Work Style - Great Place to Work Institute

30
twsm — GPTW Special Issue 2010
everyone on the first-name basis;
bar executive dining rooms and
executive perks for high-level
people.
• Devote attention and resources
to creating as pleasant a workplace
environment as possible;
hire good architects.
• Encourage its employees to be
active in community service by
giving money to organizations in
which employees participate.
• Help employees save by matching
the funds they save.
What’s new?
By Robert Levering* and Palle Ellemann
The biggest global economic recession
since the 1930s has produced
dozens of new management books
talking about “the new rules of the
game” and the new world order of
business. In this environment, it is
perhaps instructive to look at what
can be learned from the recently
announced lists of the Best Workplaces
in 17 countries in Europe, as
well the list of the 100 Best Workplaces
in Europe.
Actually we see no signs of a new
world order from these lists. In fact,
many of the same companies we
saw last year and the year before
continue on the lists. In the top 10
of the two lists only one company
out of 20 is new on the European
lists. The results in the Trust
Index® (the employee survey) are
even better compared to last year
and the 100 Best Workplaces in Europe
have – again this year – on
average managed to grow the business
with double digits (15%).
One of the main reasons for why
the Best Workplaces continue being
so successful in creating great
workplaces and great businesses
is exactly consistency. Consistency
and reliability are some of the main
drivers for trust and this is more
true than ever before. When we analyze
the data from almost 300,000
European surveys this year, we see
that the two statements related to
employees’ perception of managers
reliability are the two statements
with the strongest correla-
• Try not to lay off people without
first making an effort to place
them in other jobs either within
the company or elsewhere.
• Care enough about the health
of its employees to provide physical
fitness centers and regular
exercise and medical programs.
• Expand the skills of its people
through training programs and
reimbursement or tuition from
outside courses.
By the time we completed our
research we had gained a better
understanding of the difference
between the traditional employer/employee
relationship, which
is often adversarial, and the kinds
of practices we encountered on
our journey. We feel that the
“100 Best” may be part of the
first wave in a major change that
will affect for the better the way
all of us think of our jobs and
conduct our business. It can be
argued that both conventional
managerial techniques and the
tion to the employees’ perception
of a great place to work. In other
words, that managers “walk the
talk” is the single most important
issue for employees these days.
This is not surprising taking the insecurity
of the market into consideration.
People have been looking
at their managers and leaders to see
if the good intentions in the value
systems written on the website and
the strategy plans presented at the
town hall meetings would hold true
when times get tough. The good
news for leaders is that a crisis situation
is a golden opportunity to
show leadership in action, because
if you as a leader “pass the test” under
such stress and pressure from
stock market and other stakeholders,
then the employee response
tends to be positive. This seems
to be the reason why the scores of
the Best continue to improve during
these times – their leaders have
been tested and proven to follow
through on what they say.
So the news is not that everything
has changed and the Best Workplaces
in Europe have earned their recognition,
because they have been
the first-movers to make changes.
On the contrary, the Best Workplaces
are good at doing exactly
what they said yesterday and the
day before. •
* Robert Levering, Co-Founder of Great Place
to Work ® Institute
innovative practices described in
this book enhance productivity
and create a healthy economy.
But the “100 Best” offer an added
benefit of such high value that
it’s difficult to place on the same
scale: a working life for thousands
of people really worth living
and worth looking forward to
every day. •
The Work Style magazine
contents, spring 2010.
Allan Hall underlines the importance
of keeping things steady,
and knowing how to sail through
rough waters. Some (people)
have had to face ‘hot’ issues that
are difficult to overcome. Think
Tiger Woods, for instance. A
keen analysis from Roger Abrams
gives us analogies with corporate
crises. The movie Up In the Air,
starring George Clooney, provides
Aneil and Karen Mishra with
the opportunity to analyze how
being downsized can be the first
step to a positive change. Barack
Obama has changed the approach
to problem-solving on the
part of governments. Paolo Valentino
outlines the “method” of
this change, which is based on systematic
fact-checking, a strong
consultant network, and the
involvement of a restricted group
of ‘followers’ during the decisionmaking
phase. As per usual, we
have a number of enthralling
stories about people. There’s our
special edition on NYC and interviews
with Erik Buell and Ben
Southall, as well as a fascinating
article on São Paulo (with a guide
attached) edited by Bahar Puraligil.
All of these are examples of
the dynamism of people around
the world. Fabian Uzaraga tells
us about the most beautiful
work environments with the help
of Alain De Botton, author of
The Architecture of Happiness.
Then we have a test on colors
conducted by Usa Today, a wide
selection of books, and a whole
section dedicated to work places.
Don’t forget to check out our ‘To
Be Cool’ pages which have been
redesigned with the help of Demetra,
a young stylist whom we
are sure you will like.