Becoming
the Best
Place to Work

By: Sherry El-Gawly

Unemployment levels in the U.S. as of July 2013 are 7.4%, vs. a pre-crisis level of 4.7% at the same time in July 2007 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics). Employee engagement and satisfaction with organizational workplaces has fallen to modern day lows, with employees anxious for the job market to recover so they can “hightail it out of organizations which they feel deeply disregard them“.

The logical conclusion to the above two facts is that once unemployment levels begin to improve, there will be considerable upheaval in the human capital of organizations whose talent is dissatisfied and merely biding their time. Organizations who stand to win the “war of talent” will be those most able to retain that talent, with an environment that authentically values and brings out the best in them, whilst making it a place they love to belong to.   If people are indeed so many companies’ “greatest asset”, then these companies need to re-assess and re-direct their energies to translate this into meaningful action.

“Why is Google so great?”, many a CEO will wonder. Google is a place where it’s employees love to work.  There is an intentionality in the sort is workplace they are creating which engenders deep affinity and loyalty on the part of its employees. Fast Company’s  recent article, “Why Companies Are (finally) Falling All Over Each Other to Become Best Places to Work“, explores this issue in greater detail.

What if corporations understood that work could be joyful whilst being driven and ambitious? And that joyful work produces great fruit via deeply engaged employees who work with ownership and passion?