Holiday parks earn top marks from employees

Staff at two Lancashire-based holiday parks have given their employers, Parkdean, top marks in a recent survey.

Ocean Edge in Heysham and Todber Valley in Clitheroe received top marks for Service and Quality Focus, Work and Life Blend, Teamwork and Ownership, and Management in the 2023 Parkdean Resorts People Engagement Survey.

The holiday park operator employs 155 people at the two parks in peak season. In the survey, 100 per cent of employees at Ocean Edge agreed with the statements ‘We hold ourselves and our team members accountable for results’, ‘My manager genuinely cares about my wellbeing’, and ‘My manager is a great role model for employees’.

In addition, 100 per cent of employees at Todber Valley agreed with the statements ‘I am able to arrange time out from work when I need to’, and ‘We hold ourselves and our team members accountable for results’.

In total, more than 5,500 full-time Parkdean Resorts employees completed the survey, with favourable engagement standing at 81 per cent, up 3 points on 2022’s results, and 16 points higher than the industry average for the hospitality sector.

Lisa Charles-Jones, HR director at Parkdean Resorts, said: “We want to create the right working environment to grow a stable workforce, and these encouraging results echo the overall increase in engagement across the business.

"We can’t deliver brilliant experiences for our guests without having an engaged team, so this survey is hugely important to help us understand how our teams are feeling, and what we need to work on in the future.”

Parkdean Resorts also recently announced a partnership with The Prince’s Trust, as part of its commitment to embrace younger generations. Parks will join the ‘Get Hired’ scheme to help young people who are struggling to find the right job opportunities, and will participate in the Trust’s “Get Into” programme by offering 2 to 4-week schemes which give young people an insight into the world of work and give them direct work experience within an industry.