Paris, June 8, 2017 - during the jubilee 15th gala of the Best Workplaces Europe 2017 competition, Great Place to Work® recognized 125 companies from 19 European countries. This year, Poland has exceptional reasons to be proud.

Among the best European workplaces, there are 8 companies from Poland. Six Polish winners are companies recognized in the international organizations category. What is new is that for the first time, two of our winners took individual honors, receiving recognition in the medium-sized companies category.

This year the list of Best Workplaces in Europe has grown longer

In addition to the previous 3 categories: international companies, large companies (more than 500 employees), and medium-sized companies (employing from 50 to 500 employees), a fourth category was added: small companies, employing up to 50 people. As a result, this year's Best Workplaces Europe list is longer and includes 125 winners.

The winner in the international companies category was Mars, which managed to defend this high position for another year. The ranking of large companies is led by the French company Davidson Consulting – this company also retained the leading position in its category. In the medium-sized companies classification, Cygni from Sweden moved up from third place to first. In the new small companies category, employing up to 50 people, the Swiss IT company Rackspace International GmbH. took first place.

The increasingly strong representation of Polish companies on the European list is undoubtedly encouraging. The final success of 6 of the 25 best international workplaces was directly influenced by the high assessment of the work environment in their Polish branches. These are: Cisco, Microsoft, Cadence Design Systems, Mundipharma, S.C. Johnson and EY (Ernst & Young). Meanwhile, Objectivity Bespoke Software Specialists and Prisjakt Poland took individual honors, placing in the second half of the 50 Best Workplaces in Europe in the medium-sized companies category. All these companies are, of course, winners of the Best Workplaces Poland 2017 List. This is the best proof that among Polish employers there is no shortage of modern managers who know that creating an exceptional workplace culture has a direct impact on increasing a company's effectiveness and competitiveness on the market. It is also confirmation that Poland's great workplaces are in no way inferior to European leaders in creating a friendly 21st-century work environment.

Employees decided

An analysis of surveys completed by employees of the 125 best European workplaces (in the Great Place to Work® study, as much as 2/3 of a company's final score depends on employee opinions) showed that the factor with the greatest influence on a company being recognized as a great place to work is good and constant contact with management and the opportunity to establish honest dialogue with company managers. A supervisor who takes employees' opinions into account, tries to involve them in decision-making processes, but also knows how to express appreciation for well-done work and effort put in, has the greatest chance of influencing the perception of the company as a great place to work. Perhaps that is why the key indicator in the Great Place to Work® study, the Trust Index©, is highest in the small companies category, where it is easier to build mutual trust based on a well-coordinated team and partnership relations with management.

The countries with the strongest representation among the 125 best European workplaces are: the United Kingdom (30), France (22), Denmark and Sweden (18 companies each), and Ireland, Belgium and Germany (16 companies each). Among this year's winners, companies from the IT sector are the most numerous (38%). Second place went to companies offering professional services (25%), followed by companies from the sectors: financial services and insurance, manufacturing and production, and retail trade (6% share each).

This year's competition involved 2,340 companies from 19 countries, employing a total of nearly 1.5 million employees.

The full list of the 125 best Best Workplaces Europe 2017 is available HERE