- A Welsh recruitment group is taking all its staff on a four-day vacation to Spain.
- It's a reward for their hard work during the pandemic, CEO Dale Williams told Insider.
- New starters are also invited on the trip, which will cost more than $135,000.
Amid the "great resignation," CEOs are going to great lengths to show appreciation to their employees but few are likely to have gone as far as Dale Williams, Group CEO of The Recolution Group.
He's taking his entire workforce of recruiters on a four-day, all-expenses-paid vacation to Spain.
In April, 55 staff from the recruitment company Yolk Recruitment will go to Tenerife. A few weeks later, 15 staff from another company in the group, Conexus ERP will spend four days in Barcelona. Williams expects the trip to cost more than £100,000 ($135,653).
It's a reward for the hard work during a "tough Pandemic" and to show that the company was not "taking people for granted," Williams, who co-founded the Welsh group 14 years ago, told Insider.
When the recruitment market dried up at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic the group had to temporarily furlough some staff, although Williams said no one was made redundant. Like many others, the staff also had to adapt to remote working.
The company set an objective in January 2020 that if it achieved a good set of results it would look to organize something that enabled the whole company to celebrate, Williams said.
New starters who joined in January and February are also invited to join.
Yolk's staff will stay at the H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel in Playa de La Enramada, in the Canary Islands. There will be some organized activities, but they'll also get their own time to relax, Williams said.
"We don't want to force it down people's throats," he added.
The trip is not mandatory but the fact there had been a 99% uptake on it, which shows that "this is what people want," Williams said.
Since making the announcement on LinkedIn, Yolk's trip has garnered attention from multiple media outlets.
Williams, however, said that the fact that organizing a trip like this is not unique for the company, as it has done so before. The difference this time is that everyone is going.
"No one's bigger than the team. Everybody contributed to success. So you know, when we set ourselves goals and things that we want to achieve as a company, it's a team effort," Williams said.
He won't be going on both trips himself; he's married and wants to spend time with his two kids, so will join Conexus staff in April, while his cofounder Duncan Powell will go to Tenerife.
Some may question whether business logic in spending so much money when the economy is so uncertain but other bosses that take staff on breaks say that it is well worth the investment.
Danielle Jones, the owner Abenaki Trail Restaurant and Pub, told Insider's Grace Dean that despite a labor shortage, she hasn't been affected. Something she credits in part to the frequent trips she funds for colleagues.
With concerns over post-pandemic burnout, some companies are rethinking their approach to employee leave, and in some cases actively encouraging them to take time off. Last year Nike, and Bumble closed their office for a week to give workers time to recharge for example.
Pinterest and others gave workers additional days off.
For Williams, it's about ensuring that work doesn't add an additional burden to people's lives.
"We're aware that there are external pressures as well in terms of market volatility, utility prices, inflation, that are impacting people's lives outside of work," he added. "So, we want work to be a place that people want to come to, not a place that people feel they have to go to."