staff feedback.
“We have given our staff an additional holiday to be used around their birthday, totalling two ‘birthday holidays’, in addition to their standard allowance. It is one way we want to show our appreciation for making the Society what it is.
“At Darlington Building Society we truly value our staff. We strive to provide the most productive working environment for staff to thrive in personally and professionally.
“We offer fully flexible working. We pay at least the Living Wage, including to staff aged under 18. Staff pensions receive an 8% employer contribution. We nurture and ‘grow our own’ talent by investing in training and development. We rebalanced our branch opening hours and shift patterns so that branch staff can achieve their ideal work-life balance.
“Often, we do all of this silently. For us it’s business as usual. However, with such a fantastic accolade to share, now is the time to highlight some of the reasons our staff think make Darlington Building Society such a special place to be a part of.”
