How can the Great Place to Work community benefit your organisation?

Rachel McLoughlin

30.04.2024

At Great Place to Work we recognise the inherent value of cultivating a supportive workplace environment where employees feel connected and empowered - and our aim is to help your organisation do just that. Through our Trust Index© Employee Experience survey, you can measure the extent to which your company is considered to be a great workplace by your people, providing essential information that enables you to understand your workplace environment. This information gives key insights into how your employees feel working at your organisation and is invaluable for any business looking to improve their workplace culture.

But apart from surveying your people, what benefits can joining the Great Place to Work programme bring to your organisation?

Great Place to Work Certification™ in Ireland

Key figures

In 2023, we saw a total of 54,392 employees surveyed - that's 1 out of every 100 people in Ireland!

Among these Certified™ organisations:

90.5% of employees agreed that "when you join the company, you are made to feel welcome"
83.4% agreed that "management is approachable, easy to talk with"
And 80.2% agreed with the statement, "taking everything into account, I would say this is a great place to work"

These numbers are great to see, but it's important to also recognise that not everyone is going to meet Certification their first try, and that's perfectly fine. From the moment you enter the programme, you are a valued member of the Great Place to Work community, a community that is all about learning and growing. Just take a look at the below case study from Woodie's - through their commitment to building that culture of trust, they increased their Trust Index score 55% in just 5 years.

What is the Great Place to Work community?

We understand that building a great workplace requires time and resources, and our aim is to provide a framework for your organisation to do so. However, being a part of the Great Place to Work programme isn’t just a case of ticking a box and filling in the survey once a year – far from it. It is a chance for your organisation to flourish in all aspects while building that culture of trust, and our team are working year-round to ensure your organisation has all the resources it needs to do just that. That's where the Great Place to Work community comes in.

From events creating networking opportunities to our esteemed partnerships with the likes of The Irish Times or The Menopause Hub, our goal is that you get the utmost value out of the Great Place to Work programme, as well as - of course - the huge benefit of surveying your people.

So how can being part of the Great Place to Work community help benefit your organisation? We've broken it down below.

Year-round events

We love a good event at Great Place to Work; whether it's our annual Best Workplaces Awards or a client get-together to discuss all things workplace culture - we are striving to build back that connection piece so badly missed over the past few years.

In 2024 alone, we've hosted our Employer Branding Summit, celebrated the Best Workplaces in Ireland awards, the Best Workplaces for Women event at the Stella Cinema, as well as just this month teaming up with Cork-based Cloudera and The Kingsley Hotel to bring clients from the rebel county together for a morning of action planning and learning.

Learning and networking opportunities

As mentioned, one of the ways our Great Place to Work community get involved is through our events we host throughout the year. We have opportunities for all areas of your organisation to get involved, learn about building great cultures, and connect with likeminded people from other organisations to share tips and tricks.

Through these events, we have seen great relationships blossom between members of the community. Take the recent collaboration between Cloudera and The Kingsley Hotel as an example - these organisations of very different industries came together to host a client-led workshop for other organisations in the community on a variety of topics, like why a great culture is important for your business, people practices that have benefitted them, challenges the organisations have faced and how they have overcome them.

Having these types of collaborations and networking opportunities is just another added benefit of the Great Place to Work programme; being able to share knowledge with others - whether they have been conducting their employee survey for one year or ten years - is invaluable.

Alan Smullen, Head of People at The Doyle Collection, is a longtime member of the Great Place to Work community and with The Doyle Collection, a Best Workplace in Ireland for 7 years. The Doyle Collection has benefitted greatly from these collaborations, but Alan himself has also contributed to heavily nurturing these connections through the extensive work he does with the programme for people and culture. Alan believes that the value of forging new relationships extends far beyond mere networking - it becomes a catalyst for continuous improvement and success;

"Throughout our time working with Great Place to Work, I have been lucky enough to connect with respected leaders across different sectors such as tech, healthcare, and many others, through introductions by the GPTW team or at their events. By sharing best practices and learning from each other's experiences, we not only elevate our individual expertise but also contribute to the advancement of the People profession as a whole.

In my experience, collaborating and exchanging ideas with People professionals from various industries not only fosters innovation and growth within our own organisations, but is extremely important when embarking on a new project or initiative, or considering a new product or platform - you have respected professionals that you can seek opinions from, who share similar values and approaches to People & Culture."

Alan Smullen, Head of People at The Doyle Collection

Charlie Dineen, Director of Human Resources at The Fota Collection, which The Kingsley is a hotel under, agrees;

"Networking through GPTW serves to reinforce our commitment to our HR strategy and to ensure it aligns with the overall company strategy. Learning from other industries and understanding how they are tackling many of the same issues but in a different context really reinforced our commitment to our people and culture strategy and also enabled us to learn from the experiences of other companies."

Echoing this, Senior Director of Global Commercial Operations at Cloudera, Jamie Griffin, noted the multifaceted power of their partnership;

"The secret sauce is our learning through experience, and having absolute trust, that it is a safe environment for all companies to share. Great companies, irrespective of size or industry, are listening to their people. They are coming up with unique and novel ways to retain & develop their talent, which can be tailored to fit specific business needs. Our business models may be different, but our people are intrinsic to all of our success. The forum helps us to continually push to be even greater for our people.

Trusted partnerships

Throughout the years, we have also had the privilege of partnering with a number of inspirational organisations and people, to showcase the commitment we have to boosting company culture in all areas:

Media partners

The Irish Times: To celebrate Ireland's Best Workplaces, we have partnered with The Irish Times for the past number of years to release an exclusive report, both online and in print, showcasing the amazing organisations who top the list, giving key insights into their culture. We feature the best organisations in this space in a series of articles, giving them exposure on a national level.

The Gloss: Our Best Workplaces for Women recognition is brought to life through our partnership with The Gloss magazine, who conduct interviews each year with women from the best workplaces, who tell their stories on what it means to work for an organisation that goes above and beyond for women.

Silicon Republic: Our partners for the Best Workplaces in Tech, the team at Silicon Republic are instrumental in showcasing client stories and delving into what makes the best in tech stand out in such a competitive and everchanging industry.

Other partners

TU Dublin: We have been delighted to partner with TU Dublin, who sponsor Great Place to Work's annual Most Trusted Leader Award, presented at the Best Workplaces awards each year. Through our partnership, we get to hear from students and employees alike, and for the past 2 years we have hosted a student panel at our Employer Branding Summit, to hear all about what young graduates are looking for in an employer.

We are also delighted to collaborate closely with Dr Colin Hughes, Head of the Graduate Business School at TU Dublin, who offers key insights on trust for organisations and how vital this is for a great workplace;

"Trust increases the speed at which we work with others. It allows us to rely on others to deliver what we need while we focus our attention elsewhere, thus making us all more productive and effective. This is increasingly important given the pace of change and complexity in modern organisations.”

The Menopause Hub: Aiming to smash the taboo around menopause, Great Place to Work were delighted to team up with The Menopause Hub in 2023 and continue this partnership through the Menopause Excellence Awards, recognising organisations who have impressive policies and support women at every stage of their menopause.

WALK: Through our collaboration with our charity partner WALK, we want to actively empower people with disabilities to reach their full potential and create a world where diversity and inclusion are not just ideals, but a reality in the workplace.

Resources to boost your culture

We understand that building and maintaining a thriving company culture is a journey, not a destination. That's why we offer a comprehensive array of resources that you can refer back to at whatever stage of that journey you are at, including blogs, podcasts, webinars, and reports, and monthly newsletters, designed to empower organisations in their pursuit of greatness. Through these resources, our community can gain access to invaluable insights and best practices from a diverse range of industries and well-known brands, showcasing how they prioritise their people to drive success.

Our podcast The Red Cube, launched in 2021 and hosted by Great Place to Work Ireland CEO Cathal Divilly, touches on everything from people and culture to employer branding to diversity and inclusion. Our latest below featured Riley Stefano of Datadog, delving into all things employee advocacy to boost your brand 👇

Whether it's learning from the strategies employed by global leaders in tech, finance, healthcare, or beyond, or hearing firsthand accounts of impactful initiatives from smaller enterprises, our resources provide actionable guidance and inspiration for organisations of all sizes. Our upcoming webinar on health & wellbeing strategies exemplifies this, featuring The Kingsley Hotel and the IRFU sharing their wealth of knowledge to help make your company Great 👇

Helping to boost your employer brand

By joining the programme and achieving the recognition threshold, you are not only showcasing to the world you are a great employer, but you also get a globally-known external validation of it. Once you are accredited, you can include your Certification™ logo on your website, careers page, role listing, social media accounts and much more. All excellent ways to increase the credibility of your brand and help you stand out from the rest. At Great Place to Work we are here to help you showcase this Certification in every way you can - our Employer Branding Guide below gives insightful tips and tricks on how to best leverage this recognition to attract top talent, and our team are on hand to support with any questions you may have.

We also offer a variety of branded packs to help you decorate your office or shops and hotels to showcase to the world you're committed to being a trusted employer - check out our short video below showcasing clients on the most recent Certification Nation Day where our clients went above and beyond to deck out their workplaces with all things Great Place to Work 👇

To further help build organisations' employer brands, we have also collaborated closely with Bus Éireann, helping to craft a customised Employer Value Proposition (EVP) to attract bus drivers in an increasingly competitive market.

Elevating your personal profile

There are endless benefits the Great Place to Work community can bring to your organisation - but also to your personal and professional goals and skillsets. We are always seeking leading figures in HR to speak at our regular events, webinars, podcasts and blogs, speaking on topics that are most important and influential to you as an individual in the HR space. Participating in these initiatives means you are instantly promoted to our network of thousands of people and establishes you as a leading figure in this space.

So while it's true that the Great Place to Work programme brings your organisation a huge amount of added value internally, it also can hugely help with your personal career, aiding in your learning of the nuances of the people and culture world and how you can best support your people. Even if it means this is in a different career at some point down the road, you will always have these added learnings and skillsets to take with you.

While our Trust Index employee surveys provide invaluable insights into your organisation's culture, our supportive community and wealth of resources are also always at hand to help elevate your company, no matter what stage of the journey you are at. From enhancing your employer brand to implementing wellness strategies, we are here to help you with the tools you need to create an exceptional workplace.

Check out our content calendar below for the full recap of everything we've been up to in 2024!