Employer of Choice - the bottom line

How do you ensure that your organisation is a 'place where people want to do great work'?

In a study of employees at work, the Sunday Times newspaper asked the opinions of 58,000 employees to comment on their feelings about employment and their employer. Their report was a revealing guide to 'The 100 Best Companies to Work for.'

Judith Leary-Joyce, in her book 'Becoming an Employer of Choice' highlights the issue of 'career' as one of the keys to employers being identified as one of the best companies to work for.

Leary-Joyce challenges organisations with these questions:

• how often are appraisals taking place?
• how many people have personal development plans?
• how many people have coaches?
• how many internal mentors are passing on their knowledge and experience?
• do people believe they can develop their career in the organisation?

Examples of Leary-Joyce's findings include the business case for creating great company culture:

• 'Once people hear what an exciting workplace you have, they will flock to join you.'
• 'Imagine the bottom line impact when recruitment costs fall and less time is lost as the outgoing person shift his or her attention away from the work and the incoming arrival strives to grasp the intricacies of a new job.'
• 'The very best customer service operations have excellent people cultures. We can only give as much as we receive.'

She argues that your present culture has a direct impact on your bottom line. For further evidence, read her book and examine her graph in her Appendix 3 'Great companies consistently outperform the FTSE All Share'.

Over the past five years the best companies would have earned an investor a compounded annual return of 12.1%, compared with a 5.8% decline in the FTSE All Share index as a whole (Statistics by Frank Russell Company)

  For a copy of 'Becoming an Employer of Choice' click here.