The Great Place to Work (GPTW) certification is a mark of quality and honour among the companies that are awarded it. While GPTW started as a list of the “best companies” released in 1984, it has grown to become a global brand with a strict methodology to ensure the GPTW certification signifies workplace excellence.
Companies that undertake the certification know that is no walk in the park and certainly not something to be undertaken lightly. The process takes six weeks and includes four key steps — a Trust Index employee survey with 17 categories of measurement such as talent management, career and development, and communication and involvement. There are 73 statements for employees to complete alongside two open-ended questions.
Next, the company creates a culture brief and larger companies (more than 300 employees) also include a culture audit. Following this, GPTW benchmarks the company against its industry, size group or other suitable benchmarks, which allows the company to use the data collected to identify gaps in the culture and enable leaders to make data-led decisions on how to improve culture.
Finally, comes the recognition. If the company meets the threshold required, it will be in consideration for a selection of awards including Ireland’s Best Workplaces, Best Workplaces for Women, Best Workplaces in Tech and Europe’s Best Workplaces. The GPTW brand is global but localised for different countries of which Ireland is one.
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Best in Class
Bord Bia is one of many Irish companies that has undertaken the certification process with Fáilte Ireland and Tayto Snacks among them.
Bord Bia has worked with GPTW since the second half of 2022, says Michael Murphy, organisation and industry talent director, Bord Bia. “We achieved certification on our first attempt in November 2022.
“In fact, we had been doing our own bespoke staff surveys for many years. So, we already knew that we had progressive culture within Bord Bia. However, the GPTW staff survey allowed us to benchmark against peers, particularly those companies we compete with for talent.”
Bord Bia were in the top 30 companies in their class (medium-sized businesses) for 2023 because of that survey, and have integrated this accolade into their employer brand communications, which has contributed to an even stronger application rate for Bord Bia jobs in 2023, says Murphy. “The conversion rate from viewing our digital advertisements to applying for roles in Bord Bia has nearly doubled in the last year.”
The company has also been able to use the results and data from the survey with colleagues to create a staff survey response plan. “This has resulted in new initiatives around learning and development (L&D) and recognition. Our results from November 2023 show double-digit increases in these metrics.
“In 2023, in response to the survey, we put a big push into our learning and development offer for colleagues. We ran an L&D inspiration week in February 2023 with 30-minute sessions each day highlighting how colleagues could develop an effective personal growth plan.”
All staff on board
“Our Bord Bia colleagues have been really engaged with both the survey, with participation rates of 85 per cent, and in terms of developing and implementing initiatives to maintain and enhance Bord Bia’s culture it was gratifying to be able to point to enhanced results in 2023 that reflected on the efforts of colleagues’ commitment to ensuring Bord Bia was a great place to work.”
Other initiatives that emerged as a result of undertaking the GPTW certification process include running a high-profile digital training programme involving all colleagues. “Our response to the question, ‘I am offered training or development to further myself professionally rose from 59 per cent to 80 per cent over the course of the year’.”
“The response to the question ‘this organisation will act on the results of the survey rose from 59 per cent to 68 per cent’.”
These high levels of engagement across the business show the value of undertaking the certification — not only as an outward recognition of the company but also to highlight to staff that leadership is listening to them and implementing changes based on feedback.