SIZE MATTERS AT Britain's Best Big Company to Work For, TGI Friday's. There is no scrimping on portions or personalities at the casual dining restaurants where high spirits are always on the menu. Fun-loving team members get generous helpings of job satisfaction while guests demolish servings of loaded potato skins and cocktails. Friday's — as those in the know affectionately call the 66-strong-chain —has its own vernacular. The word staff is outlawed, its use punishable by forfeit at training sessions. Only “family” or “team members” work for the group. The person carrying Jack Daniel's-glazed sesame chicken strips to the table is not a waiter or a waitress but a “dub-dub”, who, quite possibly, is “on-the-fly” — which means doing it superfast. The chain started life as a Manhattan singles bar in 1965, arriving on British shores 20 years later where it swiftly gained popularity. By 2008 when chief executive Karen Forrester took the helm, however, the brand needed reinvigorating. Her strategy was to put TGI's people at the heart of the corporate revamp, as she explains: “We sell experience to our guests, an emotional connection, and we can only do that through people. The food, the drinks, the environment are all ancillary to that.” The recruitment process ensures big personalities shine. Jobs are won at “auditions” instead of interviews, where applicants do a little party piece such as play an instrument. “You recognise a Friday's person instantly,” according to Forrester. Emma Kerslake-Smith, general manager of TGI Friday's in Poole, Dorset, says Friday's people always hit it off. “We all think the same things, we all work in the same way. It doesn't matter who you're with or whether you've met them before you just kind of click with them straight away,” says the forensic science graduate who started as a part-time dub-dub while at university. Kerslake-Smith met her husband when they both worked at TGI Friday's, and he is now manager of the Southampton restaurant. Although she graduated with a first, she was “drawn in” to the Friday's culture, she says. She won regional general manager of the year 2014. TGI Friday's receives three unbeaten positive scores for employees feeling a strong sense of family (82%) in fun (86%) teams that they get a buzz out of working with (77%). The chain is expanding apace and opened six new restaurants — known as “stores” inhouse — last year, and re-opened another. “Crew on view” open kitchens are part of the new-look restaurants. Seven new sites are opening this year, 10 planned for 2016. New teams are trained by “new store opening” — NSO — coaches, who are current employees. NSO coach Dan Root, kitchen shift leader at the Lakeside, Thurrock, branch, trained new starters at launches in Norwich, Braintree, Manchester, Liverpool and Gloucester last year, working at each for five weeks. “I get a real buzz out of training a whole brand new team from day one,” he says of the recruits with no kitchen experience, who by the final week have become competent line chefs. A job at TGI Friday's is good for personal growth, say employees (80%), and they love working for the chain (79%) — both unbeaten scores. www.tgifridays.co.uk