Best Places to Work 2014 – acute trust

  • Full time permanent staff: 1,423
  • Voluntary staff turnover: 11 per cent
  • Exec team male/female ratio: 71 per cent male/29 per cent female
  • Programme to recruit ethnic diverse staff: Yes

Moorfields, based in London, is one of the world’s leading eye hospitals in clinical care, research, and education.

Best places to work top 10 star

The trust manages three commercial divisions: Moorfields Private, Moorfields Pharmaceuticals and Moorfields Eye Hospital Dubai. There is a sense of pride among its workers as 92 per cent would recommend the care delivered by the trust to friends and family.

“We’re a friendly organisation”, says Tracy Luckett, Moorfields director of nursing and allied health professionals. “We try to take an exploratory view of how we provide service and meet the individual needs of our staff.” Opportunities to visit other ophthalmic units in the UK and abroad are offered to staff across the board. In other institutions, “most junior staff don’t really get the opportunity to do that,” says Ms Luckett.

Although staff work across various locations in London, 87 per cent of employees know who their senior managers are.

Chief executive John Pelly provides monthly briefings across Moorfields’ 22 sites and is on hand to answer any staff questions. Most employees say they are free to choose their working methods, and feel able to make suggestions in their team.

“We retain our staff and I think that’s about meeting the needs of individual staff members and working with them as their work life changes,” says Ms Luckett.

Staff benefits include an employee assistance scheme that offers confidential counselling and a benevolent fund for those experiencing financial difficulties.