Noticing the looming deadline for The World’s Best Places to Work Awards 2019, we thought it might be good to explore the kind of criteria which would be considered within an award such as this.

Ok, so it’s worth mentioning that businesses put themselves forward as ‘Best Places to Work’ via a scheme (provided, unsurprisingly, by the company Great Place to Work) which involves participation in a Best Workplace Assessment – an employee survey and culture audit being the main components of this.  The global awards, which close on the 14^th September, are for those who have already achieved an accolade; in fact have been named in a minimum of 5 national Best Workplaces lists within the 58 participating countries.  They must also have over 5,000 employees worldwide and at least 40% of the company’s workforce must be based outside of the home country.

Past winners have been corporations such as Mars, Cisco, Salesforce.com, Volkswagen… no real SME’s to be found in the published winners list and probably, therefore, not particularly attainable for most non-multinationals.

Forget the fact that both the tight deadline and the ‘mega-business’ qualifying criteria may just rule out this very prestigious awards event for most – here at The Awards People we really do like the idea of recognising businesses who go the extra mile to work with their employees ensuring happiness all round.  For that reason we thought we’d list a few things that are considered when applicants are being audited – and in doing so recognise the things which a smaller business could put into place to not only add to their success, but perhaps also put themselves in the running for a local, regional or national award which looks for high level engagement.  Let’s face it, winning a ‘best workplace’ or similarly-titled award won’t harm your chances of attracting and retaining great personnel either.

The general consensus amongst those involved in workplace audits is that it is much less about what you do than how you do it.  Whilst perks and incentives are great and can really show the value that is placed on the hard work of the individual or team, it is of significantly higher importance exactly how such schemes are applied.

The key areas to consider in reaching for the heights of Best Workplace are;

• Building high quality relationships – putting people at the heart of everything and encouraging honesty from everyone, team spirit and a general feeling of fairness
• Gaining and maintaining trust – built through integrity, supported 2-way communication, managerial competence, balanced policies, genuine personal development plans, recognising individuals whilst supporting collaboration…essentially putting tangible schemes in place rather than simply paying lip service to the employee engagement piece
• Measuring results – regular, if not continuous, assessment to ensure that everyone truly is benefitting and that the strategies were not simply good ideas which failed upon administration
• Putting plans into action – when feedback is good all is well but if the reality of the systems put in place has fallen somewhat short of the intended effect, then tweaking and reassessment is a must. Good intentions do not pave the way to employee harmony – well-executed systems do

Like the thought of creating a working environment where productivity is high, enthusiasm is the norm and the problems of recruitment are a distant memory?  Then why not have a look at employee engagement awards within the awards calendar and start planning your transformation now.  There are certainly many to choose from irrespective of the size of your business and if you could do with a helping hand to getting started just get in touch and we’ll take it from there.