Cruiseabout has sailed to a top spot in the annual Great Place to Work survey with a record 94 per cent employee satisfaction score – the highest of any business across Flight Centre Travel Group and well above the national benchmark. Is it something in the water?
The company culture result capped off a busy six-week period for the FCTG leisure brand, including two consecutive leadership conferences held on cruise ships.
The Team Leader conference brought the national leadership group together aboard Royal Caribbean’s Voyager of the Seas, followed by the Assistant Team Leader conference on Crown Princess with Princess Cruises.
FCTG’s specialist cruise travel agency relaunched in 2023 and now numbers more than 80 employees across its head office team and eight retail stores.
Cruiseabout also recently revived its Business Ownership Scheme (BOS), allowing eligible team leaders to buy in as store owners.
Cruiseabout Head of Operations Kelly Neri said the back-to-back conference format captured where the brand is headed and its current recruitment drive for the next generation of cruise professionals to lead new stores in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, as well as its new home-based sales team.
“Each year, these conferences grow. We have amazing people in Cruiseabout and time together as a group is something I am always grateful for,” she said.
Cruiseabout General Manager Brad Kennedy said there’s a simple philosophy behind the brand’s record-breaking culture score: look after your people the way you want them to look after your customers.
“You can’t fake a 94 per cent culture score. It’s the result of deliberately building something people genuinely want to be part of and then backing that up with experiences that bring the team together and remind everyone why they do what they do,” he said.
“Holding our conferences at sea might sound a bit gimmicky, but it’s actually purposeful. Our people sell the experience of cruising every single day. Living it together, learning together and connecting on board is exactly how we stay sharp and stay close to the goal.
“There is a lot of opportunity in this brand to grow and be successful. We are building something special and we want the right people to help us steer that ship,” Kennedy said.
