The Best Places to Work in the World Have Been Chosen! [REPORT]

Technology company Cisco tops the global Great Place to Work® list for the second year in a row. The next places in this year's ranking went to DHL Express and Hilton, which have also been among the world's top "best of the best" for many years.

As Poland, we have reason to be proud this year too. Among the laureates of World's Best Workplaces 2020 are 7 companies whose success was helped by the outstanding results of their Polish branches. This year, the Polish companies representing global leaders celebrated their first success in April, when the list of Best Workplaces Poland 2020 was announced.

The list of this year's laureates was compiled based on an analysis of 3.3 million anonymous surveys submitted by employees working at 10,000 companies in 97 countries around the world. This makes the Great Place to Work® study the largest global workplace environment survey.

An ever-higher trust index

An ever-higher trust index

This year, Great Place to Work® presented its list of the 25 Best Workplaces in the World for the tenth time, which became an opportunity for anniversary summaries. The analyses show that the Best Workplaces never stop striving to become even better. The foundation of the methodology adopted in the Great Place to Work® research standard is the assessment of a company by its employees. The result of the employee survey, the so-called Trust Index©, determines the level of employees' trust in their employer and accounts for 2/3 of the final score. While at the beginning of the decade, in 2011, the trust index averaged 81.3%, by 2020 it had already reached 85%. This means the bar is being raised ever higher, and not only for companies aspiring to be called a great place to work, but also for the repeatedly decorated global giants.

Poland's representation

Poland's representation

The best places to work in the world – how is the ranking created?

The best places to work in the world – how is the ranking created?

Broken down by country, the United Kingdom still has the largest representation of companies on the List (20 companies). Further down were: Brazil (19), Canada (15) and the USA and China (14 companies each). Poland has held a stable position in the middle of the pack for several years. This year, Poland is represented on the global list by 7 companies: Cisco (first place in the ranking), The Adecco Group (7th place), SAS Institute (9th place), EY (10th place), Daimler Mobility (16th place – in Poland as Mercedes-Benz Financial Services), Dell Technologies (17th place) and Volvo Group (20th place – in Poland as VFS Usługi Finansowe).

By industry, technology companies remain the largest group (32%), followed by companies from the financial sector (16%) and manufacturing and professional services companies (12% each).

A recipe for difficult pandemic times

A recipe for difficult pandemic times

The announcement of this year's List coincided with the coronavirus pandemic. This prompts reflection on how the current difficult times will affect the market situation of companies and the people they employ. To this end, Great Place to Work® reached for historical data from the economic crisis of 2007-2009. It turns out that the more effort a company put into building strong bonds and mutual trust within the organization, the more resilient it was to crisis turbulence. Where employees' experiences were more positive, the company's market position was also better. How the distinguished companies will cope with the current challenges in practice, we will find out in a year, from the next study. Much indicates, however, that companies from the Great Place to Work® lists will prove better prepared for the need to change their operating model imposed by the pandemic. What will matter here is not only the trust capital built up earlier, but also an organizational culture that, in everyday practice, prioritizes diversity, agility and flexible forms of work.

Summary

In the anniversary, tenth ranking of the World's Best Workplaces 2020, the technology company Cisco won, ahead of DHL Express and Hilton. The list was compiled based on 3.3 million anonymous employee surveys from 10,000 companies in 97 countries. Among the 25 laureates were 7 companies whose success is co-created by their Polish branches, including EY, Dell Technologies and Volvo Group.

Importantly, the researchers examined how companies coped during the crisis of 2007-2009. It turns out that organizations with a high level of internal trust were more resilient to market turbulence, which may be a pointer for the time of the coronavirus pandemic.