More and more Britons are using property equity to buy a dream home in the sun. Foreign Currency Direct, a Buckinghamshire-based independent broker, helps them to exchange pounds into euros or other currencies and transfer sums abroad.

Half of the 56 employees earn more than £45,000 a year (all of the dealers, directors and officers are men), but the company gets the second-highest positive score for the lack of stress-related symptoms from the job, an impressive 93%. People say work doesn’t interfere with responsibilities at home either, with an 82% positive score for this question.

The business comes in first for staff saying that their team is fun to work with (96%) and second for giving them a buzz (89%). Its employees say they haven’t got much they would change about the organisation either (a top 10 positive score of 58%).

Everyone has performance-related pay and a handful have profit-related pay (with £2.7m in pretax profits last year to share). People appear happy with their pay and benefits (83%).

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Turning up the Heat pays off

Strong training and a sense that work is to be enjoyed add up to Heat powering past its rivals into top spot this year

Background

• Hats off to great leadership

• Getting the message across loud and clear

• Fly high with the X Factor

• Why it pays to know what you’re doing

Background

• Charity wins top small company award

• Special awards for best practice

• Rules of engagement

• 100 Best SME's to work for 2008

Multimedia

• Best Small Companies to Work For 2008

• Highlights from the awards ceremony

With an average age of 29, there is no pension scheme. Stephen Hughes, strategic planner, explains: “We don’t expect people to be doing this job forever, and they prefer to put their money into houses and property.”

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