THE FUTURE IS bright at Orange and employees agree that the present is pretty good as well. The key brand of the France Telecom Group, Orange provides internet, television and mobile services to 123m customers through its 12,816 workers, who are very much engaged. Employees have fun with their colleagues, are happy with the balance between work and home, as well as pay and benefits, and are excited about where Orange is going, winning it positive scores of 76%, 64%, 58% and 69% in our staff survey. The company keeps its workforce, which is spread over 389 different sites, up-to-date through its award-winning monthly newspaper Orange News and recently broadened celebrations to include one-year anniversaries. It launched baby boxes for new parents and enables staff who have been with the firm for six months to take a day off to volunteer for a local charity. Employees are involved in every aspect of Orange's brand partnerships, from free cinema tickets every Wednesday to working at the Glastonbury festival charging up thousands of phones. Orange values their opinions, so when it canvassed staff on whether to sponsor Big Brother and 60% said no, it responded accordingly. The London-based firm spent more than £1.5m on fun last year. Employees get two extra days' leave after five years' service, plus the right to request a sabbatical. Managers also thank people for doing a good job (71%). While our survey reveals that people think some departments don't work well with each other (a positive score of just 32%, the lowest on this question), their own teams go out of their way to be helpful (76%) and care about each other (74%). There are bonuses on top of basic salary, which for customer service representatives is about £15,500, and the company puts between 4% and 12% of pay, depending on age, into a contributory pension. Employees report low stress levels, with health not suffering because of work (both 70%). Staff are proud to work for Orange (71%) and care about providing a great service (92%). www.orange.co.uk
