MY, MY, what a lovely place Xerox is to work.

Kim Moloney, a client services executive, can’t say enough nice things about her employer. “It’s a very social environment,” she says. “People describe Xerox as a family and I was amazed at the number of people who have worked here for so long.”

It’s tempting to take Moloney’s comments with a pinch of salt, especially considering that when you’ve been working somewhere for only two years, as she has at Xerox, everyone seems old and established. But there’s truth behind her enthusiasm.

Carole Palmer, the group resources director, is a living example. She joined Xerox in 1978 as a temp and has been in her present role — “the job I always wanted” — for seven years. “Xerox has been good to me over the years,” she says. “It has supported me through qualifications . . . and last year I went on a vice-president incumbent programme.”

HR is taken seriously at Xerox, Palmer says, and the company has a policy of promoting from within (which would explain Moloney’s amazement at her colleagues’ longevity). The company takes on only 15 to 20 graduates each year and Moloney was part of an intake who joined having already acquired a couple of years’ work experience.

She started as a project manager for Xerox Global Services before moving into sales. Now her responsibility is to “grow and to maintain customer relationships”.

Moloney is based at the head office in Uxbridge. “It’s great in terms of working environment”, she says. “We’ve just got a new provider in the canteen and . . . we have brainstorming rooms and breakout areas.”

Much of Moloney’s role is visiting clients, so she doesn’t have a permanent desk at head office. “I’m a hotdesker, which is good because you get to sit with different people in the hotdesk areas. And you’re given a place to store your things.”

Head office staff numbers between 1,200 and 1,500 people, Palmer says. The company has other main offices in Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh and near Coventry. The nature of the organisation, which encompasses sales and marketing, global services (the biggest division), developing markets, research and development and manufacturing, means that the opportunities at the company vary from service engineers to sales roles and consultants.

Perks include a final-salary pension scheme and various discount schemes. The reward and recognition scheme is a little different, and rather nice: “Each manager has a budget every year to recognise and reward staff,” Palmer says. “It can be in the form of a meal for two, or a bottle of wine. It can be up to £1,000. There’s recognition, and then there’s putting money behind it.”

Moloney, however, likes the non-cash rewards. “(Xerox) recognises the people who put in the added effort,” she says. “It offers once-in-a-lifetime incentive trips, and recently I organised a sailing trip for my team.”

The idea of working abroad with the company appeals to her, and she says that her career goal is to be part of the senior management team. Here’s another employee, it would seem, who is in it for the Xerox long haul.

DATA FILE

Find out more about careers at Xerox by going to www.xerox.co.uk and clicking on “careers”.

Times Recommends

• Inspirational leadership
• How to get a new job
• The reluctant CEO