An Inspiring Environment

Are you a student wondering who your first employer will be? Or, if you are already employed, are you working in a place, which is great to work?

To answer the above question, you may want to know what such a workplace is like. Is it an organisation that has great compensation and perks, or great career opportunities? What about learning opportunities and work-life balance? Is it possible to have it all?

Unfortunately, there is no magic formula or one standard definition of a great place to work. Many organisations, including my own, have defined it based on their research. However, while each workplace is unique, we do know what stops an organisation from achieving the “great place to work” status. I will enumerate a few reasons in this column.  If you feel your company is not a great place to work, is the reason one of these:

I don’t trust my boss- Shyama is a product manager who worked hard on a new product idea in an FMCG company. Her boss kept encouraging her. However, once the product was launched it was the boss who took all the credit (and the promotion). Shyama decided to quit.

 The bosses take all the money – The sales team of a pharmaceuticals company worked tirelessly to achieve 50 per cent more than the budget. While the sales representatives received double the regular incentives, the sales manager and his senior colleagues were given four times their regular variable pay. Most sales representatives did not view it as fair.

Blue eyed boys - The CEO of one organisation was perceived to be partial to one of the employees, who was promoted without following the laid down process. While this set tongues wagging, very little could be done by the people. They made sure, however, to fill the ears of the new CEO who replaced the old one. The person who had received a promotion was soon forced to leave. The organisation, however, had no process to highlight discrepancy in behaviour of individual employees, particularly senior managers.

Does anyone really care? – Most organisations have processes in place to recognise and deal with who they consider as high performers or low performers. There is very little focus on the vast majority, also known as “solid citizens.”

The columnist is the CEO of The Great Place to Work® Institute, India.