Employees Vote For Nz's Top Workplace

Employees Vote For Nz's Top Workplace

Being sent to the Himalayas with the boss's blessing and a $5,000 grant sounds like a tall story, but for Waikato District Council road designer Kurt Abbott, it was a dream come true.

It's also one of the reasons why the Council was voted in the country's best top five (medium sized) places to work and rated tenth equal overall in the Unlimited Best Places to Work survey .

Every new BMW employee gets a spin in one of the company's fleet and all staff are given the opportunity to lease an 'ultimate driving machine' at special rates. The classy reputation and brand image inspires achievement amongst employees, whose ratings placed the company 12th overall.

Nokia, in 14th overall, has a philosophy of fun matched with a framework called the Nokia Way. Employees get annual well-being allowances to spend on some form of leisure or health activity.

In the largest and most authoritative survey of its kind, the annual Unlimited Best Places to Work survey was completed online by 13,000 employees from 128 organisations. Responses jumped 30% up on the previous year's survey.

Top place overall went to HR recruiter and consulting company Momentum Consulting Group, which also won the small workplace category(less than 100 staff) category. The Flight Centre retained its top spot from 2003 as best large workplace

(400+ staff), as did last year's top ranking medium sized company winner Microsoft New Zealand.

In addition to the rankings, the survey highlights what makes and breaks a good workplace. Employees rate the "challenge of the job" and "opportunity for advancement" as the most important factors affecting their sense of happiness.

Analysis of the more than 30,000 surveys collected over the past three years shows happy workplaces are also profitable workplaces. Organisations with higher satisfaction scores also report higher levels of profit and stronger revenue growth.

"The top 20 organisations grew 20% on average, while the remainder grew at only 14% per anum," says Unlimited publisher Vincent Heeringa. "Like similar surveys overseas, Best Places to Work confirms the fact that staff happiness is directly related to overall financial success. In other words, happy workers make productive workers!"

The survey is conducted and analysed by John Robertson & Associates, specialists in HR surveys. It is sponsored by Haines, the employment brand experts, and training provider, David Forman.

The top 20 companies

1. Momentum Consulting Group - HR recruiter and consultant

2. OCG Consulting - HR recruiter and consultant

3. Henry Schein Regional/Regional Health - dental products/services

4. Information Tools - marketing software and database service

5. Colmar Brunton Research - brand development

6. Intergen - Microsoft solutions development company

7. Microsoft NZ - IT services

8. Express Data - technology supplier

9. Flight Centre (NZ) - retail travel

10=Merck Sharp and Dohme New Zealand - medical research

10=Waikato District Council

12. BMW Group NZ - luxury car maker

13. Christchurch City Libraries

14. Nokia New Zealand - mobile communications

15. Hosting and Datacentre Services - IT services

16. Ministry for Culture and Heritage

17. SellAgence - brand manager

18. Outward Bound Trust of NZ - adventure learning school

19. BT Funds Management - investment and financial services

20. Fidelity Life Assurance - insurance and financial services

Winners were announced last night at an awards dinner in Wellington.

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