In the last few years, companies describing themselves as “Best place to work for XYZ reason” is ever-growing.
Many organizations are starting to imagine newer categories of awards, such as “Most admired company,” “Best company for parents,” or “Pet friendly” etc.
I am always skeptical of such awards. I wanted to find out what makes these companies different from others.
Companies I worked for received terrible ratings in sites like Glassdoor or Blind. Yet, I survived and flourished in such companies. I can imagine life will be a rainbow and skittles in the companies receiving awards.
I started to look into my contact list on LinkedIn and begin to make a list of people working for companies who recently won some rewards. Luckily, I have a big network so that I could speak to diverse connections from fortune 500 companies in different industries, including social media, finance, Telecom, and manufacturing.
Below is a list of unique and exciting things I found about these companies:
Office Politics
Yes, it exists everywhere, almost everyone I spoke to mention some sort of politics at play. Either a power play at the top or worse middle-managers trying to outdo each other (sound familiar). However, most teams focus on the outcome that is tightly aligned with the company’s goal and mission.
Great Benefits
One of the most significant commonalities among the best companies were medical benefits. In most cases, medical expenses were 100% covered. In some instances, even the babysitting was paid by the company.
Pay
Pay varies between the companies and their geographic location. Most of these companies paid the market or above market.
Bonus
Almost everyone I talked to raved about their bonus structure; these companies offered big bonuses. Offering company stock was another way these companies reward the employees
Management Direction
Almost everyone thought that their management could do better. Some suggested that management is only worried about each quarter’s growth instead of long-term growth.
Managers
Managers had a significant influence on people’s opinions about the company. Best companies have managers who are there to make everyone successful and not worry about taking credit for the job. In poorly managed companies, this is oppositive. Micromanagement is very common.
Vacation Policy & working from home
Excellent companies often have a very generous vacation policy. Few companies are starting to give extended time for paternity leave for Dad’s as well. Working from home was another benefit that was offered by these companies.
Overall
There were few subtle and other reasons why some of these companies were ranked higher in one or different categories. The awards are created by HR teams to attract talent, but the culture behind it is built by trusting their employees to do their best work. Managers in these companies were pivotal in establishing a culture of trust. And the employee responds by doing innovative things.
Photo by Perry Grone on Unsplash
Photo by Johnson Wang on Unsplash
Photo by Alexander Mils on Unsplash
Photo by Jehyun Sung on Unsplash
