The Workplace Engagement Specialists

Best Companies to Work for Results in 2013

Introduction

Best Companies produced the first 'Best Companies to Work for' list in 2001. The list was made up of 50 organisations and was published by The Sunday Times. Best Companies have been responsible for surveying organisations, analysing the results and compiling the list ever since. The results of every 'Best Companies to Work for' list we have compiled can be found below. The most recent list, Sunday Times List 2013, was published on 5th Mar 2013. Details on all the listed companies can be found using the links below. For each listed company there is a 'More Information' section containing key stats and an informative article.
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Sunday Times List 2013

With the economic gloom showing no signs of passing, the best companies to work for were still going out of their way to engage with employees. Good communication and a focus on wellbeing were the two themes to come out of the data in 2013. Companies recognised that their employees are their greatest asset and that by fostering a team spirit and working to ensure their wellbeing they will reap benefits in terms of productivity and motivation.

Sunday Times List 2012

As part of the 2012 list we celebrated organisations that had appeared on the list for at least 10 years. Admiral, W L Gore & Associates, Denplan, American Express and Deloitte were the organisations to achieve this feat. All of these organisations are different in their approach, but all of them are committed to employee engagement and fostering a culture where employees can thrive.

Sunday Times List 2011

With tough economic conditions continuing throughout the 2011 survey process, the main message from the data was that building good team spirit and keeping employees happy is key. The companies making it onto this year’s list were all committed to looking after their staff and were reaping the benefits in terms of loyalty and motivation. Keeping hold of the best employees was a priority for these organisations and a focus on personal growth and training, essential to achieving this goal.

Sunday Times List 2010

In 2010 we celebrated 10 years of producing the ‘Best Companies to Work For’ lists. While the economic climate remained difficult and many organisation were being forced to make some tough decisions, our results saw a year on year improvement in the Giving Something Back scores. Times may have been tough but employees were feeling good about the contribution their employers were making to the community and their motivations for doing so.

Sunday Times List 2009

With the global economic crisis beginning to take hold the 2009 survey told us that great organisations were those with a great leader. The biggest gains in factor scores were seen in Leadership (how employees feel about the head of the organisation and senior managers) and My Manager (people’s feelings towards their immediate manager). Our analysis suggests that effective communication and having a focus on more than profits alone are traits of a good leader.

Sunday Times List 2008

As part of the 2008 employee survey, in addition to measuring workplace engagement, we used the employee survey responses to analyse the effects of the daily commute on people’s overall feeling of wellbeing. The findings? The longer people spend travelling to and from work the more their health appears to suffer. Our findings indicated that travel times have an almost identical effect on work-life balance to overtime. Organisations offering employees flexibility with regard to homeworking saw an increase in most factor scores, especially Personal Growth, My Company and Fair Deal.

Sunday Times List 2007

W L Gore & Associates continued to lead the way in workplace engagement by topping the list for a 4th consecutive year. A truly outstanding achievement. On the small list, P3 topped the list to make it third time lucky. Top of the pile for the big companies was Goldman Sachs who romped to the number 1 spot. The responses to this year’s survey showed strong feelings towards teamwork, leadership and giving something back.

Sunday Times List 2006

In 2006 we celebrated our first hat-trick with W L Gore & Associates topping the mid list for a third successive year, despite the competition getting tougher. The flat organisation hierarchy that W L Gore & Associates are very protective over was clearly paying dividends in terms of workplace engagement. The results of the employee survey also told us that when employees become fully engaged with their company, they get increased job satisfaction and their bosses see business boom.

Sunday Times List 2005

After dividing the list into two for the 2004 process, we went one step further in 2005 by separating the mid and big companies into their own lists. The challenges faced by big organisations are different from those faced by mid-sized organisations so separating them allowed us to acknowledge the organisations in each category who were doing great things for employee engagement. Big organisations were defined as employing 5000 or more people. The definition of small companies remained unchanged.

Sunday Times List 2004

Following the success of The Best Companies to Work For list, highlighting great companies with 250 or more employees, our methodology was further developed to satisfy a growing demand amongst smaller organisations for a measure to compare themselves against. This enabled the addition of a new “Best Small Companies to Work For” list to recognise companies with fewer than 250 employees. This first small companies list celebrated 50 companies, whilst 100 companies were recognised on the mid and big list.

Sunday Times List 2003

The story of the 2003 data was that organisations that put staff wellbeing before profits ultimately reap the benefits. Organisations that offered flexible working to employees saw improved scores in relation to managers, wellbeing and personal growth. The data also told us that women were happier and less stressed than men. Women reported feeling a greater sense of fulfilment in their work and experienced greater personal growth.

Sunday Times List 2002

The data collected during the 2002 process told us that if an employer treats their staff with openness, respect and generosity, their employees will repay them with increased productivity even when times are tough. More than a third of the organisations that made the list in 2002 had been forced to make redundancies during 2001, yet the employees that remained still voted them among the best employers in the country.

Sunday Times List 2001

It all started for us in 2001 with the launch of the very first ‘Best Companies to Work For’ list. The list consisted of the top 50 organisations, as voted by their employees, and was published in The Sunday Times. It was the result of analysing the responses of nearly 16000 employees and consisted of companies of all shapes, sizes and industries. The survey responses told us that employees were putting increasing importance on a better balance between their work and home lives.