Great Place to Work is not a one-year shot. It’s a Journey.

Here we are! You have surveyed your employees recently with the Trust Index Employee survey. Whether you made the Certification™ or not, you might be working on the survey results and the action plan. Building a great workplace requires time and resources, and we hope you already see the great outcomes in your talent attraction and retention. The Great Place to Work programme provides a framework to do so. Now, it’s all about the long-term actions and commitment you invest in your culture.

Listening to your people once is not enough. In this article we explain why the Great Place to Work programme is the best tool you have to show the market you are credible and consistent in your hiring and people strategy. Read more to know why you should carry on the journey this year.

Great Place to Work is about facing new hiring challenges

The pace of change in workplaces and expectations from top talent is accelerating. The balance of power in which the hiring world finds itself today is forcing job seekers to become much more selective about their new employers. Companies must demonstrate their timeliness, relevance and performance to their customers through their employees.

Maintaining Certification™ demonstrates that the company is agile, credible, adaptable, and constantly looking for new ways to do things, which is critical not only to the company's success but also to its survival.

Great Place to Work allows everyone’s voice to be heard, whether your employees work remotely, in hybrid mode, or 100% on-site.

Competition for top talent is heating up across all industries, and companies are realising they need to leverage their advantage and unique culture. Current Certified™ status is at the top of the radar for candidates. Will your company take advantage of the "Great Resignation" by hiring newly available top talent? Certification™ can give you a competitive advantage.

Great Place to Work is about the “now”

Who wants something outdated these days? It's like a company saying, "We used to be great or an employer of choice," and when people ask, “Why not now? What has changed? Where are the certified & best workplaces of today? Hmm, I'll have a look at the Great Place to Work website.” And there you have it, more talent slips away.

Companies and talent change, no more so than in the last 24 months. Employees want to work with companies that are Great Place to Work-Certified™ right now, not with historical names from the past, even if they were 3 or 4 years ago.

Great Place to Work Certification™ goes hand in hand with credibility.

Another important characteristic in a world of change is a company's ability to embrace that change and be consistent in its management.

Showing a one-time interest in your people will not improve your culture. It can seriously damage your credibility. In fact, it may send the wrong message to your employees and clients giving the impression that the company is not willing to participate and change to improve its culture. If you are in it for the glory, do not worry, it will show.

As the famous writer John Heywood said, "Rome was not built in a day, but they laid bricks every hour" Being a Great Place to Work-Certified™ company is the same.

Building trust at the core of people management usually requires long-term effort, because adapting to change and creating new fruitful habits from data to action requires patience and perseverance.

Becoming a Great Place to Work is about seeing your next step. One at a time.

If you had to try to bake a cake once in your life, would you stop trying if it turned out badly the first time? Probably not. You can only do better with a bad result.

Here are two great examples of client journeys, where their perseverance paid off. They decided to act on their Trust Index Employee results and became certified as a Great Place to Work and even recognised as Best Workplaces in Ireland:

Woodie's Case Study 

Woodie's participated in the Great Place to Work programme in 2014. In the first year, 39% of colleagues thought Woodie's was a Great Place to Work and the Trust Index score was 16%. Woodie's set out to change that and transform the company for both colleagues and customers. Initiatives such as leadership training, recognising small and large successes, and supporting the internal and wider community have transformed the culture, and embedded values throughout the company, resulting in a Trust Index of 71% after 5 years of commitment to their culture. Finally, Woodie’s had an operating profit of €22.7 million in 2019 (vs. € 2.4 million in 2014).

Fáilte Ireland's Case Study 

In 2017, Fáilte Ireland participated in the Great Place to Work programme. The initial results of the Trust Index Employee Survey© showed that the company would benefit from further developing its corporate culture, identifying focus areas and translating findings into action.

With the support of our consultants, the Fáilte Ireland team set out to address the focus areas identified through the Trust Index Survey©. Each year that Fáilte Ireland participated in the Great Place to Work programme, the internal trust grew. The annual survey results confirmed the company's efforts. Employees expressed appreciation for the company's efforts in all key areas.

In 2019, the company received Great Place to Work Certification™, solidifying its position as a culture where talented people can thrive. In 2020, Fáilte Ireland built on its Great Place to Work accreditation and was officially recognised as one of Ireland's Best Workplaces. In addition, in 2021, CEO Paul Kelly's tireless efforts were recognised with the title of Ireland's Most Trusted Leader in recognition of his inspirational and transformational leadership style.

Learn more about Fáilte Ireland's Great Place to Work journey, here.

You heard it. It’s all about long-term actions and the commitment you make. Other reasons why you might pause your Great Place to Work Journey?

• You don’t see the value of investing in your culture

The average cost of each departure per business is estimated at above €11,000. Think of the time and cost of your company to recruit and hire new talent. Imagine if your employee left you due to mismanagement in the culture or simply for not listening. The Great Place to Work Programme saves the costs that would take building a strong and robust strategy to retain talent and prevent leakages.

For example, ORS, a prominent Irish multi-disciplinary building consultancy firm, worked on their organisation culture and employee experience. As a result, they have been Certified™ as a Great Place to Work and more. The fruits of their labour would be felt through increased talent attraction and retention with just 2% of job seekers coming from external agencies and an 80% acceptance rate of role offers.

• You got your results but you don’t know where to start

The time you spend each day improving your unique organisational culture and employee experience is the time you gain in the future. The key solution is to take it one step at a time. Choose 1-3 priorities to work on from the areas highlighted by our consultants, act on the results, evaluate those actions, and review them in your next Trust Index Employee survey.

In this way, organisations save time and money by focusing on the areas that will have the greatest impact on employee experience, retention and productivity. It's the work done to implement the insights contained in the data that create great workplaces.

It's the continued effort you put into your company culture and team that will change the game. It only makes sense if you measure the same metrics and benchmark them to your last results.

• You feel your company is not quite there yet, in terms of culture.

Not every organisation gets accreditation on the first try, but it's not something you see from the outside. Confidentiality is the key. The work we do with you will not be seen by the public until you are ready. We will help you use the survey findings to create the best version of your workplace. The real purpose of the Great Place to Work programme is to help organisations get where they want to go. When that happens, recognition is sure to follow. We have numerous case studies that show the progress of companies that have participated in the programme.

• You have your own internal survey, that provides you with employee data.

Asking your employees to share their voices is great, but the output of a third-party validation such as the Trust Index© Employee Survey which covers 17 categories, acts as a springboard for action. Our team can help your organisation translate your new knowledge into bottom-line improvements. This can support you in establishing a culture of evidence-based decision-making.

Our survey is confidential. Once completed, the response is received and kept confidential. It is important that individuals can respond in a safe environment. How can you ensure that your staff create a culture of trust when they feel they cannot be honest without the fear of being reprimanded or worse, being part of the problem and losing their job?

• You do not like the colour red. It does not fit in with your graphic charter.

Fortunately, our graphic charter consists of other colours!

You have understood. You can’t expect to be fit if you go to the gym only for one day and you cannot keep avoiding the mirror. You have to face the facts. Building a great culture requires long-term efforts.

What's next?

•  If you are an existing client and would like to chat with the Client Success Team to schedule your survey launch date please do so by contacting ie_clientsuccess@greatplacetowork.com
  
• Are you interested in investing in your workplace culture with Great Place to Work? Contact us here.

More helpful resources to strengthen your organisational culture:

• 10 Tips for Retaining Your Top Talent 
• Employee Appreciation Day: 7 Great Ideas to Give Back!
• 10 Points on Retaining and Attracting Talent through Employer Branding
• The Great Resignation: Why Culture is Key to Retaining Your Talent
• 7 Principles for Developing a Great People Strategy
• How Every Organisation Can Develop a Great Culture
• What is it like to be part of a Great Company Culture?

About Great Place to Work®

Great Place to Work® is the global authority on workplace culture. We help organisations quantify their culture and produce better business results by creating a high-trust work experience for all employees. We recognise Great Place to Work-Certified™ companies and the Best Workplaces™ in more than 60 countries.

To join the thousands of companies that have committed to building high-trust company cultures that help them attract, retain and take care of their people, contact us about getting Certified today.