Recognising Team Achievement
WINNER: ASANA
Building and maintaining strong teams within any environment is a challenging task. Supporting cross-team collaboration is critical to this, as uniting experts from a variety of teams and departments leads to fresh perspectives, faster innovation and fosters a learning mindset.
Organisations often want to drive team performance, but limit recognition to individual success. In Asana, at its "All Hands" event, it has a simple, yet effective, practice to recognise and celebrate team level success. "Transfer the Flag" sees one team hand over the flag to a new team which has displayed great collaboration and contributions to a broader effort.
Preparing for the Future of Work
WINNER: STELFOX
The "Future of Work" appears to have become a catch-all phrase for everything from gig working, AI and robots, to business adaptability, organisational agility and individual autonomy. Against this backdrop, organisations are being challenged to keep apace with this change.
This year, Stelfox has introduced a number of measures demonstrating a commitment to work-life balance, most notably a move towards a four-day week. This move is underpinned by ensuring long-term, sustained success for employees and the organisation. When employees hit their targets two months in a row and as long as they continue to do so, they can move to a four-day week. This is also available to support and non-billing staff, whose ability to access a four-day week is also unlocked based on their performance and objectives.
Understanding Changing Employee Needs
WINNER: REGENERON
Trends in demographics are changing the workforce as we know it, and the best organisations keep their finger on the pulse as to the make-up of their employees at all times. Over the last year, Regeneron noticed an increasing number of employees starting or adding to their families.
The team in Regeneron worked with its healthcare provider to offer a series of nurse/midwife-led seminars on the birth process, newborn and infant care for both current and expectant mothers and fathers.
In addition to the lecture series, it provided a bespoke midwife service covering home visits, telephone support and early care information offered at the convenience of employees. A midwife meets the expectant parents at the time and location of their choosing, with one visit prior to the birth and two visits provided for antenatal care.
Employees Improving Lives Together
WINNER: MORGAN McKINLEY
CSR practices that are embedded as a genuine part of a company's values and operations can help enhance the company's profile and competitiveness.
The Morgan McKinley Million stands out for the way it brings together global and location initiatives, the scope for collective causes and, crucially, at its core is employee led. Established in 2016, the challenge set by Morgan McKinley as an organisation was to contribute the equivalent of a million euro to charities and worthy causes across their global footprint of offices.
In raising money for charities all over the world, big and small, fundraising events have included colleagues, clients and candidates. Employees have donated their time through volunteering and expertise in a number of ways, including helping disadvantaged young people in their careers.
Creating a Listening Ecosystem
WINNER: ESRI IRELAND
Over the last number of years, Esri Ireland has established a GPTW Team that have developed a range of practices within the business to drive their internal culture.
Based on direct feedback to the team and wider input from the survey, they have set about establishing a number of initiatives from Thank You Days and Suggestion Boxes, to Salary Surveys and additional access to academic and industry research.
Not only this, but the GPTW Team also have a dedicated "Great Place to Work Official Celebration Day".
In a fun, relaxed setting, the entire organisation comes together and the Trust Index Survey and Culture Audit results are shared. Feedback is welcomed to ensure that the measures being put in place make sense for employees.
Sustaining & Driving Long Term Success
WINNER: JARLATH DOOLEY, VERSION 1
Jarlath Dooley (pictured above right) is HR & Integration Director at Version 1 and has been integral in driving a high trust, high performance culture within the organisation. His focus on sustained success and understanding of how to drive data and feedback into action means he plays a key role in ensuring that Version 1 is consistently delivering for employees, customers and as a business overall.
Embedding the Great Place to Work model through periods of rapid organisational growth takes commitment, constant communication and authenticity. Jarlath has demonstrated this commitment by acting on feedback and empowering employees to thrive and develop. Jarlath has also been central to establishing Version 1 as a top employer brand within the increasingly competitive Irish talent market. This manifests, among other things, in The DNA of Version 1, with the telling tagline: "A great place to work, not an 'easy' place to work."