Home Travel News

Student Flights staff get unlimited annual leave. Could Flight Centre employees get it next?

Student Flights is taking a page out of Richard Branson's book on 'keeping your employees happy' by giving its staff access to unlimited annual leave.

Student Flights is taking a page out of Richard Branson’s book on ‘keeping your employees happy’ by giving its staff access to unlimited annual leave.

The announcement was made today in a bid to promote work-life balance and the brand’s ‘Never Stop Travelling’ mantra.

‘Unlimited annual leave’ is being rolled out Australia-wide (as this is typed), ahead of a possible wider launch within parent company the Flight Centre Travel Group.

89692-jaw-drop-gif-mtv-jersey-shore-3VXr

In order to qualify for the unlimited annual leave days per year, consultants will need to meet the agreed commission average over the prior six months.

If they have used their entitled days of annual leave they can go into negative annual leave balance with no cap on that negative balance.  The negative balance will be wiped back to zero at the anniversary of the consultant’s start date.

According to Student Flights General Manager, Sean Martin, there’s a “world of possibilities for our people” under the program and he hopes it will make employees feel rewarded and increase productivity.

“This program enables our staff to never stop travelling, to enhance their passion and product knowledge which can then be passed on to the customer so they have all the information needed for the best holiday possible.”

Sean Martin, Student Flights General Manager

“It is also about encouraging work-life balance while giving our consultants ownership and responsibility and developing a high-trust relationship with staff.”

He continued, saying that “a Student Flights travel consultant could, for example, take off from Perth to  Bali for a long weekend every week or spend six weeks trekking through South East Asia or South America, before returning to work to pass on the benefits of his or her recent travel experiences.

“We encourage our team to get out and see as much of the world as they can so they can enrich their own lives and give customers the lowdown on what it’s really like out there.”

Meanwhile, everyone else in the industry after this announcement will be like…

what-about-me-bff-jealous

Do you think more companies need to adopt unlimited annual leave?