best places to work guide ue low

8/2/2019 Best Places to Work Guide UE Low

1/52The work style magazine GPTW Special edition, May 2011 Europe 3 , Us 4 $, World 5

Wor ty e

Special editio25 Best Multinational Workplaces. 50 Best Small & Medium Workplaces. 25 Best Large Workplaces. They are the2011 Europes 100 Best Workplaces Interviews with HR Directors and an exclusive reection byParag Khanna onthe future of work in Europe.

A worldwide observatory on work style changes

This Guide has been publishedin collaboration withGreat Place to Work Institute Europe


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Mirko NesuriniChairman o The Work Style Company

The Gala dinner and the Award Ceremonyis held at the Pavillon Gabriel, situated at5 Avenue Gabriel. The closest underground

station is Champs-Elyses Clmenceau(Line 1). To go to the Pavillon Gabriel romthe Hotel Concorde Laayette, take Line 1(yellow line) rom Porte Maillot and get oat Champs Elyses Clemenceau; its only 5stops away and it takes about 10 minutes.

Making 100 companies come togeth-er to talk about the uture o work

is not simple. Making 100 excellentcompanies come together its a mis-sion impossible that only organiza-tions like GPTW can do. In April weorganized a workshop in Milan totalk about the identity o work. Onehundred thirty-ve employees romexcellent European companies anddesigners helped us, oering ideasand suggestions that are partiallyreported starting rom page 40 andthat are deepened in the bookTalking (publisher The WorkStyle Company, 316 pp., Euro24). The Awards ceremony orEuropes 100 Excellent Work-places is an interesting habit

In Paris meet 100% quality

that is compiled in this media that orthe ourth time we publish as inter-

national media partner. Besides high-lighting to the public this years bestcompanies in the 35 countries wherewe are distributed, we oer supportor organizations that can get to knoweach other or let others know aboutthem. This support is not a simple listo companies but also acknowledg-es thoughts and suggestions oeredby HR Directors. In this sense it o-ers a signicant elaboration. In ParisGPTW has thought about creating anevent in great style. Many in depthsessions and meetings are held at theHotel Laayette.

The conference is held at the Hotel Concorde La Fayette. The acility is conveniently located close tothe Champs-Elyses, between the La Dense business district and the Triangle dOr shopping area. It issituated at 3, Place du Gnral Knig, which is one minute away rom the Palais de Congrs, at 2.5 kmrom the Avenue des Champs-Elyses, 4.5 km rom La Dense and 4 km rom both Le Grand et Petit Pal-ais and the Eiel Tower. The closest underground stations are: Porte Maillot (Line 1), Porte de Champeret

(Line 3) or 3 RER C/Train: Porte Maillot.

Welcome by the publisher


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Parag KhannaSenior Research Fellowat the New America Foundation

THE EUROPEAN MODEL.There is clearly no winner in the East

versus West debate about the most suc-cessul model or capitalism. We knowthat democracy needs capitalism, butcapitalism doesnt need democracy andso many people are praising the Chinamodel or the Singaporean model, thestate capitalism model, as many peoplecast out on the Western model, as a airmodel. The truth is somewhere in be-tween, and I think Europe is that inbetween. Europe is the balance be-tween state capitalism, subsidies,national champions and regulationwhile also having ree enterprise,entrepreneurship, and the ease ostarting business. At the same timethe social context is still one osocial democracy so it is againstinequality, strong basis in rights,

very good inrastructure, this com-bination o characteristics its somethingthat is really oered only in Europe.Then there is the issue o governmentversus governance, what underpins thisdebate about East versus West is howstrong the role o the State is, what Ithink is ascinating is the resolution othat in avor o a new mantra o hybrid

governance, collaborative governance,public/private governance, what therole, the appropriate role o the privatesector in providing public goods, oster-ing innovation, and strengthening em-ployment is. All o these kind o thingsmaintain a low are inequality, pro-moting equality. You nd that tension

Europe, a strong future

We know that democracyneeds capitalism, but capitalism

doesnt need democracy.

is very strong. In Europe you nd thatyou have a airly happy medium. You

dont have a tremendous share o de-pendency on the State, but you do haverms and corporations that provide verystrong wage support and are thereorecontributing to welare. You have pub-lic/private hybrid investments in en-trepreneurship and innovation. I thinkSweden is a very good example o thatbecause o the role o Vinova. There aremany examples in Europe o this hybridpublic/private governance which is verymuch the way o the uture.

INNOVATIONThe debate about innovation contin-ues. Some people, think that innovationonly happens in a completely ree, un-regulated and unsponsored type o en-vironment, which is obviously not true,because some o Americas leading in-novations are originally governmentsponsored. Theyre reerring to the Sili-con Valley model. But most countriesin the world cant take risks o ailure.Singapore chooses very strategically 10-15 years in advance because they wantto make sure they have an advantage.They cannot aord even one ailure be-

cause they have a very precari-

ous geopolitical situation, hav-ing a very ethnically diversepopulation that can becomeunstable. They believe that onlywealth can maintain a cohesion

o society, which is quite rankly true.For them the idea is to plan innovation.Last year I spent a ew days and I visit-ed their biopolis, uturopolis and A-starlaboratories and realized that they havevery long start up times, they want to besure its very clear what they innovateon and what sectors to attract.

Parag Khanna.He is a leading geo-strategist,world traveler and author. Senior

[W paragkhanna.com]

Focus Europe

A FAIRLY HAPPY MEDIUM. In the debate between East and West or the mostsuccessul model o capitalism, Europe seems to hold a good balance; its hybridpublic/private governance promotes equality and can be considered the best way orthe uture.


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So the lesson for Europewith North Africa is that

you have to make it rich.

EUROPE AND IMMIGRANTSFirst o all this is a post-colonial prob-lem and not a new one. Whats hap-pening in Libya and Tunisia is just oneepisode in a 65 years old story, sincethe end o colonialism. People makeprojections, but I think its really hardto make projections because i we weresitting here ten years ago, we would bereerring to Turks. What happened isthat Turkey reached an infection pointwhere it became stable and prosper-ous and a nice place to return to. WhatEurope did right, it engaged with Tur-

key. Europe had a customs union withTurkey or 50 years. You have politi-cal engagement. You reormed Turk-ish laws. You have had a huge amounto oreign investment. In Turkey theyhave the 85-90% o oreign investment,and a massive development o Turkishinrastructure. All o these things haveimproved lie in Turkey, so now theydo not necessarily want to leave maybethey want to live in Turkey ater all. Sothe lesson or Europe with North A-rica is that you have to make it rich.You cant stop rats coming. Spain hasbeen trying all sorts o things. We allknow that in the end they wont work.You have to do the Turkish thing, andthats just medium term. Foreign invest-ment outside o oil and gas sectors isthe main thing that needs to be done.

EUROPE AND IDENTITYFor Europeans the identity questionneeds to be broadened to ollow poli-tics, because o the politics o the EUexpansion into a new expanded EUunion, which I call EU Commonwealth.There are countries that are not in theEU that are becoming part o that com-

monwealth such as Georgia, Armeniaand Azerbaijan, and they have to be-come part o the identity. I you havea religious/ethnic denition o identityor Europe then you would ear a de-mographic decline, but i you have apolitical denition o the identity youcan say Europe is actually quite strong-ly connected with Ukraine and maybeTurkey you have 650 million peopleand thats twice the size o the U.S. Myhope is that younger generations willhave a more political/geopolitical de-

nition o identity but looking at the wayyoung people approach politics todayI think Ill end up completely disap-pointed.

YOUTH AND GLOBALIZATION

I believe that training or young peo-ple should prepare them or the cor-porate sector, the government sec-tor and the nonprot sector. Over thecourse o their lie, theyll have multi-ple jobs in these areas. Thats an exam-ple o new diplomacy. Another is theoverall process o globalization which

creates a new psy-chology. It becomesinevitable and thatswhen one realizesthat they work orJaguar, but their em-ployer is Tata. Theremight still be vulnerability. One doesntnecessarily embrace globalization i itmakes them weaker. Young peopleshould recognize thats an irreversibleprocess and, instead o recoiling romit, they should gure out how to takeadvantage o it.

WEST Vs EASTEurope is not over. There is strength tothe European model, market and sta-bility. The West wont be replaced bythe East. Many say that this is the Asiancentury; its neither the Asian Century,nor Indian, nor American, nor Brazilian.Its a complicated coexistence and thereason is because when people reerto the West, they think o Europe andNorth America, orgetting the third pillaro the West and thats South America. Iyou think about the West having threepillars, it is very sturdy, very strong,

much stronger than the East, and therewill never be a confict. East is ormedby China, Japan, Australia and Korea.Theres much tension and, at times,hostility between these countries, so weshould ask ourselves, i a thing such asthe East actually exists. But there is sucha thing as the West which has morethan 50-60% o the worlds economy.Europe should be much more con-dent, extending its reach across Eurasia.Europe is not doing enough to advanceits expansion. It is very cautious.

CITIES AS NEW SCENARIOSFOR BEST WORKPLACES

When people use the term war ortalent, they always reer to corporatecompetition, whereas I think the com-petition should be between cities.Talent migrates to certain geograph-ic magnets. This is why, when the -nancial crisis hit us and many peoplelost their jobs in London or New YorkCity, or example, they were sendingCVs out in Abu Dhabi and Singapore.It didnt matter what the job was; theirexpertise is beyond one company.

Theyre looking to move to a placewhere theres cluster activity, so thewar or talent is among cities, and notcompanies. Organizations move towhere the talent is going.

TECHNICAL SKILLS,THE WAY FORWARD

The idea that by the name or repu-tation o where one has studied isenough to propel them through lieis rapidly ading. Instead it hinges onskills. There are systems and societiesthat are advanced in this process, de-spite the competition rom China andAsia, Germany continues to be the topexporter. This is because o the tech-nical skills that are taught beginningat a younger age. Then there is thesegmentation o education or partic-ular career paths and anticipation othe need to preserve certain career

paths like manuacturing, engineering,automotive. This training actor is ap-plied at any level, even at corporatelevel, where organizations train theiremployees. They are also giving cer-ticates, which become as useul asreputation and as important as a ulldegree, because its quick; its specic;its tailored and it shows you can dosomething now. Those places that areemphasizing this vocational trainingcomponent will be much better o.

Research Fellow at the New America Foundation, author o the interna-

tional best-sellers How to Run the World: Charting a Course to the NextRenaissance (2011) and The Second World: Empires and Inuence in the

New Global Order (2008). His 2008 cover story or the New York Times

Magazine titled Waving Goodbye to Hegemony, is one o the mostglobally debated and inuential essays since the end o the Cold War.


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Jose Tolovi, Jr.Global CEO Great Place to Work Institute

Robert LeveringCo-Founder Great Place to Work Institute

We are proud to present the 100 BestWorkplaces in Europe 2011. This

year, 1,380 companies took the jour-ney with Great Place to Work In-stitute and entered the list-processto benchmark themselves with thebest. These companies representmore than 1.5 million employeesin Europe, making this study tothe largest o its kind.We know that operating in mul-tiple countries is a dicult job;creating a great workplace inmultiple countries is even hard-er! We are thereore happy toannounce the ollowing chang-

es, as compared to last year.We have introduced a separate listor Multinational Companies! Withthis list, we want to specically rec-ognize companies that seek to creategreat workplaces across country bor-ders and cultural and language di-erences. Companies must be listedon a minimum o three national BestWorkplaces Lists in Europe to be eli-gible or this list.Furthermore, to recognize participa-tion in national Best Workplaces Lists,companies that entered multiple BestWorkplaces competitions in Europe

received extra credit. This extra creditwas built into our evaluation processon European level.Only the top companies meet the cri-teria to participate in the Best Mul-tinational Workplaces list, with Mi-crosot emerging as our inauguralwinner. Congratulations!Our two other lists at European levelare the Best Small & Medium Work-

Welcome the Best

places List and the Best Large Work-places List. As always, the competi-

tion was tough, and we are proud toannounce the winners: Frs HerredsSparekasse (Denmark) made it to thetop o the Small & Medium Workplac-es List, and Elica (Italy) is #1 on theLarge Workplaces List.As the global economycontinues to recover, itis important to note thatthe Best Workplaces aregreat job creators!During the last 12months, the companiesrepresented on thisyears list have cre-ated 14,000 newjobs and increasedtheir total numbero employees bythis number. Notsurprisingly, thesecompanies arepopular employ-ers, receiving onaverage 8.4 jobapplications pereach existing sta member per year.I hope that you will become inspiredby these companies. They are cer-

tainly setting the standards or howto create productive and successulbusinesses.

[W greatplacetowork.com]

Welcome by Great Place to Work Institute

NEW AND OLD. The 2011 100 Best Workplaces list presents some changes butthe underlying philosophy is the same: awarding the Best Workplaces that createproductive and successul businesses. 1,380 companies entered the list and thecompetition was tougher than ever.


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0

Ricardo LangeCEO Great Place to Work Institute Inc.

Article byMarcus Erb andJacob Goldstein

Placing trust in someone is like givinga git, because it empowers the other

person and expands his or her possibil-ities. Although it is not yet common-place or leaders to give the git otrust to all o their employees, creat-ing a high-trust workplace is an im-portant goal, ultimately resulting inemployees reaching their ull po-tential and greater nancial success

or the company.

BUILDING TRUST:THE ULTIMATE ASSET

Everyone knows how to engage intrustworthy behavior with some peo-ple those who are regarded avor-ably, cared or deeply, and with whomresponsibilities are shared. Oten thistrustworthy behavior comes naturally topeople, such as with amily and closeriends. When trust shows up in theworkplace, it has a powerul impact ona companys sucess and ability to sus-tain it, particularly in the rapidly chang-ing times we nd ourselves in now.At the 2011 Great Place Work Con-erence, speakers shared their insightsabout how they have built great work-places at their businesses. While thesespeakers represented companies o

many sizes and many dierent indus-tries, they shared one common themeo success: trust.To begin, employees are more com-mitted to leaders who they trust. Whenemployees trust their leaders and ndthem to be credible, they are more like-ly to contribute to their ideas, experi-ment with new ways o resolving di-lemmas, address customer concerns,and ollow leaders into uncharted ter-ritory.Trust thus gives leaders the ability to

Trust in the workplace

ocus on leading, rather than spend-ing time controlling people, putting out

res or responding to crisis broughtabout by unethical behavior. In a col-laborative environment permeated bymutual trust, leaders set the directionor the organization and employees who have oten been involved in theprocess o developing implementationstrategies are willing to ollow.Companies eorts to build trust showup not just in happier employees, butalso in their nancial statements. Thepublicly traded 100 Best Companieshave consistently shown that as a groupo organizations, their long-term nan-cial perormance is superior to that ocomparable groups o companies whether it is on the Dow Jones, the S&P500, the Russell 3000, or our own inter-nal comparison index o the Lower 100group o companies. The 100 Best per-orm better in strong economic times,lose less in weak economic times, andrecover aster to pursue new opportu-nities during times o renewal.Why is this? In these Best Companies,employees believe their leaders, leadersrespect their employees, and the work-places are set up to insure airness indaily operation. This creates a culture in

which an individuals natural instinct tocooperate with a small group o closeriends and kin is broadened to includethe wider group o employees, manag-ers and leaders throughout the organi-zation. Thus, trust makes broader levelso cooperation possible.

THE MEANING OF TRUST

The concept o trust has many dimen-sions, and its denition varies acrossdierent organizations. We asked sever-al leaders taking part in the Great Place

01 Man at work at Novozymes

02 Employee at Novozymes

Novozymes is the world leader in bioinnovation.

Our business is industrial enzymes, microorganisms,

and biopharmaceutical ingredients. We provide

business-to-business biological solutions used

in the production o numerous products such as

biouel, detergents, eed, and crops. Novozymes

has over 5,000 employees globally, working in

research, production, sales, and administration.

When we spoke to Nathalie Ove Homann, HR

Director at Novozymes she put great emphasis on

the importance o trust in the workplace, saying

that her company is highly based on trust, as she

states: We trust employees, we give them the

chance to take responsibility or their own tasks, we

trust them in being motivated and being capable o

completing those tasks.

Denver Conference. Individuals rom a broad range o industries come to the Great Place to WorkConerence in March 2011, to exchange best practices, to share challenges, and to build a robust supportnetwork. The topic o the Denver conerence evolved around trust in the workplace, so that the questionis: what can companies do to build trust in their workplace?The 2012 conference will take place in Atlanta (US) on March 28th and 29th.

GPTW Worldwide


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to Work Conerence to share their de-inition o trust, as well as what theircompanies do to build trust betweentheir employees.Richard Taylor, HR Manager, Intel Cor-poration states that trust is to say whatyou will do and then do what you say,explains Taylor. In Intel, to build trustbetween employees, we use a variety omatters. Communication is one o themost important things. We tell peopleabout business strategy, we tell peoplehow their individual job contributesto Intels success. We keep the dialogueopen between managers and employ-ees, we execute strategy, we celebratesuccess, we acknowledge our aliates.And with this, the most important thingis that we have employees who believe

in the company and we have managerswho believe in employees.According to Katherine Palmer, VicePresident, Human Resources Policy andPractices, Bright Horizons, trust goesback to credibility and integrity. Tobuild trust, a person needs to be able tohonestly address things in an open way,to ollow through on what they say, andstand behind it. That builds a trustingrelationship.For Cathy Leibow, Vice President, Em-ployee Loyalty Services, Les Concierges,

trust is an important aspect o Leibowswork, which is ocused on conciergeservices. Clients trust us because, orexample, we have access to their creditcard inormation. They trust us to use itto purchase tickets or movie events. Thetrust actor improves the organizationand the services, which provides a re-turn on investment or the client.Jenn Mann, Vice President, HumanResources, SAS Institute Inc. says thatSAS has been in business or 35 years.While its business model and employeemodel have changed, the company stillsees a strong connection between cus-tomer satisaction and employees satis-action. We believe that i our employ-ees are happy, our customers are alsohappy. This is an important ormula.

For us, trust is the condence that theemployees have in the company to putthem rst, to do whats right or them.SAS recognizes that its employees have alie outside the organization.And thenshe adds We do not look at them as em-ployees, we look at them as human be-ings.

CONCLUSIONS

The practices o leaders at high-trustworkplaces, having inspired thousandso employees to make commitments tothe long-term success o their organiza-

tions, have now begun to change the

mindset o other leaders. Why wouldan employee place his or her securityinto the hands o leaders who are mostlikely not amily or close riends? Be-cause in great workplaces, leaders actin ways that invite trust: they speakhonestly, keeping spin to a minimum,they equitably share the organizationsprots and benets, and their actionsmatch their words. Any organizationcan become a great place to work justollow the leader.

01

02


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Text byOtto ZellDirector Global List Managementwith Great Place to Work Institute Inc. team

GENERAL FACTS 1,380 companies participated in

the 2010-11 Best Workplaces study. 344,397 employee surveys were

correctly lled-out or this editiono the study.

The companies taking partin the study represent acumulative total o 1,552,936employees.The average Best Workplace is 33years old. The oldest companyon the list: the British branch oTwinings Commercial can date itshistory back to 1706 305 years! 88% o the employeesrepresented in the 100 Bestcompanies arm that takingeverything into account, I wouldsay this is a great place to work.23% o the 100 Best Workplaces

are Inormation Technology andTelecommunications companies, while

The Best Workplaces at a glance

20% are Manuacturing and Productioncompanies. The list also includes

Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticalcompanies, as well as Social servicesand Government agencies (g.1). Thisvariety o companies illustrates the actthat any company can become a greatworkplace.

THE BEST NATIONAL ANDMULTINATIONAL WORKPLACES

For the rst time, the 100 Best Work-places in Europe have been dividedin three lists: The 25 Best Multinational

Workplaces The 25 Best Large Workplaces The 50 Best Small & Medium-Sized

WorkplacesAccordingly, we have adjusted ourmethodology or creating the Euro-pean Best Workplaces list.As a result o the implementing an ad-

Methodology.This report eatures lists o the 25 Best Multination-al Workplaces in Europe, the 50 Best Small & Medium-Sized Workplaces

in Europe (or companies smaller than 500 employees) and the 25 BestLarge Workplaces in Europe (listing companies with 500+ employees).Where do these lists come from?They are produced by a global organization called the Great Place toWork Institute (GPTW). For the past 25 years, GPTW has been identiy-ing and researching great workplaces, ever since Robert Levering and

Milton Moskowitz two journalists based in San Francisco, Caliornia wrote their bestselling book 100 Best Companies to Work or in Amer-ica. Their frst list o the Best Workplaces in Europe was supported bythe European Commission, which sought to help the European businesscommunity to develop great workplaces, thereore improve peoples

quality o lie and elevating the competitiveness o European industry.

Today, the Great Place to Work Institute conducts nationalworkplace studies in more than 45 nations around the world,

including 18 national studies in Europe, which are carried out bya network of afliate ofces. For the 2010-2011 edition of theEuropean Best Workplaces Study, 1,380 European companies par-ticipated, representing more than 1.5 million employees. Partici-pating employees lled out the Trust Index Survey (an employeesurvey), as well as provided anonymous, written opinions abouttheir organizations.Regardless o where your company participates in our study, all com-

panies are evaluated under the same basic methodology: an extensiveemployee survey known as the Trust Index accounts or 2/3 o thefnal score, while an independent evaluation o management practicesknown as a Culture Audit accounts or the last 1/3.

There have been moments o pride, amazement, and huge excitement in our journey rom start-up to highlyrespected business. Our frst client. Our frst employee. Our 100th employee! The frst time there were too

many o us to have our company meeting in the local restaurant. The frst 1-million contract. The frst timewe billed 1million in consecutive months. saysJim Hayward, Senior Partner at Baringa, who emphasizes:But for many of us, the one that sums it all up, was coming rst in the UKs Great Places to WorkAwards in 2010. That has been, without question, one of the biggest sources of pride. It validates thebeliefs the company was founded on, and recognises the work everyone has put in to making BaringaPartners the type of company were proud to bring people to.

GPTW Europe 2011


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justed methodology, it is not possibleto directly compare this years data

with 100 Best lists rom past years.However, one can still appreciate thattrust levels have remained high, al-though there are slight dierencesin Trust Index averages among thethree lists.

The Trust Index score rom the25 Best Multinational companiesis slightly lower than that o the 25Best Large Companies. Both o theselists have lower scores than the 50Best Small & Medium Sized Compa-nies (g.2). A similar trend can beobserved when looking at the de-tailed results, broken down by eacho the dimensions o the Great Placeto Work Model (Credibility, Respect,Fairness, Pride and Camaraderie).The Large and Multinational Compa-nies consistently score lower (g.3).

Why? In our experience working withthe Best Workplaces o dierent siz-

es, we have noticed a pattern. Usual-ly, large companies excel at develop-ing ormalized policies and practices,and thus typically score better scorethan the small companies in the Cul-ture Audit. On the other hand, it iseasier or the small companies to cre-ate trust-based relationships betweenmanagement and employees, as thereis a higher level o intimacy in em-ployees daily workplace interactions.This raises their Trust Index score.

THE BEST WORKPLACESARE JOB CREATORS

Although some o the 100 Best Work-places have reduced their number oemployees, the companies on thisyears European list nevertheless re-main huge sources or creating newjobs. In total, these companies have

increased their number o employeesby 13,989, or 5.29%. The Best Work-

places are popular employers, under-standably, and receive a high volumeo job applications. On average, the100 Best received 8,4 job applicationsper year per each existing sta mem-ber.For example, Management Events inFinland has 87 employees, but re-ceived 4,000 job applications duringthe past year. This accounts or 46 jobapplications per existing employee!Beyond simply hiring many people,however, the Best Workplaces alsomake sure to provide personal andproessional training to their existingemployees. On average, the largestemployee groups at the 100 Best re-ceive 76 hours o ormal training peryear.The Voluntary Employee Turnoveraverage among the 100 Best is 9.3%.

Once the company appears on one o the 18 national Best WorkplacesList in Europe, it is automatically a candidate or the European Best

Workplaces List. On European level, we divide the pool o listed com-panies into Multinational companies and two size categories, which are

50 to 500 employees and 500+ employees. The European List is built onthe data provided by our national ofces. We use the same methodol-ogy to rank companies as on national level with the exception oMultinational Companies.To be eligible or the 25 Best Multinational Workplaces list, a company

must have: At least 1,000 employees on global level. 40% o thecompanys global workorce must work outside the home country (thecountry in which the company is headquartered). Must be listed on atleast three national Best Workplaces Lists in Europe. In the case that acompany that operates in multiple countries does not qualiy or the

Multinational Best Workplaces List based on the aorementioned entrycriteria the company then competes with companies in its respective

size category.On regional level, we want to recognize multinational companies

that make a specifc eort to participate in the list process in multiplecountries. Thereore, we give special credits to multinational companiesaccording to the number o countries in which they participate. Thiscredit is added to a companys preliminary score, based on its individualTrust Index and Culture Audit score (TI and CA score). The extra credit

counts or up to 14% o a companys fnal score, which determineswhether or not a company will be listed, as well as its rank on its respec-tive list. Though many companies appear on multiple national lists, anyone company will appear on the 100 Best Workplace in Europe list onlyonce. Their position is determined by calculating the average o their TI

(g.1)


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www.dis-ag.com

1st placeforDISAG

inthecompetitionGermanysBestCompan

ies

toWorkFor2011


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The SMEs have the lowest turnoveraverage, with a 5.5%. The average ab-senteeism rate at the 100 Best is 7%per year.

COUNTRY DISTRIBUTION OF THE BESTWORKPLACES

Germany, Denmark and Ireland dom-

inate the country distribution, repre-senting 1/3 o the listed companies.Spain, Italy, the UK, the Netherlandsand Belgium represent the secondthird. Norway, Switzerland, France,Finland, Austria, Portugal, Poland,Greece and Sweden, represent thelast third o the list (g.4).

and CA scores and weighting those scores by the number o employees.The methodology or evaluating workplaces derives rom the Great

Place to Work Model. According to this model, the defnition o agreat workplace is an organization where employees trust the people

they work or, have pride in what they do, and enjoy the people theywork with. Trust is broken down into three components credibility,respect, and airness which are considered in addition to employeessense o pride in their work and organization, and the camaraderie thatthey share with those they work with.

About the Great Place to Work Institutes TrustIndex survey and Culture Audit

The majority o the inormation in this publication comes rom twosources, The Trust Index and The Culture Audit. Both are required

o companies who wish to be considered or the list o the 100 BestWorkplaces in Europe. The Trust Index is a standardized survey tool

developed by the Great Place to Work Institute Inc. The survey includes58 statements related to the fve dimensions o the Great Place to Work

Model. Employees respond anonymously to each statement on a scaleo 1-6: almost always untrue, oten untrue, sometimes untrue,sometimes true, oten true and almost always true. Random,but representative samples o all employees including managers areinvited to complete the survey. In smaller organizations, all employees

receive a survey. The Culture Audit is a detailed overview o a com-panys value system, management practices, and policies, and is usuallycompleted by the HR manager and other senior leaders. The CultureAudit includes both statistical data and open-ended questions and isevaluated based on a standardized methodology developed by Great

Place to Work Institute.

Gptw Europe 2011

(g.2)

(g.4)

(g.3)


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25 Best Multinational Workplaces:Prior Recognition in the European List. (numbers in bracketsindicates the number o countries in which the company was listed).Microsoft [2003 (4), 2004 (12), 2005 (12), 2006 (8), 2007(12), 2008(14), 2009 (16), 2010 (15)]; Amgen [2004(SP), 2006(PT), 2007(PT);Mars 2010 (3)]; Cisco Systems [2006(D), 2007(D), 2008 (5), 2009

1MicrosoftAustria, Belgium, Denmark,

Finland, France, Germany,

Ireland, Italy, Norway, Poland,

Portugal, Spain, Sweden,

Switzerland, The Netherlands,

UK

Inormation Technology

Sotware12311microsot.com

2 AmgenBelgium, Greece, Poland, Spain

Biotechnology422amgen.com

3MarsAustria, Belgium, Denmark,

Finland, France, Ireland, Italy,

Portugal, Spain, Switzerland

Manuacturing & Production/Food and beverage2334mars.com

4 Cisco SystemsAustria, Belgium, Germany,

Italy, Norway, Portugal, Spain,

Switzerland, The Netherlands

Inormation Technology4280cisco.com

The ranking showsthat the 25 best mul-

tinationals to work orare in Europe. Many com-

panies are excellent by nature. Its intheir DNA. Others strive to be ex-

cellent and work very hard on

their processes to achieve ex-cellence. We interviewed thetop three multinationals andasked them what they did tobecome excellent. We discov-

ered that pride is one impor-tant element as Cindy Morri-

son, VP International HR atAmgen, told us: Last year

in our global employee sur-vey, 88% o our sta toldus they would recommend

Amgen as a place to work.

5 3M1Austria, Germany, Greece,

Ireland, Spain

Manuacturing & Production5056mmm.com

6 NetAppFrance, Germany, Switzerland,

The Netherlands, UK

Inormation Technology1328netapp.com

7McDonaldsBelgium, Denmark, France,Ireland, Italy, Norway,

Switzerland, The Netherlands,

UK

Manuacturing & ProductionFood and beverage45319mcdonalds.com

8 SAS InstituteBelgium, Finland, France,

Germany, Italy, Norway,

Portugal, Sweden, The

Netherlands

Inormation TechnologySotware1595sas.com

9W.L. Gore & AssociatesFrance, Germany, Italy

Manuacturing & Production1514gore.com

10 KelloggsIreland, Italy, Spain

Manuacturing & ProductionFood and beverage466kelloggs.com

11 DiageoIreland, Portugal,The Netherlands, UK

Manuacturing & ProductionFood and beverage1338diageo.com

12 HiltiAustria, Germany, Italy, Poland,

Switzerland,The Netherlands

Manuacturing & ProductionMachinery and equipment6030hilti.com

13 PepsiCo2Germany, Greece, France,

Ireland, Italy

Manuacturing & ProductionFood and beverage2652pepsico.com

14 AccentureAustria, Denmark, Germany,

Greece, Norway, Sweden,

Switzerland

Inormation TechnologyIT Consulting7583accenture.com

15 FedExBelgium, France, Ireland, Italy,

Spain, Switzerland,

The Netherlands

Package Transport5805edex.com

Employees are proud to work at Am-gen. To a large extent this has to do withwhat it is we do we discover, developand deliver innovative medicines totreat serious illness. We make great sci-ence happen.Others companies ound their success

in their principles, like Mars, where thecorporate philosophy is ounded onve principles: quality, responsibility,mutuality, eciency, reedom.These Five Principles provide the build-ing blocks or how we operate, says Pas-cale Perez, Communication Manager atMars. She adds, Quality is the uncom-promising standard or our actions. Wealso demand total responsibility romourselves and support the responsibil-ity o others. We believe that mutualityis the measure or our success. In Mars

25 Best Multinational Workplaces1. (Germany) 3M ESPE2. (Greece) Tasty Foods3. (Spain) Telenica Int. TISA/ Telenica Int.

TIWS, (Germany, Ireland, UK) Telenica O2


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Ranking 25 Best Multinational Workplaces

(12), 2010 (6)]; 3M: 3M ESPE (Germany) [2006 (D), 2007(D), 2008(D), 2009(D), 2010(D)]; Ne-tApp [2009(UK), 2010(CH, UK)]; McDonalds [2003(DK), 2008 (BE,NO), 2009(BE,DK), 2010(4)];SAS Institute [2005(S), 2007(NO, S), 2008(3), 2009(4), 2010 (4)]; W.L. Gore & Associates[2005(D), 2006(D), 2007(D, F), 2008 (D, F), 2009(3), 2010(3)]; Kelloggs [2009 (ESP)]; Diageo[2009(UK) 2010(UK)]; Hilti[2009 (D), 2010(CH)]; PepsiCo [2004(F), 2006(F), 2007(F), 2010(3)];Accenture [2008 (4), 2009(3), 2010 (2)]; FedEx [2004 (D, IT), 2005(BE), 2007(BE), 2008(BE, D),

2009(BE, IT), 2010(BE)]; Novo Nordisk 2004 (DK) 2005 (3), 2006(DK, FIN), 2007 (3), 2010(4)];Telefnica [(Germany, Ireland, UK 2005 (IRE), 2006(D, IRE), 2010(D, IRE)]; SC Johnson[2004(4), 2005(4), 2006 (FR, UK)]; Novartis [2003, 2005(SP), 2006(NO) ]; Abbott [2005(IRE,GR), 2006 (IRE), 2007(IRE), 2010 (3)]; Danone [2003, 2004 (ESP), 2005 (ESP), 2006 (ESP), 2007(ESP), 2009(UK), 2010(UK)].

16 Novo NordiskItaly, Switzerland,

The Netherlands

Biotechnology &Pharmaceuticals616novonordisk.com

17 Telefnica3Germany, Ireland, Spain, UK

Telecommunciations17852teleonica.com

18MedtronicGermany, Greece, Ireland, Italy,Portugal, Spain, The Netherlands

Manuacturing & ProductionMedical devices5453medtronic.com

4. (Ireland) Abbott in Ireland is represented with Abbott Diagnostics, Longord;Abbott Ireland Pharmaceutical Operations, Sligo; Abbott Laboratories, Dublin

5. (Germany) Quintiles Commercial Germany6. (UK) Danone Dairy, (Germany, UK) Danone Waters7.Mundipharma are independent associated companies

eciency is another strong principle, asPerez says, We use resources to the ull-est, waste nothing and do only what wedo best. Last but not least Mars men-tions reedom, because, as stated byPerez, it allows us to shape our uture;we need prots to remain ree. Freedom

makes Mars distinctive rom its competi-tors.Another key element that companiessuggest is consistency.I think the mainthing or us is to do what we say we do,be true to ourselves and make sure thatwhat you see is what you get. We try tobe the more transparent possible.Ineke Hoekman-Van Hassel, HR man-ager at Microsot advises: For exam-ple or the GPTW survey, we decided toput all the data on our website or theworld to see, and we allow people to

make comment on them, and to say iwe maintained our promises.Companies, just like people, have dis-tinctive traits. Which are the distinctivecharacteristics o this year winners?Were particularly proud o the spe-cial Equity Award, says Perez (Mars).

It recognizes our everyday practices insharing the same oces, caeteria andmeeting rooms, the approachability oour managers, our air and transpar-ent pay packages, and, o course, ourrejection o all orms o discrimination,particularly gender discrimination. Oureorts to adapt working hours to am-ily schedules and to allow associates towork rom home are also seen as a ac-tor o equity, as its particularly useul toyoung moms. And we plan to go urtherby opening a day nursery in St-Denis-

de-lHtel: a joint crche with anotherlocal company, she continues.Beyond equity, fexibility is one o theimportant qualities that orm the per-sonality o a company as Hoekman-Van Hassel (Microsot) explains: Wehave an older colleague who worksrom his vacation home in Turkey or aew months in a year. We also have ayounger colleague who starts one hourlater, because he enjoys walking his dogand comes to work and appreciates theact that he can share this with his col-leagues. You dont need a justicationor this.People involvement is another instru-ment that helps companies to buildtheir brand: We have the Make the Di-erence Awards organized worldwideevery two years. It is open to all unc-tions in all businesses and the overallobjectives are to raise the importance oinnovation and initiative and to recog-nize contributions rom both individu-

als and teams in the areas o peror-mance through innovation, people andplanet, explains Perez.In the end even the internal climatehelps. At Amgen you will work with in-spirational leaders and highly talentedcolleagues an environment in whichyou can succeed and develop; and wesee corporate citizenship as an integralpart o who we are, says Morrison (Am-gen). I work at Amgen or three rea-sons: great science, great people, greatuture.

19 BaxterAustria, Denmark, France,

Ireland, Poland, Portugal, Spain,

Switzerland, The Netherlands

Biotechnology &Pharmaceuticals2419baxter.com

20 SC JohnsonGermany, Italy, Poland

Manuacturing & ProductionPersonal and Household goods326

scjohnson.com21 NovartisFinland, Italy, Poland, Spain

Pharmaceuticals3549novartis.com

22 Abbott4Denmark, Ireland, Norway,

Sweden,

The Netherlands

Pharmaceuticals2362abbott.com

23 Quintiles5Germany, Italy, Spain, UK

Biotechnology &Pharmaceuticals3956quintiles.com

24Mundipharma6Austria, Germany, Switzerland

Pharmaceutical860mundipharma.net

25Danone7Austria, Germany, Portugal, UK

Manuacturing & Production/Food and beverage1445danone.co.uk


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8

1Frs Herreds SparekasseDenmark

Banking/Credit Services139roes.dk

2ReaktorFinland

Inormation TechnologyIT Consulting130ri.i

3Creativ CompanyDenmarkRetail102cchobby.dk

4noventum consultingGermany

Inormation TechnologyIT Consulting83noventum.de

5Middelfart SparekasseDenmark

Banking/Credit Services191midspar.dk

6atriaspersonalmanagement

Germany

Proessional Services/Stafng &Recruitment68atrias.de

7Baringa PartnersUKProessional services/ConsultingManagement154baringa.com

8 Euro Car Parks IrelandIreland

Construction & Real Estate/Prop-

erty Management189eurocarparks.com

9 Bain & Company IbricaSpain

Proessional Services

Consulting Management77bain.com

10Jones LangLaSalle Ireland

Ireland

Real Estate59joneslanglasalle.ie

11 SocialpsykiatriLollandDenmarkSocial Services75socialpsykiatri-oest.dk

12 WebstepNorway


IT Consulting211webstep.no

13 BofllesskaberneEdelsvejDenmark

Social Services53

14 Autisme CenterVestsjlland

Denmark

Social Services298a-c-v.dk

15 FuturiceFinlandInormation TechnologySotware112uturice.com

16 GlaxoSmithKlineDenmark

Denmark

Biotechnology

& Pharmaceuticals122glaxosmithkline.dk

The ranking shows whoare the 50 best SME towork or in Europe.

Is there any dier-ence to become anexcellent companyi you are a large

enterprise or a SME?I yes, which are thedistinctive traits that

make a SME a betterworkplace? We askedthese questions to somecompanies and we dis-covered that most othe time, it is the de-sire o the manage-

ment to build new ormo workplaces or exam-

ple with a culture based on

listening, as Pia rskov, HR Leaderat Creativ Company, states: I thinkit has a lot to do with the owners othe company. When they establishedCreativ Company they knew that theywould want to create Denmarks bestworkplace and they knew they didnt

want to do the same things that theyhad experienced themselves in work-places that didnt work. And to dothat, they have always taken listeningto employees very seriously, have a di-alogue every day and really to act onwhat they hear. We still do that even iwe are now more than 100 people. Itis very important in our culture to lis-ten to each other, to talk to each other,to say what we see and respond to oth-er peoples way o working or livingand we do that continuously. We do

50 Best Small and Medium Workplaces: Prior Recognition inthe European List. Frs Herreds Sparekasse [2005, 2006, 2007,2008, 2009, 2010]; Reaktor[2008, 2009, 2010]; Creativ Company[2010] ; noventum consulting [2008, 2009, 2010]; MiddelfartSparekasse [2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010;

50 Best Small & Medium Workplaces


19/52

17 HUJDenmark

Construction

& Real Estate/Contracting82huj.dk

18 KantegaNorway

Inormation TechnologyIT Consulting77kantega.no

19 Nissan ItalyItalyManuacturing & ProductionAutomotive190nissan.it

20 AxcessDenmark


IT Consulting113axcess.dk

21 MilesNorway

Inormation Technolog

IT Consulting52miles.no

22 OCTOFrance

Inormation Technology134octo.com

23 PipelifeFinlandManuacturing & ProductionRubber and plastic products124pipelie.i

24 HerningKommunale tandpleje

Denmark

Health Care65

25 Softonic.comSpain

Inormation Technology185sotonic.com

26 Management EventsFinland

Proessional Services63managementevents.i

27 MjlnerDenmark

Inormation TechnologyIT Consulting83mjolner.dk

28 CB Richard EllisIreland

IrelandConstruction & Real Estate130cbre.ie

29 Aquamarine PowerUKManuacturing & Production

Energy Distribution52aquamarinepower.com

30 ORMITThe Netherlands

Proessional Services118ormit.nl

31 Grupo Visual MSSpainInormation Technology50visualms.com

32 Timothy James Consult-ingUK

Proessional ServicesStafng & Recruitment51timothyjamesconsulting.com

things several times a year. We dontsee development or each individual,but we see development or individu-als within their groups, when we talkdevelopment is always in the group,in the team, in that way we have in-fuence in our job and in our ca-

reer and in other peoples jobs and inteams development. This is not some-thing that leadership is saying, butevery employee actually has the pos-sibility to have infuence on their ev-eryday work, career and developmentand also the companys.Being a small or a medium enterprisesometimes means working very hardon proessionalism to reach sublimelevels: We have worked hard to be-come proessional. We have set sometargets based on the mission, and

also values. We are a nancial insti-tute. We dont have any stakeholders,so we dont have to pay any moneyto anyone when we get good resultsand that money can be used in ourlocal area. So we have worked a lotwith targets and objectives and then

we have a simple business strategywhich is that i your employees aresatised, they can deliver the task tocustomers, and you also get satisedcustomers, arms Bente Graae, HRDirector at Froes Herreds Sparekasse.Another secret to reach excellent lev-els is caring in terms o work environ-ment and personal lie. Liisa Huusari,HR Manager at Reaktor, reveals:When Reaktor was ounded in 2000,we decided to make it the best possi-ble workplace or both ourselves and

our employees. We want to hire thebest experts in the eld and providethem with the best possible conditionsor development at work, and enablethem to constantly learn new things.We take care o employee satisac-tion by always putting people rst.

We never work overtime. We respectpeoples individuality, and we supportour employees through lies changingsituations. Employee well-being andcompany success go hand in hand. Ina successul company, the employeesare happy and, by investing in people,the company will succeed.

SME have particular traits that makethem succeed in their mission, andconsequently become Best Workplac-es. The concept o amily has an im-

atrias personalmanagement [2010]; Partners [2009, 2010]; EuroCar Parks Ireland [2009, 2010]; Bain & Company Ibrica [2005,2008, 2010]; Jones Lang LaSalle Ireland [2009, 2010]; Webstep[2009, 2010]; Bofllesskaberne Edelsvej [2010]; Autisme CenterVestsjlland [2006, 2007, 2009, 2010]; GlaxoSmithKline Denmark

[2009, 2010]; Kantega [2007, 2010]; Pipelife [2010]; Softonic.com[2009, 2010]; Management Events [2007, 2010]; Mjlner[2005,2007, 2008]; Aquamarine Power[2009, 2010]; ORMIT [2009,2010]; Timothy James Consulting [2007, 2009]; Premier GroupIreland [2009]; Eurorms [2007(DK), 2008(DK), 2009(DK), 2010(DK)];

Ranking 50 Best Small & Medium Workplaces


20/52

0

33 Premier Group IrelandIreland

Proessional Services

Stafng & Recruitment139premiergroup.ie

34 OptimumNorway

Investments51optimum.no

35 EurormsSpainProessional ServicesStafng & Recruitment130euroirms.es

36 RochePharmaceuticals

Denmark, Portugal

Pharmaceuticals286roche.com

37 TwiningsUK Commercial

UK

Manuacturing & Production/Food and beverage85twinings.co.uk

38 Accent jobsfor people

Belgium

Proessional Services475accent.be

39 Altenhilfe St. GereonGermanySocial ServicesResidential Care275haus-berg.com

40 sepagoGermany

Inormation Technology52sepago.de

41 FCm TravelSolutions Ireland

Ireland

Proessional ServicesTravel Management50ie.cm.travel

42 ConVista ConsultingGermany

Inormation TechnologyIT Consulting191convista.com

43 AE NVBelgium

Inormation TechnologyIT Consulting96ae.be

44 Taff HousingAssociation

UKSocial Services/Housing98tahousing.co.uk

45 Investec IrelandIreland

Banking/Credit Services108investec.ie

46 AccuracyFrance

Proessional Services87accuracy.r

47 FondiaFinland

Proessional Services/Legal65ondia.i

48 Bacardi BrownForman Brands

UKManuacturing & Production262brown-orman.com

49 Finn.noNorway

Online Internet Services279inn.no

50 NoviaFinland

Proessional Services/Telephone

Support/Sales Centers163noviainland.iportant role in this path to success:

Our company has a amily spirit,we try to make people eel like a am-ily and all the responsibility and theevents are about being part o a am-ily. We are taking care o each oth-er and at the same time we want a

sort o reciprocity. We go to the the-atre together. Last year we celebratedour 10th anniversary, so we went ora whole day and stayed in a castle inDenmark, playing, having un andhaving a party. Few times a year weget together and learn and talk aboutsome issues, bringing up questionslike, how can I be a good colleague?How can I infuence my work envi-ronment? How do I communicate inthe best way? says Pia rskov.Giving the possibility to care o cer-

tain aspects o the company to em-ployees is another way to create apositive climate. One distinctivecharacteristic is the initiative andenthusiasm o our employees. Everyyear they arrange dozens o dierentinternal races, code camps (where

people code two days together), salescamps, tons o ree time clubs andevents rom shing to running, ski-ing, painting, chess etc. None o theseare started, arranged or led by themanagement o the company but em-ployees themselves, says Liisa Huusa-ri HR Manager at Reaktor.At Froes Herreds Sparekasse it is alsothe huge sense o membership thatmakes the strength o the companyas HR Director Bente Graae reveals:Our personality is that here employ-

ees look rst at what they can do oryou beore they think what the com-pany can do or them. So, in oth-er words everybody at Froes HerredsSparekasse puts their department rst,and then themselves, so they are goingto ulll the mission, beore they thinkabout whats good or themselves. Sowe are teams who work together toachieve goals.

Twinings - UK Commercial [2009]; FCm Travel Solutions Ireland[2010]; Investec Ireland [2010]; Accuracy [2010]; Bacardi BrownForman Brands [UK 2006, 2007, 2008]; Finn.no [2010].

Ranking 50 Best Small & Medium Workplaces


21/52

1ElicaItaly

Manuacturing & Production

Furniture1506elica.com

2ATPDenmark

Financial Services & Insurance774atp.dk

3 EMCIreland, PolandInormation Technology1718uk.emc.com

4DIS AG GermanyGermany

Proessional Services/Stafng& Recruitment810dis-ag.com

Excellence hasdierent dimen-

sions and dependson many actors when it

comes to companies. It could bethe territory, the culture, the

degree o innovation, or

the vision o their manag-ers. But the excellenceo the three large com-panies that were award-ed this year has a single

name: Listening.Marco Scippa, HR Man-ager at Elica, states:The most importantthing, and perhaps itis a trivial answer, isthat we put the cus-

tomer rst. Starting with values thatare the delight o customers, we trymore and more to make people eelspecial, all those people with who wecome in contact. All things that wehave thought were suggested by ourpeople and that requires a great abil-

ity to listen. Everyone in the companyhas the right to come and say whydont we do this or why dont we doit dierently? I think this is one o thekey elements that allowed us to be areerence.

While Hazel Shananan, HR Managerat EMC, adds: One o the things wehave done through the years and con-tinue to do is that we listen to employ-ees eedback. We have a survey everyyear that provides employee eedback

5domino-worldTMGermany

Social Services

Residential Care520domino-world.de

6 Nordea Liv & PensionDenmarkFinancial Services & Insurance563nordealivogpension.dk

7 Heiligenfeld KlinikenGermanyHealth Care/Hospital598heiligeneld.de

8 NetDesignDenmarkInormation TechnologyIT Consulting524netdesign.dk

9 SMA Solar TechnologyGermany

Electronics5450sma.de

10 EnergiMidtDenmark

Manuacturing & ProductionEnergy Distribution612energimidt.dk

11 IrmaDenmarkRetail/Food, Grocery721irma.dk

12BeierholmDenmarkFinancial Services & Insurance/Accounting544beierholm.dk

13 Schoenen TorfsBelgiumRetail523tors.be

14 Topaz EnergyIreland

Retail1367topaz.ie

15 TivoliDenmark

Hospitality/Hotel, Resort1300tivoli.dk

16Novozymes DenmarkDenmark

Biotechnology2400novozymes.dk

25 Best Large Workplaces

25 Best Large Workplaces: Prior Recognition in the European List.Elica [2008, 2009, 2010]; ATP [2009, 2010]; EMC [2009(IRE),2010(IRE)]; DIS AG Germany [2005, 2008, 2009, 2010];domino-worldTM[2010]; Heiligenfeld Kliniken [2007];NetDesign [2009, 2010] ; SMA Solar Technology [2006, 2008,


22/52

2

and we get eedback in many otherorms. Listening to the eedback andimplementing what was requestedI think its what made us an excel-lent company.Listening also meansthat the company acts in a humaneway as reveals Scippa: We are still

a human company. Two months ago,unortunately, one o our employeesdied leaving two little girls. We tookcare o his wie who now works withus. As long as there is the eeling, theheart, we will continue to be an ex-cellent company and will continue tochurn out ideas. But listening is alsothe ability to build a good communi-cation, as Shananan suggests: EMCworks extremely well on communica-tion with employees and customers.That is the key to create trust and to

make a Great Place to Work. I youare able to communicate and peoplecommunicate with you, you have atwo way conversation continually go-ing. For other companies the way toreach excellence is to develop em-ployees skills as Pernille Juel Sefort,

associate director HR & Internal Com-munication at ATP, says: Our basicview is that ATPs competition-powerdepends on the market value o eachand every employee. The psychologi-cal contract we have with our employ-ees is simply that their market valuemust improve while working or ATP.This is why we very deliberately ocuson developing competences, makingsure everybody is on the right track.This includes proessional, social andpersonal skills. Furthermore we de-

mand a high level o managerial skillsrom our leaders. Our leaders are re-sponsible or creating a working en-vironment, where purpose and visionare visible or each and everyone,and where passion and engagementhas room to blossom.

Many times the distinctive traits o acompany are those o the ounder.Marco Scippa (Elica), tells a nice sto-ry about the ounder that gives thesense o Elicas DNA: Ermanno Ca-soli, the ounder o Elica, invented thehood. He was a veterinarian, and hehad nothing to do with the world otechnology. One day, in the seventies,he had the idea to create a prototypeand he was able to get an appoint-ment with Philips Europe in Paris. Atone point during the presentation the

17Bright Horizons FamilySolutions

Ireland, UK

Education & Training1984brighthorizons.co.uk

18Tetra Pak ItalyItaly

Manuacturing & Production/Machinery and equipment737tetrapak.com

19Boots Retail IrelandIrelandRetail1700boots.com

20UnicarepharmacyIreland

Ireland

Retail788unicarepharmacy.ie

21Admiral GroupUK

Auto Insurance3017admiralgroup.co.uk

22 Janssen CilagSpain, SwitzerlandBiotechnology &Pharmaceuticals669janssen.com

23Sparda-Bank MnchenGermanyBanking/Credit Services666sparda-m.de

24 Randstad GroupBelgium

BelgiumProessional ServicesStafng & Recruitment1364randstad.be

25 ReitangruppenNorway

Retail/FoodGrocery534reitangruppen.no

2009, 2010]; EnergiMidt [2009, 2010]; Irma [2003, 2005, 2006,2007, 2008, 2009, 2010] ; Schoenen Torfs [2006, 2007, 2008,2010]; Novozymes Denmark [2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2010];Bright Horizons Family Solutions [2008(UK), 2010(UK)];Unicarepharmacy Ireland [2007, 2008, 2010];

Admiral Group [2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010];Sparda-Bank Mnchen [2008, 2009, 2010];Randstad Group Belgium [2007, 2008, 2009, 2010]

Ranking 25 Best Large Workplaces


23/52

managing director asked him how thehood worked. Unortunately by con-necting the hood to the socket powerwent o and the entire building wasin the dark. Mr. Casoli turned to thedirector and told him Monsieur, Ihope your electrical system has not

damaged my hood. With this joke hegot the rst order o 5,000 covers. Thisshows how unconventional we are;but this makes us original. Today weare the rst company that inventeddesigner hoods. The eorts we are do-ing today keep alive this DNA and re-produce it in other places where Elicais an idea, the paradigm o being un-conventional. Being able to see thingsrom a dierent angle and mainlycontaminate the knowledge leads toinnovation.In other companies is

a commitment or a particular chal-lenge that gives a company a specialtrait. For example in EMC, this is in-novation. Recently EMC held a megalaunch, which was the launch o anew product and the title o the lunchwas Record Breakers and EMC is all

about breaking records, striving ornew things, pushing innovation. Atthis launch they did a number o nov-el things like how many people canwe t into a Mini Cooper. They brokea number o Guinness World Recordsthat day and the launch was in di-erent places across the world. Thisshows the culture at EMC, the cultureo innovation at EMC is very strong,arms Hazel Shananan (EMC).Also having un has a special role increating the personality o a compa-

ny, as Pernille Juel Seort (ATP), re-veals: The DNA o ATP is well mir-rored in an experience rom last year,at the nomination o the Best Placesto Work in Europe in Madrid. Aterthe ceremony (ATP came in number2) the ve delegates rom ATP were

having breakast in the hotel restau-rant. The conversation was light andwe were laughing quite loudly. Atone point another Danish girl stops atour table, mentioning that she over-heard us talking, and would like toknow i we were riends on holiday orcolleagues. We told her we were col-leagues, and she burst out, Then youmust have a very special good place towork. One o our stated values is thatworking must be un.


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4

Work moved rom city centers. Thenit went back to city centers with big

banks and the media. Today the urbandynamic o work has passed. The In-ternet - again - has divided the world intwo parts. On one side are those whohave to work in a physical place and,on the other, those who can choosetheir location. We asked some o the100 Best European Companies wherewill we work in the uture?The major-ity o companies said that we still havebuildings, but that their unction willchange slightly, and that technologywill allow people to work potentiallyrom everywhere. In the uture we willsee more and more smart buildingsand technology that helps communi-cation between dierent locations thatwill be equipped in standards.Emilio Moreno, CEO at Sotonic, says:We are going through an evolution in-side the work space where cubicles andhierarchical separations are erasedrom the seating plans. These adjust-ments point towards an open-spacedistribution, where people work togeth-er in unctional groups that ollow alogical pattern o the production pro-cess they ollow.According to Tanja Neuser, HR Direc-

tor at Danone, buildings will becomemore unctional. She explains: Peoplemake the dierence in this area. Itssomething we need to care about whenlooking to the uture, which I believewill be a link between the things wehave today, I believe in personal con-tact, we will not abandon buildings,but buildings will change in unctiono our needs. Buildings will likely be-come places where we network, wherewe come together, but we do not neces-sarily need buildings to work, now we

can build a home oce or we can workwhen travelling on a plane.Technology and employees individual-ity will play an important role in the u-ture o our workplaces says RaymondOpszalski, HR Director at DIS AG whoclaims: Oce buildings will denitely

become more technically advanced.But what is even more important, isthat companies must learn to respectthe individuality o their employees.On the same wavelength is the thoughtoCeri Assiratti, HR Director at AdmiralGroup, who claims: We will still have aphysical oce, where people can comeand work and share, but, clearly, withtechnology and fexibility we will seemajor changes, working rom home isbecoming the way orward.At Tetrapak they rebuilt the en-

tire Modena site, as HR DirectorGianmaurizio Cazzarolli tells us: Thetendency is to go towards what we callNew Oces 2.0: multiunctional spac-es built by a repertoire o standardizedwork components; open oce support-ed with silent rooms, telephone booths,

pulse rooms, project rooms and dier-ent meeting acilities; not one desk peremployee, but a mix o assigned desksand ree seating; interwoven spacesor dierent moods o work and rec-reation; dierent media support inte-grated with spatial conguration andaccess to outdoor and view to green en-vironment.As Patrizia Fogheri, HR Director at No-voNordisk puts it, companies start tothink that people are not one but mul-tiple and have a need or membership

WORKPLACES CHANGE. In the Middle Ages we all worked near markets andsome worked in the felds (their home was also their shop). In the Industrial Era newdedicated workplaces were created (actories), which big buildings o the serviceindustry were then added.

Working from homeremains an option

01 Glass windowed

ofces at Tetrapak,

Modena (Italy).

02 Man at work at

Futurice.

01

Voice rom Companies


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We asked some o the 100 Best Euro-pean Companies, how is it possible to

communicate with those who are notin the ofce on a daily basis and that werarely see in person? The general eel-ing o companies is that clearly tech-nology has helped a lot. Despite this,there is nothing like direct personalcontact, which remains, even in ourera, the preerred approach.As Raymond Opszalski, HR Director atDIS AG, arms: At DIS AG, we high-ly value the direct personal contact be-tween our people. This emphasis on anon-virtual dialogue is a undamentalelement in our companys culture. Thatis why we organize multiple person-al meetings between the managementand the teams o our branch ocesand give every employee the opportu-nity to address the entire managementdirectly, whenever necessary.The same thought is shared by CeriAssiratti (Admiral Group), who states:We have to make sure we keep asmuch personal contact as possible, orexample the managers and the CEOhave ormal meetings altogether, theyalso have regular meetings over videoconerence so they actually do see thepeople they are talking to and that helps

to build a personal relationship.Eddie OBrien (Topaz Energy), is allabout personal interaction, as he ex-plains: I think too oten emails go outand theyre all about business, andtheyre not about the people that we areactually dealing with. The other thingis that people react very positively whenyou actually make an eort to go andsee where theyre actually working.Patrizia Fogheri (NovoNordisk), is ab-solutely pro-virtual communicationas she explains: we continue to pre-

er human touch, losing a lot o timein meetings rather than arranging aweb conerence and maybe trying tond a dierent orm o relationship.She continues: I believe that with alittle more dexterity with these tools, ocourse the level o relationships will not

change so much.Multinationals might be in a way orcedto embrace virtual ways o communi-cation as Simon Linares, European HRDirector at Teleonica, says: To meetthis geographical challenge we have,created one Telenica European HRteam with virtual centers o expertiseoering support to the business acrossEurope in such areas as learning anddevelopment, talent management andresourcing. This also creates new op-portunities or our employees in terms

NETWORKS have reduced communication time, and they have alsoallowed people that are not in the same place to communicate moreeasily. New identities are born. We collaborate with people that we havenever actually met in person, and that perhaps live in another continent.

Internet and new forms of interaction

then there would be no need or a phys-ical space, but the acceptance o N

areas where the relationship betweenpeople makes the communion, in otherwords an oce without oces.Eddie OBrien, CEO at Topaz, whorecognizes the importance and in-crease o home working, says, Manyhomeworkers are probably nding thatit is dicult to work rom home perma-nently, because you start to lose thatconnection with the center, so organi-zations will have to nd a balance be-tween using the central hold to bringpeople together or ideas, innovation,social contact in terms o group think,and the use o distributed locations likehomes.Tuomas Syrjnen, CEO at Futurice,doesnt believe that homeworkingwill be the only uture, saying the o-ce has benets both or the compa-ny and or employees who need a sorto connection. He adds, However I dobelieve that business will be done romanywhere customers premises, ocesand homes.Peter Bennet, Owner o Timothy JamesConsulting, believes that virtual teamswill grow but despite that work en-vironment is necessary. He explains,

Nowadays and in the uture you cantlimit oces to a desk and a computer.You have to have kitchen, break rooms,showers, room with TVs and videogaming equipment or those who areworking late.Bernd Bogert, Director at Altenhile St.Gereon, thinks that we will abandonold buildings and we will use technol-ogy at our advantage as much as pos-sible, he says:The uture denitely hasto be build around responsibly inde-pendent working employees.

02

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o mobility, and so teams based acrossour European region, work together vir-tually on a daily basis.At Optimum they use many tools toenhance the virtual dialogue as CEOTrond Gullaksen explains: Video con-erences, Skype, iPads and other techni-cal tools will be even more common inthe uture. Not only when it comes tocolleagues, but in the way we act withpeople around us - both at work andprivate. He continues: I strongly be-lieve that people will have the need tomeet ace to ace even in an increasing-

ly virtualized world. The virtual worldcant replace direct human contact.Tuomas Syrjnen (Futurice), embracesthe concept o personal interaction asthe basis o a potential virtual dialogueand says: I youve met or know the per-son, its easy to communicate with toolslike email, phone or instant messaging,but all o these means require a certainlevel o acquaintance, that when miss-ing makes things more dicult.Nathalie Ove Hoffman, P&O Partner atNovozymes, states that being a glob-al company makes them used to us-ing tools to communicate with virtualteams or workers. The most commontools used are email, phone, presenta-tion sharing systems and also live meet-ings. She explains: We do a lot moreon TV. Instead o writing we do videosthat can be then viewed by everyone.For example or our quarterly meetingswe have employees or those wo cant at-tend send questions that will then beanswered during the meeting, whichis videorecorded and then sent out toeveryone, so people in the US can havetheir questions answered directly, andthat helps them eel included. Accord-

ing to Peter Bennett, Owner o Timo-thy James Consulting, the rst step isto choose the right people to do virtualwork. It is very important that they aresel-motivated and that they are able tocomplete tasks autonomously. He says:We have virtual teams that work or usacross the country, the dialogue is chal-lenging, but eventually rewarding.

We interviewed managers o some othe 100 Best European Companies,

and we asked them what they thoughtwere the emotions elt in companies atthe moment, and what are those o theuture. One o the emotions elt insidecompanies is pride, as Emilio Moreno,CEO o Sotonic, arms: Currently atSotonic we speak o a strong sense opride o belonging to this company, aswell as positivism and respect or co-workers and the project as a whole.As the company evolves and grows, asense o contribution to society starts toemerge, and with it, a concern or howwe can contribute to the growth o di-erent economies.Another excellent company that valuespride is Baringa Partners, as Jim Hay-ward, Senior Partner conrms: Its o-ten hard to dene what pride meanswithin an organisation but you knowwhen you have it. He also adds thattrust is another key actor or organi-zations as he states: Upside-downmanagement is the buzzword here. Itsabout breaking down hierarchies andencouraging openness and honesty. Ithere is a lack o transparency in thecompany, i employees do not trust themanagement, or do not believe in what

they are doing then it shows in the mostcrucial areas.NetApp HR Manager Barbara Storleinsays: We like to be proud, successuland we drive on the sense o achieve-ment. She continues: NetApp hasa strong company culture in whichour values o leadership, trust, integ-rity, simplicity, adaptability, teamworkand an attitude o going beyond ormthe cultural passport o our businessnationality. We see our values imple-mented globally, we hear our leaders

MULTICULTURALISM IS A CONSOLIDATED REALITY. Everyone knowssomeone that has a dierent passport rom theirs. However inside enterprises weoten fnd a sort o business nationality. In other words we all belong to the samebrand.

Pride, security, trustand sense of belonging

talk about it and we eel the connectionin our global diversity. When askedabout the emotions o the uture shesays: I expect a number o emotionsto play a major part in the uture. Theone that stands out the most or me isemotional intelligence, which would

breathe new lie into all organizationaland human development activities aswe strive or continued alignment withother generations that will be present inthe workorce.Raymond Opszalski, HR Director atDIS AG, speaks in avor o multicul-turalism, crediting diversity as the keyto companys growth. However atDanone the eeling o belonging to abrand is very strong as conrms HR Di-rector Tanja Neuser: We eel very muchlike Danoners, and this is very inter-

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01 Employees take a break at

Sotonic. Photo credits

by Alexey Tarsev.

01

national with our requent communi-cation with colleagues. Its a spirit owhat we call a Danone personality,which links us altogether all over theworld. Emotions in Danone are visiblein our training sessions, where we havepeople coming rom everywhere, people

that have never met beore, but aterve minutes the room is buzzing withcommunication, conversations, andpeople are busily interacting.Elaine Ballard, Chie Executive at TaHousing Association, recognizes theimportance o diversity and the eelingo belonging and inclusion as key ac-tors or success. She says: All employ-ees need a clear sense o purpose i theyare to perorm eectively. A supportiveculture is one that recognizes each stamember as a person in their own right,

but creates a strong vision o whatcan be achieved by working to-gether. She adds, when askedabout the uture o emotions,In the uture, successul busi-nesses will need to capture theimagination o their teams andcreate an environment where itis sae to innovate, with a sense oanything is possible.About the sense o belonging Val-erie Metcalfe, Managing Director atFCm Travel Solutions, says: The no-tion that we all belong to the same

brand becomes clear as we ocus onsimilar goals and ethics, and this leadsto a eeling o belonging irrespective oculture or nationality. She continuesabout the uture o emotions: I thinkthe key emotions are excitement, mo-tivation and enthusiasm and the ever-changing travel industry will ensurethat these positive emotions prevail intothe uture.The sense o belonging and the adher-ence to an organizations values are thekey as Patrizia Fogheri, HR Director atNovoNordisk, puts it: I think that thereal glue is the adherence to compa-nys values. She adds: For examplemany years ago I went to Greece, whereI started working. The country man-ager o Greece made a presentation ona business plan. Obviously, it was inGreek, and also the slides were writtenin Greek; but at some point I denitelyrecognized what he was talking aboutbecause in the way in which the slideswere written, and, thanks to some keywords that were written in English, Iwas able to understand exactly the mes-sage he wanted to convey.Eddie OBrien CEO at Topaz Ener-

gy states: Right now Ireland is goingthrough quite an economic crisis, so Ithink emotions are very much aroundsecurity and trust, people want to eelthat theyre in an organization thatthey can trust, that they have man-agement that has high credibility, thattheyre actually part o something thatis secure and that is growing, despite allthe challenges that are in the economy.For some companies it is important togive employees a sense o securityCeriAssiratti, HR Director at AdmiralGroup,

s t a t e s :We are al-

ways awarethat we have grown

rom very small beginning and then wehad a apid expansion. We have grownrom just 17 employees to maybe 5,000across the world now. The emotions oour people is the worry that we will losethe closeness o working together as aamily, but also in the general businesscommunity theres a eeling o uncer-tainty, and this is something we have todeal with giving employees a sense o se-curity within the group.The CEO o Futurice, Tuomas Syrjn-en, conesses: People here eel in-spired and committed, this produc-es great results and also makes themhappy. When talking about the utureo emotion, he states: In the uture itwill be necessary to understand whatmotivates people, and to promote thatmotivation with autonomy and withguidance instead o rules. He alsopraises transparency as a key actorto build trust and he says, or exam-ple we make every data available andshared, so that a high level o trust canbe built between the organization andemployees.Trust seems to be a key actor also orNathalie Ove Hoffmann, P&O Partner

at Novozymes: We take good care oour employees. We give them higher sal-aries than many companies. We oergood pension plans and, i theyre go-ing through diculties, we help themby providing social advisors or law-yers. At Novozymes ailure is accept-ed as Homann explains: We recog-nize that we cant always be successul.At times we will ail, but it is importantthat people understand that it is okayto ail, because rom ailures we learn.


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8

But what can companies positivelydo to respect our planet? At Tetrapakthey really care or the environment,as Gianmaurizio Cazzarolli, HR Direc-tor explains: We believe in responsibleindustry leadership, creating protablegrowth in harmony with environmen-tal sustainability and good corporatecitizenship. Our strategy is to reduceCO2 emissions. We optimize our en-ergy consumption thanks to our build-ing automation system. We invest in re-newable energies, installing solar andphotovoltaic panels that produce greenenergy. At Tetrapak they also workwith mobility management, as Ca-zzarolli explains: Today our bus shut-tle is part o the urban transportationo Modena and an average o 50 em-ployees use this service every day.Our

WE HAVE SPENT THE PAST 60 YEARS FILLING OUT THE PLANETnew cities, new actories, new buildings, new acilities. Now we are at apoint where the planet should be reclaimed. We can (almost) all agree thatcompanies will have to be more careul with environment preservation.

The planet: the only true resource

01 NetApp Building in

harmony with nature

ultimate goal is that all wood bre inour packages shall come rom certiedorests, managed in accordance withprinciples o sustainable orest man-agement. In 2010, 80% o our packageshad the FSC Certication.At Eurorms they believe that compa-nies can do a lot by spreading a valueo respect within their sta as manag-er Miguel Jord says: Companies canact as spearheads promoting solid val-ues between sta, both in executive andnon-executive proles. One o these val-ues is respect. He adds: This consistso very eective and very meticulouswork at the same time. I we perorm avery careul selection o every employeein the company, and we adopt a goodbehavior to instill some values, includ-ing respect, all employees will adopt a

respectul attitude towards everythingthat surrounds them.At CB Richard Ellis environmental re-spect is taken very seriously as HRDirector Deirdre Bodley tells us: CBRichard Ellis is the only company inour sector to achieve carbon neutrality,thanks to the collective eorts o indi-viduals and teams across the globe.InEMEA, we have contributed to reducingour carbon ootprint signicantly: over

90% o our oces now have recyclingprograms in place and innovative localoce initiatives are helping us becomeeven more environmentally responsi-ble. But according to Bodley theresstill a lot to be done.At Admiral Group they have put inplace various initiatives to respectthe planet. HR Director Ceri Assirattishares: We have recycling plans - no-body has waste bins - we all have recy-cling points in every oce. We are cre-ating a new building and we want tomake sure that is the most environmen-tally riendly building possible. Theyalso work with mobility as Assiratti re-veals: We have also started a bike planso that people can avoid using theirown transportation, and we are alsopromoting a carpool plan, which we tryto ll a car instead o having people us-ing many dierent cars when movingor business.As a strategic goal or 2012, we willhave all our actories where insulinis produced powered by wind ener-gy, says Patrizia Fogheri HR Director

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Clearly we will always need ecientprocesses, but these processes also have

to be extremely fexible in order to copewith the markets rapid changes, saysCeri Assiratti, HR Director at AdmiralGroup, and adds: We have to ensurethat everything we do has a light catchand gives people the autonomy to oper-ate reely We have a plan, but we rec-ognize that everything could have animpact on that plan, thereore they bothneed to be changed. We try to make surethat i a change is truly needed, we canavoid all the big processes that normal-ly a change requires a company to gothrough. According to Assiratti, com-munication is important at this level.

Management needs to communicate e-ectively. The eeling at Topaz Energyis slightly dierent. CEO Eddie OBrienconesses: I think its important thatconsumers and organizations makesure that the market doesnt drive usinto a situation where we have no con-nection between services and our prod-ucts. For example the internet is creat-ing all that, because people do not needto meet in person to receive a productanymore. Unless the goods provide grat-ication, you dont have any social in-teraction. We have to listen careully toconsumers. The hard job is to balanceconsumers requests: eciency and en-gagement. The market adapts to whatpeople want, you see cycles, sometimespeople are driven by price; some othersby quality. So organizations have to re-act to the cycle, but the business modelshouldnt depend on a cycle or the oth-er. At Danone planning must not begiven up, as HR DirectorTanja Neuserconrms: I think that giving up plan-ning is the wrong way to take learning.Here we learned that we have to move

WE ORGANIZED OPERATION PLANS BASED ON STATISTICS. We did fveyear plans, then three year plans, and at present we plan as ar as our eyes can see.Times are reduced, certainties or our uture too. While we were planning our uture,we organized companies according to efcient processes.

Flexibility is the key

at NovoNordisk. She continues: Wechanged our car policy. All our carshave CO2 emissions limits, so that notonly does the lease payment make a di-erence but also the reduction o CO2emissions does. We are also providinga policy to reduce travel costs and theimpact o air travel. She nishes: Wealso have a campaign with zero CO2which certies all the materials that weproduce.Simon Linares, Group HR Director atTeleonica states: Teleonica recogniz-es that its business has an impact on the

environment hence, we oer businesssmart technology and fexible workingwhich deliver signicant carbon sav-ings. He oers an example: Our newTelenica European HQ in the UK wasbuilt with sustainability at its heart. Forexample rainwater is captured andused or watering the plants and treesaround the building. Pull printing willreduce the amount o paper and tonerwe use by at least 25 percent. It will alsoreduce our annual CO2 emissions by113.5 tonnes.For other companies sustainability is atthe heart o their mission as Danones

HR Director Tanja Neuser explains:We have three main goals. The rstone is reducing our CO2 ootprint. Wehave two areas where CO2 has the big-gest impact: logistics and PET. We wantto replace trucks with trains. The othertwo ambitions are 1) water preserva-tion with access to pure drinking water.We do this in collaboration with UNES-CO and UNICEF; and 2) the protec-tion o our core products; we work veryclosely with the local environment.For the nature o the business at Timo-thy James Consulting, the impact is lessheavy, as Peter Bennet, owner o thecompany says: We recognize that anysmall thing could make a dierence,so we make sure that we do not wastepaper printing documents. We makesure that all equipment and lights areturned o when we leave and we en-courage employees to recycle. As orthe uture he reveals: We try to cutdown on travelling to reduce our emis-sions. We also encourage people to usepublic transportation instead o theirown cars.

on a greater fexibil-ity, in terms o reacting in a

quick way to the market At Danonewe usually have a three year plan, andthe challenge is to look into the uture,build realistic scenarios based on expe-riences had in the past and consumermarket understanding. There needs tobe bottom up and top down strategicthinking and the process to do this is inthe organization itsel.According to Patrizia Fogheri, HR Di-

rector at NovoNordisk, strategic plan-ning might not be the right answer any-more. She says: Im convinced thatstrategic plans, today no longer work.But I am equally convinced that i com-panies respond with short sighted ideas,shortening the time or setting goals, itwill only be o use to postpone problems.I think the hypothesis o an answer isthat there are intangible goals and tan-gible objectives: the creation o corpo-rate culture, the environmental impact,

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0

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and social responsibility are not issuesthat the company can ace as a targeto short-lived nature. Instead, these is-sues need to have a vision and a planor more than ve years So its not somuch the time but its what were goingto measure, and by what means I amconvinced that we do not have to havea real plan but certainly a capacity olong-vision. Otherwise we truly risk stay-ing in this loop.

01 NetApp Building in

harmony with nature

At Teleonica the general thought is thatthe key answer is ocusing on the cus-tomer as Europe HR director Simon Li-nares explains: Keeping customers atthe heart o everything we do contin-ues to be the cornerstone o our strate-gy and we aim to gain and maintain aclear lead over our competitors in cus-tomer satisaction. We need to get a bal-ance between exploiting opportunitieso standardization and eliminate du-plication where this is sensible. Stayingclose and having proximity to custom-ers also means we identiy and selectthe right delivery options, be it in-house,out-sourced or provided by alternativedelivery options We are making sureour resources and talent are aligned toour business objectives, as well as beingmore ecient in our commercial costs

and putting more emphasis on ecien-cy Weve begun an ongoing drive tooer centralized Telenica Europe-wide unctions where it makes sense.For example we have launched our Eu-ropean People Services Center, whichnow manages transactional activity. Byoering centralized support to our in-country teams, they are enabled to oera more consistent, ecient service to ourcustomers locally.

Deirdre Bodley, HR and Internal Com-munication Executive Director at CBRichard Ellis strongly believes in fex-ibility: I we continue to promote fexi-ble working, this will in turn allow busi-nesses to be more agile to meet marketdemands. Flexible working in terms ohours and locations include part-timework and job sharing. With the technol-ogy we have today people do not have tocome in everyda

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