Being a 'Great Place to Work' - What It Takes and The Rewards It Brings

The Great Place to Work Institute has been conducting research for the past 25 years and every year surveys over 2 million employees to support the publication of 40 country lists, including the Fortune List (US), the Financial Times List (UK) and LeFigaro List (France). A recent list of Best Workplaces in Canada included this introduction

The workplaces featured on this list represent great diversity in terms of sector, industry, size and location. Each has pioneered a unique path to greatness. But there is one thing they all have in common - TRUST. Employees who trust their managers give their best work freely, and their extra effort goes right to the company's bottom line. Managers who trust their employees allow innovative ideas to bubble up from all levels of the company. Employees who trust each other report a sense of camaraderie and even the feeling of being part of a family. Together they deliver far more than the sum of their individual parts.

Building workplace trust is the best investment an organisation can make, leading to better recruitment, lower turnover, greater innovation, higher productivity, more loyal customers and higher profits.

This recognition of Trust as a key driver of engagement and performance is something we observe in our conversations with clients right up to C-Level, and the key question for these clients is not whether but how to create a culture of trust that can scale across 100s, 1000s or 10000s of people. In this context, FranklinCovey has codified the mindsets and behaviours that inform 'high trust' interactions with colleagues, stakeholders and clients, the sum of which create the culture of an organisation. FranklinCovey have also developed support and accountability frameworks which help translate this 'learning' into 'doing' and metrics to track how Trust levels develop at team, organisation and market levels. Together these capabilities help client organisations to deliver the results characteristic of the Best Places to Work - which over the past 13 years have delivered an ROI of +262% compared to the S&P 500*.
* Source; Russell Investment Group, based on Study of Fortune Best Places to Work List