India Vs. World's Best

How do India's best workplaces compare with the best in other parts of the world? The Great Place to Work® Institute has been studying best workplaces for 25 years. It is possible to compare India's Best Workplaces with similar workplaces in other parts of the world, since; in 30 countries across the globe we use the same employee survey to do our Best Workplaces Study. Therefore, the "100 Best Companies to Work For" list of Fortune magazine in US will be comparable to the Best Workplaces List that we bring out every year in India.

The Institute has a simple definition of a Great Place to Work®. If you trust the people you work for, take pride in what you do, and enjoy the company of people you work with, you are working in a Great Place to Work®.

An interesting observation we have is that there is more commonality amongst the best employers across the globe, and there is more difference amongst Organizations within a country who participate in our annual studies. To understand how India's Top 25 workplaces compare with the rest we have referred to the Great Place to Work® Institute's Top 100 list for US, EU, Latin America, Brazil, and the Top 50 in UK.

Interestingly, the employee survey scores of the Top 25 Workplaces in India are closer to Brazil, and to UK, rather than US, EU or Latin America. Overall, the best workplaces in India still score less than the Top 100 in US, Europe, and Latin America in almost all areas. Thanks to the race for attracting and retaining talent, this gap is narrowing. A case in point is our rather poor record of work life balance, even amongst the best employers. Compared to 67 percent employees in best workplaces in India in 2004, in 2007 more than 75 percent employees in the best workplaces agree that people are encouraged to balance work life and personal life. Similarly, there is a nine percent improvement in scores for the statement, "I can take time off from work when required".

While overall management credibility of the best workplaces in India is comparable to others, lesser number of employees agree that they can ask management any reasonable question and get a straight answer, with US, Europe and even Latin American employees seemingly getting more "straight answers" from their managers. Managers of best workplaces in India score lower than US and EU managers when it comes to avoiding favoritism, politics and backbiting. Interestingly, amongst the various countries compared, managers of best workplaces in Germany seem to indulge in favoritism and workplace politics the least.

The Economic Times (Delhi edition)