A “great place to work” is one in which you “trust the people you work for, have pride in what you do, and enjoy the people you work with.” This was the definition used by co-founder of the Great Place to Work ® Institute, Robert Levering, in his 1988 book, A Great Place to Work: What makes some employers so good – and most so bad.
23 years on and it seems this has now become the new holy grail of employee engagement. Granted, the familiar big names – Deloitte, McDonald’s, Coca Cola and the like – are all on this and it clearly forms a part of their operational strategy. And so too are many dynamic, ambitious SME’s. But as an ‘observer’ with the privileged position of working with many diverse brands over the last 15 years, there is undoubtedly a new popularity (many would claim ‘trend’!) towards this rather ethereal goal.
Which is all good – in fact, enormously encouraging. It recognises the holistic approach the best organisations need to adopt in providing a bed of learning, inspiration, wellbeing and reward for hard graft to look after their people. A home from home – a micro world in which we all exist for the vast majority of our waking life. We should expect fulfilment – if we’re putting in.
So why the switch-on to the obvious? Perhaps the ‘wake-up call’ delivered by a global recession? The pressure on motivating people without throwing salary increases and unhealthy bonuses at them; the re-focus which has been gathering traction over the last 5 plus years of getting the best out of your talent pool; the stagnation of the labour market – it’s heck of a challenge to get the best people to move employer…particularly if the company they’re already ploughing their trade at are already well down the road of creating a great place to work.
We’re seeing the objective feature heavily in a larger than usual number of the staff engagement projects we’re involved in – conferences, motivational events, recognition programmes, incentive and reward schemes, cultural change programmes, brand refreshes, team events….Interesting, though not surprising, our longest-standing clients are those that feature in the Best Workplaces lists consistently, as they maintain a long-term commitment to creating invigorating and rewarding workplaces.
According to the Great Place to Work Model, there are three primary relationships within a workplace from the employee perspective.
- Trust – the relationship between employees and the management. Has the following components:
- Credibility of management in the eyes of employees. This is impacted largely by the quality of communications as well as the integrity shown by management in its dealings with employees;
- Respect shown to employees. This is affected by how the organisation shows appreciation to employees, the kinds of professional training it offers, and the work-family balance benefits it provides;
- Fairness in how employees are treated, both in terms of compensation but also in terms of providing equitable opportunities for promotions.
- Pride – the relationship between employees and their jobs. In great workplaces, employees feel pride not only in their jobs but also in the company itself.
- Camaraderie - the relationship employees have with each other. A high degree of camaraderie characterizes the best workplaces, where organisations and the people within them often go to great lengths to celebrate successes and provide other opportunities for employees to socialize with each other.
Our own internal survey conducted earlier this year revealed what MotivAction people believe makes a Great Place to Work. Clearly, and unsurprisingly, culture (and we’d wrap Leadership into this) is pivotal.
