CREATED 14 YEARS ago following a £1 bet between friends, Appliances Online (now ao.com) has grown into the UK's largest online kitchen-appliance retailer, supplying more than 4.5m customers, and household names such as B&Q, Boots and House of Fraser. Employees at the firm, which saw staff numbers rise by almost 60% in just one year, are more excited about where the organisation is heading and have more fun with their colleagues than workers at all but one other company on the list, winning positive scores of 92% and 90% respectively. The philosophy at ao.com is: “If you love what you do, you'll keep doing it the very best way you can.” So the firm, which runs three sites in the northwest, throws everything but the kitchen sink at ensuring the 688 staff feel happy. In addition to gratis crisps and chocolate, £2-a-month gym membership at the local leisure centre and staff discounts, there is a dedicated team organising a calendar of free staff events, from extravagant Christmas parties to summer barbecues. Ao.com will also stump up half the cost of any social activity, from guitar lessons to scuba-diving, as long as it develops workers' skills and is taken up by more than four people. Employees, who have access to courses on subjects from confidence to computer skills, love their job (85%). People go out of their way to help each other (86%, the second-highest score) and chief executive and founder, John Roberts, in whom they have a great deal of faith (90%, also ranking second) runs the business on sound moral principles (88%). Roberts has recently set up a Duke of Edinburgh Awards programme for young stars of the business, enabling them to develop their own skills while giving back to the local community. The firm, based in Horwich, Lancashire, has a strong social conscience (90%) and encourages charitable activities (95%, the highest score) from monthly dress-down weeks to voluntary work, which staff are given two paid days off a year to do. Last year ao.com donated £100,000 to support a 3,000-mile sponsored row across the Atlantic involving a member of staff. Job prospects are good, with 95% of senior managers promoted from within, and employees, 70% of whom earn £25,000 or less a year, are happy with their pay and benefits (78%). www.appliancesonline.co.uk
