The 5 features of great places to work

With the talk not only of millennials but Gen Z being the next group to come through into the workplace, employee loyalty is a big issue- something affected by being a great place to work, or seen as one! After the recession, a sea change has occurred with employers vying for the attentions of new employees, whose skills are in sudden demand, particularly in the tech and digital sectors. At the same time, many businesses are being held aloft as ‘great places to work’ because of their employee focused benefits.
But there’s more than just one way to have a great company, it’s a blend of a range of things. Here are a few things that indicate you are a great company to work for.

You offer some unusual perks – but you don’t rely on the them
You have things like a pool table, regular nights out and you’re even debating an on-site chef! You market all these perks on your website and recruitment pages, but you don’t just offer these things because you know that any novelty becomes background noise after a while. Talking of which…

You offer career advancement and training
You know that people want to feel they have a destination. You invest in training, mentoring and learning. You might even carve out time in the working week to focus on projects that benefit both the business and the employee like Google do. Did you know that 93% of UK Top Employers have clear objectives for a leadership development strategy (85% in 2015) and 96% have a defined framework for their strategy (up from 89% in 2015)? The data comes from the Top Employers Institute and shows a number of changes in the way high-performing businesses approach leadership development.
You make employee health and wellness a priority
The ‘Whispers from the water cooler: what motivates employees to improve their health and wellbeing’ report, which surveyed 1,003 full-time US employees working for large organisations has found that 81% of respondents saw a positive impact on their physical wellbeing as a result of participating in a workplace health and wellbeing programme and that that 53% of respondents agree or strongly agree that their employer should be having a role in helping them to stop unhealthy behaviours. Workplace health can reduce stress – one of the major reasons for prolonged absence from work, so you should definitely have a focus on incentivising a healthy lifestyle.

Plus a study run by the Health Enhancement Research Organization (HERO), based on 20,114 employees over 3 years showed that employees who ate healthfully all day long were 25 percent more likely to have higher job performance, and those who those to eat five or more servings of fruit and vegetables at least four times a week were 20 percent more likely to be more productive.
Supporting this, a study by Tel Aviv University Faculty of Management based on 1,632 workers over a nine-year period showed that the highest rates of depression and work burnout rates were associated with employees who did not exercise at allYou allow real involvement in

You allow real involvement in decision-making
Communication is essential and the best companies include employees on big and small decisions. Change management is a whole industry in itself, but the very best companies work as a democracy whenever possible. Not only is this respectful, but often employees have a much stronger ‘buy in’ to changes if they have heard about them from the incubation stage.

You encourage engagement
Do you, or your managers really know employees and appreciate them? Many businesses launch a great big bonus scheme with ambitious targets, but many people will actually work harder for less, as long as the thanks is frequently given and they really feel valued. The rewards don’t have to be high value, and something like a coffee gift card is the type of small thank you that can keep motivation levels high, or an ongoing rewards platform that allows you to give managers the power and the budget to reward when needed is something you can use consistently.