The pandemic has forced us to reconsider many things about how, where and when we work. We’ve seen the boundaries between our personal and professional lives blur in ways we never thought possible. We have been given the opportunity to see our colleagues in a much more rounded, human way. Our ways of working are progressive and innovative, offering our ground teams the freedom to make informed decisions about how they want to work, collaborate, and learn. Meeting their needs, but equally the needs of our colleagues, customers, and company. It is built on a foundation of trust, flexibility and empowerment.
We have moved away from a highly detailed policy. Instead, we have created six clear concise principles, which recognise the diverse type of roles we have. Our people are empowered to test and learn in how we work, embracing that we all have different work life considerations and varying times when our energy is highest. We want to look at work as an activity, not a place, and with the focus on outcomes and performance, not location.
It is testament to the commitment and support of our people, our customers, our partners and our shareholders that Virgin Atlantic ended 2021 in a position to make a full recovery from the pandemic.
Our people have shown resolute commitment to ensuring survival. Our people’s belief in in our future is humbling.
2022 marked the beginning of our four-year plan, Velocityx, powered by the twin engines of our vision to become the most loved travel company and sustainably profitable.
Building on the structural transformation of Virgin Atlantic, combined with a laser sharp focus on our mission to get back to our very best for our people and customers.
Working closely with our ‘Belonging’ networks to help shape our policies and processes to ensure they support all of our people to be themselves at work.
Such policies we have introduced with the help of our networks includes our tattoo policy, make-up policy and trans-inclusion policy.
As a result, our colleagues feel that they can be their true selves at work, expressing a strong sense of belonging and inclusion which is highlighted throughout our happiness survey outcomes.
We provide our people with a one-stop shop for their learning needs via our new Learning Locker digital platform, launched in May 2022. This brings together all the regulatory compliance training that our colleagues need to do, together with any operational, job related or personal & professional development into one place. This was designed with our people in mind, ensuring it’s accessible at any time, any place and anywhere in the world – which recognises the global nature of our company, and acknowledges differing learning styles for our people. Learning can be accessed in micro chunks, at the point of need to support skills retention and reduce knowledge fade. All of this is co-created, with representatives from across Virgin Atlantic, our ‘People Product Champions’.
Our four year plan, Velocityx, will deliver amazing things. It will accelerate us to our blazing best, bringing results through experiences and partnership. But being part of Virgin Atlantic means more than just results. It is about how we get them, and the values we place at the core of our Velocityx journey will help us thread love through every move we make. Our image we have shared in the gallery on our Values talks more to how we Think Red, Make Friends and show that we can Be Amazing, always.
Through our Passport to Change community Programme we aim to inspire and empower young people from all corners of society to engage with STEM and build careers for the future. We’re proud to see many of our own employees get involved, acting as mentors, role-models, and change-makers.
We’re excited to launch our refreshed Springboard women’s development programme, to support our women to feel at their best at home and in the workplace.
Through our conscious inclusion sessions, we aim to equip our leaders and hiring managers with a foundational level of conscious inclusion and the skills to support diverse teams.
Our CEO, Shai Weiss, acts as our moral compass, always putting our people at the heart of leadership team decision making. He recognises our people are what sets us apart. In the pandemic, he communicated with transparency, no matter how hard the topic, and that two way communication is encouraged and fostered today. During this time, we were forced to make the toughest of decisions that impacted our people – Shai’s laser focus was not only on what we had to do, but how we chose to do it. It was always through the lens of our people, our customers and with care, kindness and humility.
Our Staff travel benefits are the most generous in the travel industry providing an opportunity for our people to experience our product and travel the world.
We also provide a wide range of benefits that our people can choose from within our dedicated benefits platform, providing them with the opportunity to individualise and tailor what is most important to them.
The pandemic hit the aviation industry in a unique way – our people who did fly during this time needed to wear full PPE over their uniforms to protect themselves and our customers. We supported our teams across the organisation with access to the furlough scheme, with regular wellbeing updates and honest & transparent communications.
In recognition that the company had changed so significantly when people returned from furlough or after periods way, we put our ‘Reconnect’ learning materials in place to help them navigate the new Virgin Atlantic. For our ground colleagues, we now work in a hybrid way, recognising that work is an activity, not a place – this was underpinned by principles of trust, flexibility and empowerment.
Virgin Atlantic was founded by entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson in 1984, with innovation and amazing customer service at its core.
Our Purpose is to ensure everyone can take on the world. Our Vision is to be the most loved travel company.
By harnessing the power of our people, our purpose and our brand, we will deliver most loved journeys for our customers, through thoughtful experiences that feel brilliantly different at every opportunity.
To find out more about our story, and what makes us who we are, check out our website: https://corporate.virginatlantic.com/gb/en/our-story.html
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Aviation & Aerospace
Shai Weiss
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