PA life
PA life

The Best Places to Work in the UK have been announced!

best-places-to-work-in-the-UK-2023-by-The-Sunday-Times

Happy workers make for more productive workers. It’s well known today that employers who invest in the wellbeing and happiness of their workforce reap the benefits. But what makes them some of the best places to work?

Senay Boztas talks about the findings of The Sunday Times Best Places to Work in 2023 results. PA Life is delighted to be able to share them here together with the online list of this yearโ€™s winners. The listing showcases the best small, medium, big and very big organisations. It also ranks best workplaces for women, LGBTQ+ community, disabled employees, ethnic minorities, younger and older workers, and also for wellbeing.

Are you happy at work?

Findings from a total of 36,000 organisations in 106 countries by the career development platform WorkL show firms that make their people feel content perform better too. Unhappy employees are costing Britain millions of pounds, according to Lord Mark Price, the former trade minister and managing director of Waitrose.

It is a state of affairs that WorkL, which he founded in 2017, has been beavering away to put right. Lord Price is uniquely able to bring 34 yearsโ€™ experience working at the John Lewis Partnership to the data gleaned from WorkLโ€™s widespread study. โ€œWeโ€™ve been able to figure out, from a qualitative and a quantitative point ofย view, what the real benefits are of having a happier and more engaged workforce,โ€ he says, recalling one financial institution that had below-average engagement scores. โ€œWe calculated that the cost of their sick absence and staff turnover and loss of productivity was ยฃ2.5 million a year.โ€

Upping its staff engagement figures to the average rate would save ยฃ1m, WorkL found. โ€œSo although people think of this as being quite fluffy, itโ€™s hard-nosed,โ€ says Lord Price. Employees who arenโ€™t happy represent a measurable โ€œflight riskโ€, WorkLโ€™s research indicates. Men aged between 25 and 44 are particularly prone to leaving their jobs, representing wasted investment in training and possibly a costly recruitment process.

Six elements needed to make it in The Best Places to Work in the UK

He identifies the six elements that drive a happy workplace below โ€“ attributes that abound among the employers featured in The Sunday Times Best Places to Work. Some top firms are generous with compensation. A performance bonus and uncapped commission at recruitment agency Carrington West, for instance, average salaries of above ยฃ45,000 at Big Bite Creative or a share scheme at NextWave Consulting are great examples.

It takes more than financial recognition

But reward and recognition are not just financial. Saying โ€œthank youโ€ can also make an impact. โ€œOn average in the UK, we say โ€˜thank youโ€™ and congratulate people on a job well done every two months,โ€ says Lord Price. โ€œIt matters to people to feel they areย doing something thatโ€™s been recognised as worthwhile.

โ€Sharing information is important to ensure staff understand why business choices are made and their own role. Employees at Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust are encouraged to โ€œask Ifyโ€ โ€“ the chief executive Dr Ify Okocha โ€“ their questions directly. Empowerment means trusting people to do their jobs. โ€œWe donโ€™t wallow in mistakes,โ€ as the podcast and radio production agency, Fresh Air Production, puts it. โ€œThere are no witch hunts.โ€ At the7stars media agency, employees can work from anywhere worldwide for four weeks a year.

best-places-to-work-in-the-UK

 

At Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust, one of the top ten very big organisations, employees such as this nurse are encouraged to contact the chief executive directly with any questions they may have.

Learning is part of job satisfaction

Job satisfaction is also driven by career development or the sense of learning within a job, plus the direct relationship with your manager. โ€œThis is pretty critical to whether you are happy or not at work,โ€ says Lord Price.

At London interior design studio Albion Nord, staff are encouraged to visit exhibitions โ€œto benefit growthโ€; Britainโ€™s top employers typically invest in professional management training rather than employing managers as if by accident.

Wellbeing falls into three areas, notes Lord Price: mental, physical and financial. โ€œThe physical one is straightforward. If, say, you work in a factory or an area where health and safety is a big issue, is that being taken care of? If you are disabled, is the organisation managing that disability with you?โ€ With increasing numbers of people identifying with mental illness, โ€œis the organisation aware of that? Are you able to manage the mental struggles you may be having?โ€

And then itโ€™s financial: โ€œDoes the organisation help you if you have financial difficulty? If it does, how?โ€ Staff wellbeing is an area where great companies get inventive. Hamilton Barnes Associates, the recruiter, brings in a barber or eyelash technician once a month; the marketing platform Awin runs rural retreats. Several firms offer hardship loans to their employees.

And finally, pride is key: the thing that makes you feel a company is yours and you share its success. โ€œThe anecdote that I tell most often is when President Kennedy went to visit Nasa before it put a man on the moon,โ€ says Lord Price. โ€œHe said to the janitor, โ€˜What do you do?โ€™ The janitor replied: โ€˜Iโ€™m putting a man on the moon.โ€™ He had a huge amount of pride in his job because he saw its place within what everybody there was trying to achieve.โ€

2024 entries

If you did not enter this year, entries for the 2024 awards are now open!, please visitย hereย for more information on how to enter.

 

Are you looking for a happier workplace? Check out the latest jobs on the SecsintehCity jobs board right here in PA Life