Staff at telecoms firm O2 feel the company has answered the call when it comes to providing a good place to work.

Last June, to celebrate the opening of the O2 Arena (the revamped former Millennium Dome in London), the firm took all its employees and their guests for a night out there.

The company gets its best overall scores for the fair deal that staff receive (a positive total of 64%, ranking third). Although more than a third of the 12,763 employees earn between £15,000 and £25,000 a year, people are happy with their pay and benefits (70%) and feel fairly paid (64%).

The firm, based in Slough, offers holiday from 23 to 32.5 days a year, depending mostly on rank and length of service (with some days given as ad hoc rewards), and maternity leave is an excellent 14 weeks at full pay, six at 90%, 25 at the government minimum and 13 unpaid. Everyone has performance-related pay, life assurance and access to subsidised gym membership, dental insurance, critical illness cover, concierge services and company discounts on their mobile phone and broadband services (for friends and family too).

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One in 10 staff have share options and about a third have private healthcare. There is a contributory pension scheme roughly matching employee investments of about 7% of salary.

Appropriately for an organisation that has the chemical name of oxygen, O2 is working to protect the environment (69%, ranking fifth), with initiatives such as a Sim card-only “energy saver” option that gives customers £100 in free airtime instead of a new phone, or £95 and a donation to the O2 energy saver fund.

There is an online portal, Vielife, to help staff manage their sleep, stress, diet and exercise regime, with tools to help them assess their lifestyle and articles offering suggestions.

Staff feel a strong sense of family in their teams (73%) and have fun with them (80%). Sales teams have their own names to reflect their personalities and there are trips out for lunch or dinner as well as formal team-building exercises.

Every three months, the two leaders of the business, Ronan Dunne, chief executive, and Matthew Key, chairman, host open-house updates at all of the main sites about the business. They take questions, and films of the events go on the intranet. Staff are excited about where the company is going and believe they can make a valuable contribution to its success (both 77%, ranking second and third respectively).

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