Mission and values

The Great Place to Work® Institute is dedicated to helping organizations understand and practice the qualities and behaviours that lead to the creation of great workplaces. This effort leads to enhanced quality of work life for employees and improved financial performance for the organization.

Great workplaces are worth examining, if for no other reason than that they enrich the lives of the people working there. Everyone, after all, would prefer working in a pleasant working environment to an unpleasant one. Since most of us spend the greater part of our waking hours at work, this in itself is no small matter.

Social implications

At the same time, the quality of our workplaces has major social implications. We're all familiar with the symptoms of bad workplaces - the personal stress, the erosion of physical and mental health, the lower productivity. A society of great workplaces, where people have confidence in management and are respected, would be a superior place for everyone.

Any organization can be a Great Place to Work®

Our approach is based on the major findings of 20 years of research - that trust between managers and employees is the primary defining characteristic of the very best workplaces.

At the heart of our definition of a great place to work - a place where employees " trust the people they work for, have pride in what they do, and enjoy the people they work with " - is the idea that a great workplace is measured by the quality of the three, interconnected relationships that exist there:

  • The relationship between employees and management.
  • The relationship between employees and their jobs/ organization.
  • The relationship between employees and other employees.

The Great Place to Work® Institute offers services that help organizations to build on their strengths and shows them where opportunities for improvement within these three key relationships will enhance their workplaces. The Institute's tools go far beyond typical employee surveys and appraisal methods to uncover a wide variety of management practices and attitudes that are often overlooked.

Enhancing the workplace brings in results

In a great workplace, how people are treated is important . Creating a great working environment is considered a valid objective of the organization. This contrasts with the conventional business assumption that the only legitimate objective of a organization is to increase profits. In a great workplace, both goals are seen as compatible. Indeed, good employers that create the best possible workplace may enhance a firm's ability to perform well financially. But they insist that having a great workplace cannot be merely another strategy to make money. Quite the reverse. Rather than stifling employees' lives to make money, a great workplace also sees profits as a means of enhancing employees' lives.

Some organizations have been doing this for years because they inherently know the rewards such a culture will yield. Our goal is to help your organization integrate this approach into its workplace and work habits.