Great Place to Work® UK, the leading employee experience consultancy has released its 2021 UK’s Best Workplaces™ awards list. The rigorous Best Workplaces™ ranking, comprehensively audits both the employee experience and the practices of organisations across various UK industries, including hospitality, tech, pharmaceutical, FMCG, retail and manufacturing.
During an incredibly challenging year of unprecedented economic impact, the latest research shows how top-ranked organisations have been able to cultivate a culture of resilience while prioritising the employee experience. "Developing a high trust culture continues to be a key component to fuelling business performance and creating a strong organisational foundation," says Ben Gautrey, Great Place to Work's Managing Director. In 2020 specifically, employees’ feeling of trust within a Best Workplace™ was on average 10 percentage points higher than non-ranked organisations.
In its annual publication, Great Place to Work® UK looked at how the past year of crisis has impacted the employee experience at Best Workplaces™. Key insights include:
- Innovation: During the crisis, 81% of Best Workplaces™ were encouraged to try new things, regardless of outcome compared to 67% of non-ranked organisations.
- Collaboration: On average, 85% of home-based employees at Best Workplaces™ feel they can rely on colleagues to co-operate. This is 19 points higher than at non-Best Workplaces™.
- Values: With a large importance placed on leadership transparency brought on by the uncertainty of the pandemic, 81% of Best Workplaces™ felt that their managers actions matched their words, compared to 63% of non-ranked organisations.
Who made the UK's Best Workplaces™ list in 2021?
This year’s ranking of Best Workplaces™ ranges from organisations that have been on the list consistently such as Cisco, DHL, Intuit QuickBooks, Foundation SP and SAS to many new list makers including social services & government agency Ombudsman services and London based bicycle rental company Brompton Bikes. Ranked No.1 in the Super Large, Large, Medium, and Small categories are Hilton, The Sovini Group, Tulchan Communications LLP and Ryan, respectively. The Sovini Group also took the No.1 spot in the 2020 awards list, demonstrating the sustainability of their people practices and programmes. You can view the full list of 183 recipients here.
As we begin to move past this difficult period and head into a new future, we hope our Best Workplaces™ list and annual publication can inform and inspire organisations to prioritise trust, the employee experience and creating a better workplace culture for all.
