Looking for a job with a top-rated employer, or perhaps a way to make your workplace more dynamic? Then look here. The results of the 2008 Great Place to Work Institute surveys are in.
BEST WORKPLACES IN CANADA
There is only one way to get on the “50 BestWorkplaces in Canada” list – and that’s if your employees put you there.
The Great Place to Work Institute’s Trust Index survey instrument is used by thousands of organizations throughout the world, says Jen Wetherow, director of Great Place to Work Institute Canada.
“It is the primary selection criterion used each year when we compile the Best Workplaces in Canada list, and is also used in compiling similar lists for leading business publications around the world, including Fortune and the Financial Times.”
While there is no singular right way to become a great place to work, she says, there are five trust-building dimensions that are commonly found in all the best workplaces: credibility, respect, fairness, pride and camaraderie.
“The first three dimensions account for an organization’s level of trust,” says Ms. Wetherow. “A great workplace is one in which employees trust the people they work for, have pride in what they do, and enjoy the people they work with.”
While it may sound a bit warm and fuzzy, the institute’s research indicates that trust is the foundation for organizational performance excellence.
“Winning companies report an increased ability to attract and retain quality candidates. But it’s about more than just recruitment and retention – the benefits of a high-trust culture permeate every aspect of performance,” she says.
“Increasingly, business leaders are recognizing that you can’t manage an outcome such as employee engagement, but you can contribute to the building blocks of organizational culture.
Culture has been identified as a strategic advantage, and leaders in the most successful organizations are putting a strong focus on trust-building behaviours because doing so is associated with positive outcomes.
In fact, independent research by the Russell Investment Group concludes that publicly traded companies on the Fortune list of “100 Best Companies to Work For” are out-performing standard market indices by a factor of two to three.
“The benefits of creating a great place to work include improved attraction and retention of talented employees, and enhanced productivity as a result of a more engaged workforce,” says Claude Balthazard, director of human resources excellence at the Human Resources Professionals Association of Ontario.
While there is anecdotal evidence of a virtuous cycle of success and employee satisfaction among top-performing organizations, there are many paths to becoming a great workplace. “I’m always struck by the diversity of these organizations. There’s a tremendous diversity in terms of the practices. They’re all recognized to be great places to work, but they seem to get there in different ways,” says Mr. Balthazard.
At D.L.G.L. Ltd. in Quebec, one of the 2008 50 Best, achieving a great culture began with a sadly unusual approach. “We’ve inverted the values of governance,” say president Jacques Guénette. “Normally what you hear in the marketplace is that the corporation must create value for the shareholders. That provides license to do almost anything, including crazy business plans that call for uncontrollable growth.”
He cites a large Canadian corporation, which went from 30,000 to 90,000 employees and then fired 65,000 people, as an example of what can happen in the quest for shareholder value.
“We’ve turned that around completely and said, ‘Let’s put together an organization that creates value for the employees. Let’s make sure that our employees are happy,’” says Mr. Guénette. “The first consequence of this is that they stick around, gain experience and get very good at what they do. And that allows us to manufacture excellent products, and to deliver very good services.
The result is that we create a lot of value for our clients in that process. And once you’ve done that, there should be value for the shareholders. “We’ve found,” he says understatedly, “that this works much better than the other model.”
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