Company perks a retention factor.

Value-added benefits for staff at Travelodge Hotel Airlane in Thunder Bay are not just about employee prescription drug cards, they are also about providing help during an employee's entire lifecycle.

The Airlane provides discounts for employees to have their weddings at the hotel. Also, add in substantial employee discounts at all 650 hotels and resorts owned by the company in North America.

"These are the benefits that are easy to forget if you work here," says Tom Simpson, the hotel's general manager.

Employees, Simpson says, are also covered through a pension plan that management pays into. Not taking any chances, Airlane wants to retain its best employees and pays into the Retired Savings Plan (RSP) for all of them.

"Our employees are our most prized assets-from CEO down to the frontline staff to everyone," he says.

Treating staff right, he says, should not just stop at discounts, however. Having healthy employees is also a priority.

The discounts, say management, also extend to hotel fitness centres and spas.

The response to their benefits package, he says, has been very positive. The company is also looking into establishing a profit-sharing plan and is running pilot projects at the present time. Although Simpson says that staff turnover is an issue among many of the student workers who return in the fall, overall, frontline desk staff and housekeeping staff have been very committed to the company.

Older employees, many of whom have given between 15 and 20 years of their lives to Travelodge Hotel Airlane, are very appreciative of the ongoing training program the company extends to them. Front-desk staff is able to take advantage of courses in areas like security and budget-keeping.

www.travelodge-airlane.com/

BY JOSEPH QUESNEL

Northern Ontario Business