Five good reasons to be in the best workplace list

With the recent announcement of the UK Best Places to work list by The Great Place to Work Institute there was quite some celebrating in the London Ketchum Pleon Change team. Not only because Ketchum was on the list at number 12, resulting in celebratory ice creams for the London office, but because we had also successfully supported another one of our clients in achieving a place on this prestigious list – recognizing them as top employers.

This made us consider if all our clients are aware of the benefits of these types of awards and how these can really make good business sense. So read on to see our view of the five key benefits:

• Increase employee engagement – and cultivate high levels of pride in the workforce.  When highly engaged and enabled, there is a 50% increase in employees achieving above their performance expectations.
• Attract new and leading talent – to ensure the company’s brand is at the forefront of candidate’s minds.  Almost 6 in 10 companies have difficulty attracting critical-skill employees.²
• Retain top talent during times of change – by really examining what makes your employee offering unique.  One in three works is seriously considering leaving their organization at the present time.³
• Improve corporate reputation – through prestigious award coverage.  Corporate reputation is vital to the organization in order to create sustainable competitive advantage, and employees are the key link to managing it.
• Learn what makes an even better workplace – and continually assess your workplace against the best.

It’s more crucial than ever that companies become learning organizations helping their company adapt to the unpredictable faster than rivals can. ⁴

Best companies are said to perform three times better than the general market⁵, and at a time when the war for talent has become routine, we think it’s time for companies to take stock of their employee offering, stick their head above the parapet and get themselves noticed. There might even be a free ice cream in it.

If you would like to learn more, feel free to email us or visit the Ketchum Pleon Change site.

¹Hay Group, 2012
²Towers Watson, 2011
³Mercer, 2011
⁴Harvard Business Review, 2008
⁵Great Place to Work Institute, 2012