As a leader in Pay TV, Sky has over 29,000 employees across the UK and Ireland. They’re consistently ranked as one of the UK’s best employers to work for. Part of this is the result of their generous benefits package. Let’s take a look at the type of perks Sky employees get.
Pension
Sky operate a large pension plan and offers a competitive employer contribution.
The regular plan requires the employees to pay just 3% of their salary into their pension. In return, Sky will contribute 6%.
However, Sky will match additional payments up to 3%. For example, if you choose to contribute an extra 2% on top of the regular contribution, Sky will match this. In total, Sky could pay up to 9% of your pension, while you only need to contribute 6% or more.
Within the industry, this is a competitive figure and easily achievable for most employees.
Stock Options
Back in 2018, Sky was acquired by US giant telecoms Comcast, which is listed on the NASDAQ. As a result, Sky allows its employees to purchase Comcast shares at a discount. The scheme operates as follows:
Employees can save anything from £5 to £250 per month (from their net pay) over a 3 or 5 year savings period. When they start saving, Sky sets the Option Price for the Comcast shares, typically the current stock price with a 20% discount. That price is locked in for the savings period.
At the end of the savings period, employees can use the savings they’ve built up to buy Comcast stock at the Option Price, or opt to take all the money back that they’ve saved.
In 2020, a Sky employee could opt into the Sharesave scheme with an Option Price of £27.39. If they opted to save £250 per month, they would have £15,000 at the end of 5 years. Based on Comcast’s current stock performance ($58.42 on 3rd July 2021), the employee could buy 547 shares for £27.39 and sell them immediately for £24,673.03 – that’s almost a £10,000 profit. And that’s after 1 year in the scheme, the share price should increase further.
Discounted Utilities
As we mentioned, Sky is the leader in Pay TV, but also operates a telecommunications business. Sky employees can receive a Sky TV package for free while getting a competitive discount on mobile, broadband and phone packages too.
Annual Leave
Sky employees are entitled to 25 days annual leave, with public holidays on top of the allowance. Employees report that for every year you spend working at Sky, you receive an additional day of annual leave – up to a maximum of 5 additional days.
Also, employees are given the option to buy additional days of annual leave.
Health Insurance
Most employees at Sky have access to private healthcare and some report that they are able to extend this cover to include their family members too.
Season Ticket loans & Public Transport
Several Sky employees report that interest-free season ticket loans are available. Employees can take advantage of the savings an annual season ticket can provide, while the cost is repaid across the following 12 paydays.
For those working at Sky’s UK headquarters in West London, they operate a regular shuttle bus between Osterley Underground Station at the Sky campus. It runs up to every 10 minutes and it’s free for Sky employees and visitors. At peak times, they also run buses to Ealing and Gunnersbury.
Other benefits
Sky employees can enjoy discounts at various retailers and access to discounts on top tech too.
Sky Jobs
As an industry leader, many people want to work for Sky during their careers. Want to find out about the latest jobs at Sky, we’ve got over 100+ jobs active on the website right now!