What is a Great Place to Work?
According to Great Place to Work, in our 30 years of research, they found that people experience a great workplace when they, consistently: Trust the people they work for (assessed through employee perceptions of Credibility, Respect, and Fairness); Have Pride in what they do; and Experience Camaraderie with their colleagues.
Trust: Credibility
Employees see management as credible (believable, trustworthy); assesses employees’ perceptions of management’s communication practices, competence, and integrity.
Trust: Respect
Employees feel respected by management; assesses employees’ perceptions of professional support, collaboration and involvement in decisions, and the level of care management shows for employees as people.
Trust: Fairness
Employees believe management practices and policies are fair; assesses the equity, impartiality, and justice employees experience in the workplace.
Pride
Measures how employees feel about their own individual impact through their work, their pride in the work of their team, and their pride in the organization overall.
Camaraderie
Measures whether employees believe their organization is a strong community where colleagues are friendly, supportive, and welcoming.
From the manager’s perspective, a great workplace is one where managers
· Achieve organizational objectives.
· With employees who give their personal best; and
· Work together as a team/family in an environment of trust
Through our work, we’ve identified the nine areas where leader and manager actions, behaviours, and communications have the greatest impact on the level of trust in an organization. They are:
1. Hiring: Hiring practices ensure new employees fit into the culture and are welcomed.
2. Inspiring: Employees see how they contribute to the organization’s higher purpose.
3. Speaking: Leaders provide information honestly and transparently.
4. Listening: Leaders are accessible and actively seek employee input.
5. Thanking: Employees are appreciated regularly for their work.
6. Developing: Leaders help employees to grow professionally and personally.
7. Caring: Employees are supported as people with lives outside of work, especially in times of need; workplace is inclusive and embraces diversity; benefits are meaningful and distinctive.
8. Celebrating: Organizational and team successes are regularly celebrated.
9. Sharing: Rewards of mutual efforts are shared equitably with all who helped produce the results and are shared with communities.
How to assess the place that I am in now?
#5 — The need to learn more while you are on the job
No one is an expert. Irrespective of the field you are working in, learning is a continuous process. The opportunities you find while you are working at a current organization motivate you to go beyond your regular “job description”. It is a feeling that decides how much you wish to give more than you are expected to.
This depends on two factors. One, your own passion to outdo your role and be a bigger contributor by self-learning and application. Two, the people around you who are willing to accept this determination and not create roadblocks for you to grow.
#4 — Long term growth and the ladder that you need to climb
Long term growth may have many definitions. Some define it as the number of skills they master before they move on to the next company while others may want to grow in a particular role first and then take up more responsibility. The decision will always be yours on how to define it but whichsoever organization you are in will have to understand both — personal and employee goals. When the objectives are in the same direction, it gets easier to create win-win situations.
#3 — The potential to network and the access you require
The power of networking is magical, and the door to the right people mostly comes through the leadership where you work.
Over and above leadership, there are people who are your juniors, clients, mid-level colleagues or probably someone you met at a work event. The relationship you form with them is very crucial to multiple situations. Some may find you a potential lead to other introducing you to his/her own manager in their next job or simply someone connecting you to someone who you couldn’t reach otherwise. The possibilities are infinite.
At the right workplace, you will feel less unsure and more confident about taking your career path to the next level. The confidence of your teammates including your manager in you will be clear enough to grow together.
#2 — Your direct manager and the team you work daily with
Coming to the two most important factors that make or break your career. Your direct manager. As I mentioned above, the one to who you directly report plays a significant role in your professional journey. They need to believe in you and your work. There are concepts of work-wives and work-husbands and then there is this concept of a relationship with your reporting manager which is a culmination of love-hate — friendship — appraisal — good work — bad work — laziness — pro-activeness — leaves — working weekends — early hours — late hours and much more.
I call this relationship as your work-parent. If this person takes care of you and vice-versa like a parent-child relationship, nothing can stop you both from achieving what you plan and desire. Next comes the extended team — members of which are as important as a family to achieve that one common goal for the organization. You can consider yourself lucky if you find a work-parent and work-family because they will never betray. Even if they leave the organization, the relationship will stay forever.
#1 — Respect, Empathy, and Mental Health
Now that you have reached the number one thing/step to figuring out if you are at the right place at the right time, I’d like to tell you this in simple words — Nothing matters more than peace of mind, self-respect, and benefit of the doubt for others.
In my seven years of working across multiple companies, I’ve not even come across seven people in total who understand and practice this realization. It’s not easy to deliver perfect work. There will always be something missing, there will be imperfections, rude clients, rude employees, unrealistic expectations, zero appreciation, and many worst experiences. You must decide where to draw the line, how to behave with others and set your dignity and integrity.
The system is changing. The norms are changing like there’s no tomorrow. People are eventually understanding what empathy means and what it could do. The awareness is spreading like a positive wildfire creating billions of conversations online and offline. If your workplace ignores all of this and still continues to work the way it has always been for the last couple of years, you need to either take a stand, speak in a way they understand and be the light the other five hundred employees need or find the next work abode and be transparent about what you expect from the culture and people.
Sources: - Great Place to Work
- Medium.com Start It Up