FCM Travel Solutions, a subsidiary of the Flight Centre Travel Group, has for the first time achieved Level 1 BEE rating.
The company has also paid out R650 000 to black female employees as part of the Employee Share Scheme, which owns 30% of FCM Travel Solutions.
“Following very successful two years for FCM, we were able to distribute R650 000 among 17 employees who have worked for the company for at least three years and are part of the group’s Employee Share Scheme. At the same time, the company is also pleased to announce that we have achieved a Level 1 BEE rating,” says Nicole Adonis, FCM Travel Solutions South Africa General Manager.
By 2022, FCM expects there will be more than 50 senior long-serving employees participating in the shareholder scheme, Adonis adds. “BEE and transformation go hand in hand with our founding principles of fairness, egalitarianism and unity. As our brand grows, members of this programme will derive direct benefits, which in turn will translate into benefits for our customers.”
Flight Centre Travel Group Managing Director, Middle East and Africa, Andrew Stark, says a large number of employees will benefit. “As visionaries in the travel industry, we want to truly live up to the idea of broad-based black economic empowerment,” he adds.
FCM Senior Account Manager Lynette Msomi, a beneficiary of the trust, says the transformation at FCM since she started working at the company in 2005 has been noticeable.
“When I first joined the Flight Centre Travel Group, I was one of just three black people in the company… I decided to leave but after two years, I came back to find a huge difference. Not only were there more black employees but we were also being taken seriously,” she says.
Msomi says one of the signs that shows the change in culture of the business is the share scheme. “It speaks to a company which is finally taking notice of the country it is trading in. It’s awesome and makes it exciting to be able to work in this space.”
FCM Team Leader in Sandton, Rategang Moroke, says, for her, the share scheme means having a say and influencing the running and results of the business. “It’s a sense of ownership and empowerment,” she maintains.