Has Your Culture Created A Great Place to Work for All?

A Great Place to Work for AllWhat’s the impact of being one of the 100 best companies to work for? What does it take to join this elite group? How does your organization or team compare?

Since 1998, Fortune magazine has partnered with Great Place to Work to create its annual list of 100 best companies to work for. This year’s list has just been published along with a new book by Great Place to Work CEO, Michael Bush and his research team. A Great Place to Work for All provides a much deeper look at the research findings.

Each year the firm surveys about 4 million employees at 6,000 global companies. The research shows that central to a “For All” culture are high trust levels. High trust is defined by credible leaders (competent, communicative and honest), respectful treatment, and a fair workplace. Best Companies with high trust cultures deliver “stock market returns two to three times greater than the market average.” ­These companies also have turnover rates 50% lower than competitors and “increased levels of innovation, customer and patient satisfaction, employee engagement, organizational agility, and more.”

A Great Place to Work now measures six components:

  1. Values
  2. Innovation
  3. Financial Growth
  4. Leadership Effectiveness
  5. Maximizing Human Potential
  6. Trust

Here are some key points that stood out for me:

  • 71 percent of Americans are part of a “spend shift” to align their spending with their values.
  • 81,000 undergraduates ranked an inspiring purpose as the most desired characteristic in an employer.
  • A great workplace is 20 times more likely to retain Millennials.
  • Agility is becoming critical and leaders need to involve more people throughout the organization in change efforts.
  • High-trust and highly functioning executive teams are critical for elevating and cascading culture change and development.
  • When employees rated executives highly on strategic clarity, even-handedness, and authenticity in their relationships revenues grew 3 times faster than companies with the lowest scores.
  • When Millennials report that their managers show a sincere interest in them as people they’re 8 times more likely to respond with change readiness, agility, and innovation.
  • A study of 20,000 employees around the world reported that “54% experience a basic lack of respect from their leaders.” It also found that when employees felt respected by their leaders “56 percent reported better health and well-being and 89 percent greater enjoyment and satisfaction with their jobs.”
  • Being included in decisions meant employees were “5.3 times more likely to experience a psychologically and emotionally healthy workplace.”
  • Compared to people in low-trust companies, those in high-trust workplaces report “74 percent less stress, 106 percent more energy at work, 50 percent higher productivity, 13 percent fewer sick days, 76 percent more engagement, 29 percent more satisfaction with their lives, 40 percent less burnout.”
  • The 100 Best Companies to Work For have increased training by 76 percent in the past 20 years to 58 hours per year for hourly employees and 65 hours for salaried.

A Great Place to Work for All reinforces and updates similar global studies of leadership and culture effectiveness. The mountain of evidence keeps growing; strong cultures create strong workplaces. That leads to outstanding personal, team, and organizational results for all.

For over three decades, Jim Clemmer’s keynote presentations, workshops, management team retreats, seven bestselling books, articles, and blog have helped hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. The Clemmer Group is the Canadian strategic partner of Zenger Folkman, an award-winning firm best known for its unique evidence-driven, strengths-based system for developing extraordinary leaders and demonstrating the performance impact they have on organizations. Check out www.clemmergroup.com for upcoming webinars and workshops.

Website: http://www.clemmergroup.com

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