Alfa Leisureplex Group

‘Our Journey’ to the Top with Alfa Leisureplex Group

Alfa Leisureplex Group is a leading coach holiday provider to destinations throughout the UK and Europe; the company also has a chain of hotels across the UK to offer customers relaxing seaside breaks.

The challenge:

The family-owned company had gone from strength-to-strength, owning just one hotel in Llandudno in 1984, to 21 hotels and a tour operation in the UK and Europe in 1995. The family were looking to retire and sold 75% of the business to an employee owned trust as part of its succession plan.

A transition to employee ownership began; the company knew that a hardworking employee engagement plan would be at the heart of its continued success.

What did we do?

In 2016 we started work with Alfa to support their employee engagement strategy. The HR team had run an employee engagement survey in 2015, the results were mixed, and they were keen to add anonymity to the research process.

We met with the team and developed a bespoke employee engagement survey to really understand the hearts and minds of their employees. Staff had been through a period of change, which can be unsettling, but employee ownership offered so many opportunities it was key to get to grips with the company’s strengths and weaknesses.

Our employee engagement surveys gave Alfa the data to create action plans to move their organisation forward. The data also proved the team were on track to boost employee engagement and profitability.

Each year we’ve created fresh surveys to meet their needs and analysed the results. We’ve also cut the data to reveal results at a hotel or team level. We’ve helped Alfa on their journey, ensuring they know what they do well, plus noting areas for improvement.

Employee engagement is integral to business success. To boost buy-in from employees we helped Alfa create a ‘Our Journey’ brand, which clearly reflected the business strategy.

Results:

• Employee engagement has soared from 64% to 81%!
• Customer satisfaction rate 91%
• Employee turnover fallen by 17%
• Alfa has also recorded its best financial performance ever with sales up 15% and profits up 18%.
• Alfa won Employee Owned Rising star of the Year 2018 at the UK Employee Ownership Awards.