5. Nancy Ceseña
Data Scientist, Great Place to Work
Started at GPTW in 2015
BS Statistics, Minor Demography
Co-Author and researcher (check out
the library!)
Pizza Hut Lover
@NancyCesena
6. Our mission is to build a better world
by helping organizations become
great places to work FOR ALL.
7. The Largest Global Study
11.5 Million
Employees Represented
90 Countries
Surveyed
10,000
Companies Represented
92
Languages
10. Better For Business
Retention
86%Plan to stay a long time
Productivity
88%Willing to give extra
Collaboration
86%You can count on
people to cooperate
12. The Best Are Much Better Than the Rest
“Taking everything into account, I would say this is a great place to work.”
13. Chandni Kazi
Data Scientist, Great Place to Work
Started at GPTW in 2014
MPH Biostatistics
Co-Author and researcher (check out the
library!)
Speaker, TEDxBerkeley
@chai923
14. Across the globe,
what unique differences exist
between the best workplaces & other
organizations in each region?
17. Creating Community
Celebrate special events.
Count on co-workers cooperating.
Contribute to the community.
Fair share of profits.
Community with Childish Gambino
US and Canada
19. Safety with Shakira
Latin America
Creating Safety
Managers are approachable.
Management communicates
important issues.
Mental health is a priority.
20. Employees who say, "This is a psychologically
and emotionally healthy place to work.”
29. “Vulnerability is not winning or
losing; it’s having the courage to
show up and be seen when we
have no control over the
outcome. Vulnerability is not
weakness; it’s our greatest
measure of courage.”
Brené Brown
31. Christine De Cock-Everaert
Affiliate Operations Director, Great Place to
Work
Started at GPTW in 2014
30+ years of international experience in career
transition and career development
Belgium national
Fluent in Dutch, English, French; fair
knowledge of Spanish, German, Italian
Gardener!
@cdecock
32. Round 1:
Reflect upon a time when something
was lost in translation at work?
…!?
1. “Cone of Silence” [1 min]
2. Table conversation [4 mins]
3. Share results [3 mins]
38. 46% Of the global workforce DID NOT experience
the behaviors of a great workplace. #GPTW4ALL
@GPTW_US
The World's Best Workplaces enjoy many business
benefits like with higher retention, more
productivity and increased collaboration —a key
to innovation. #GPTW4ALL @GPTW_US
In analyzing the World’s Best Workplaces, the way
forward varies by region. Focus on Community in
US & Canada, Safety in LATAM, Fairness in
Europe, and Sustainability in Asia. #GPTW4ALL
@GPTW_US
Tweetable Takeaways
@NancyCesena
@Chai923
Defining the World’s
Best Workplaces Report
Notas del editor
Hi Everyone. My name is Nancy Cesena and I work with GPTW. Welcome to Workplaces Worldwide. We have a great session planned for you today.
Start with a very simple question.
How do we define family?
Often times, this means your mother, father, siblings, even your partner.
At work, we are typically given special benefits when one of our family members are going through challenging health issues.
What would happen if your unofficial family member were to fall ill?
For me, my neighbor growing up was basically my second mom. I know if it were my second mom, I would drop everything to be there with her in a heartbeat.
Most organizations don’t have a standard policy about whether or not I’d be able to take time off to be there for my second mom.
At Cisco, however, they have an Emergency Time Off policy that allows employees the freedom to define what family means to them.
There was an employee in Singapore whose roommate fell ill and was from another country. They didn't have any family at all in the area. Weren’t sick to be in the hospital, but still sick enough to need care.
Cisco employee was able take advantage of this ETO and be there for their roommate.
This person was able to do what I would do for my second mom.
I want you take a moment and think..Are you able to take care of those you love in these challenging times? If you work at Cisco, that answer would be YES. Cisco ahead of the ball game and it is no surprise that they are leading our as #1 World’s Best Workplaces.
Having worked at great place to work the past five years…
Having worked at GPTW since 2015, I’ve had the privilege of studying countless organizations with inspirational stories like Cisco’s.
As a Data Scientist with GPTW, I lead the algorithm development of our Best Workplaces lists. I have also had the privilege of working with an amazing team to co-author and lead-research our IBA white papers, Managing Millennials, Hidden Pieces of D&I Puzzle, Future of Work is For All reports.
My love for data is only rivaled by my love for Pizza Hut…stuffed crust Pizza Hut to be exact.
We’ve had the opportunity to study the experiences of employees all over the world…
[mention some or all of the stats]
And what did we find analyzing all that data?
It’s tough out there
But the world’s best show us the way!
Here we see the average results of trust at the world's best workplaces.
Not only are they outperforming the average experience by a wide margin, but they also continue to raise the bar over time.
The Best Workplaces enjoy business benefits.
The World’s Best are living it up with high results on
…retention, productivity and collaboration—a key to innovation today.
Best across the world have high-performing cultures—with foundation of trust
We recognize best workplaces through
rankings in more than 60 countries
Here, we show the average employee response
to the statement “Taking everything into account,
I would say this is a great place to work” in
recognized Best Workplaces in major regions.
In every region, the best workplaces create a much better experience for their
people than the average organization.
But there are differences…the path is going to look different in different regions
And HOW are they exactly different/ To answer this question, I want to invite Chandni to the stage
Thank you! Hi everyone, my name is Chandni Kazi and I work as a Data Scientist for GPTW.
I started back in 2014, on the heels of earning my masters in Biostatistics.
Since then, I have been a co-author and lead researcher for the innovation by all insight papers, our women in the workplace report, and our Defining the World's Best Workplaces report.
I was also fortunate to be a speaker at TEDxBerkeley, where I was given a platform as a Mental Health Advocate to share my love story with my learning disability in the hopes to inspire others to do the same.
[Chandni]
We narrowed our focus to answer this one question: Across the globe, what unique differences exist between the best workplaces and other organizations in each region?
Using Advance data science techniques – analyzing the survey responses, employees’ own words, and controlling for industry and company specific differences, we found the way forward
And the way forward varies by each region:
A sense of community is vital in the United States and Canada,
psychological safety is key in Latin America,
fairness is at the forefront in Europe and
sustainability in work and life is central in Asia.
We're going to go into each one of these more deeply to better understand the workplace context. And to help us remember these words and regions… I…
I ...invited…my celebrity friends to help us along!
Let’s start with Community in the US and Canada region
My celebrity friend in this region is Childish to help with Creating Community!
To create and cultivate community at work, the best workplaces in US and Canada
celebrated special events across all employees,
they were workplaces where employees could consistently count on each other to cooperate,
That had programs in place that enabled their employees to meaningfully contribute to the communities around them,
and engaged in equitable profit sharing.
A deeper dive into our data for US and Canada shows that the best workplaces in this region do a great job of sharing their success with employees across different generations. Profit sharing is particularly important to Millennials, a group that collectively owes a great deal of student loan debt. They also have struggled to catch up since the Great Recession. The Best Workplaces have accounted for all of that and have enabled financial wellness for all their employees.
Now let’s travel to Latin America.
My celebrity friend here is non other than Shakira! Here to talk about Safety.
Latin America has weathered significant social, economic and political turmoil in recent years. We’ve seen upheaval in Venezuela and humanitarian crises in Central America.
So it makes sense that the Best Workplaces in Latin America created a safe environment at work, specifically that the managers at these workplaces were approachable and easy to talk to, and that they could rely on the communication both ways especially with respect to important issues. And lastly, these Best Workplaces made mental health a priority.
And we see that in this graph. The Best Workplaces in Latin America create a strong sense of mental health, and it doesn’t matter if they work on the front lines or in a corner office, they have a much more elevated experience compared to the other organizations.
Next let’s travel to Europe to meet my celebrity friend Fabio! to talk about the importance of fairness.
The best workplaces in Europe set them selves apart by excelling at these three Ps:
Profits are distributed fairly
Politicking just doesn’t happen
And promotions are understood and well-deserved
We also saw that the Best workplaces in Europe do a better job of promoting people fairly no matter how long they have been on the job.
All organizations struggle to promote people fairly.
Promotion decisions generally involve confidential deliberations, which can breed distrust.
And newly hired employees haven’t built up that history around promotions compared to their veteran employees.
However one thing is clear: the perception of fair promotions declines at a much faster rate among other organizations compared to the best workplaces in Europe.
And last but definitely not least, the celebrity friend representing Asia is Sandra Oh!
Workplaces in Asia are experiencing severe burn out and often working 6 days a week as the norm.
The best workplaces in Asia, however, ensure that their work experience makes them feel more fully human rather than a cog in a machine. They do this specifically well by:
- Advocating for work life balance, not simply creating a policy that no one ever uses
- They also do a great job at showing appreciation when their employees do put in extra effort.
And lastly, they ensure employees can take time off when necessary – whether for family care, if your car breaks down, or as Nancy shared earlier, for emergency time off because your second mom or roommate fell ill.
Not only are the best workplaces in Asia better at creating sustainable working conditions, they also narrow the gender pay gap!
At the non-best workplaces, the gender perception-pay gap is twice as big as at the best workplaces.
And overall, employees at the other organizations see pay as much less equitable
Now that we’ve share insights about building a world’s best workplace from our data, let’s hear from the perspective of leaders who’ve worked with global organizations and best workplaces in key regions.
I’d like to bring up to the stage my colleagues Erika Richardson Koh and Ruy Shiozawa.
Erika is Vice President of Affiliate Services at Great Place to Work. She leads the global team that provides strategic business support to the network of Great Place to Work® affiliates in over 60 countries. In this role over the past several years, Erika has overseen the production of the list of the World’s Best Workplaces and our regional best workplace lists. In her current role, and in a variety of other roles at Great Place to Work for more than a decade, she has worked with some of the world’s best and most global organizations.
Ruy Shiozawa is CEO of Great Place to Work Brazil, one of the oldest and largest affiliate organization in the Great Place to Work network. Ruy has led Great Place to Work Brazil since 2008, and during this time has studied, consulted with and recognized the Best Workplaces in his country. Many of these organizations are regional and global in nature.
Please join me in welcoming Erika and Ruy!
Well, Erika and Ruy, our plans for a panel of global leaders have shrunk thanks to Covid-19. We initially planned to have colleagues from Italy and Singapore join you on the stage today. But we’re glad that you at least can share your wisdom with us.
So let me pose these initial questions, and then turn things over to you, Erika: What is striking to you about the findings we’ve just shared today? How do these data insights match up with the organizations you’ve recognized and worked with?
Thank you Erika and Ruy, for sharing your wealth of knowledge with us.
It makes me wonder, how revolutionary it could be if all workplaces cared for and trusted their employees like our certified and best workplaces.
We would see more equity, retention, more purposeful work, as well as more Innovation.
As the workplace becomes more diverse and globally connected that ever before, it’s becoming easier to treat each other like family…for better or for worse.
So what does that mean for the future of global work?
===
Although the ability to communicate will get easier, faster, and clearer, that means their will be more opportunities and occurrences for misinterpretation, awkward exchanges, and things to get “lost in translation.”
Additionally, online social communities and workplaces screening for “culture fit” can unintentionally create echo chambers of like-minded individuals, unable to have healthy discourse across diverse backgrounds.
With this problem in mind, for the rest of the session, we’re going to engage in conversation together about how to address global communication at work.
We have three questions we want you all to reflect on.
For each question, we’re going to have three rounds: one in silence just to gather your own opinion, the next to share your thoughts with the table, and lastly we’ll have tables either volunteer or be voluntold to share their discussion
We’re all here because we want to create great workplaces for all, and with that shared understanding we want this to be a trusting environment where you can be vulnerable with each other.
And when we say vulnerable, we mean having the courage to show up and be seen, especially when you don’t know how others at your table are going to react.
Vulnerability is not a weakness; it’s our greatest measure of courage!
So we ask you to be vulnerable with yourselves, with your neighbors, and trust that everyone here is here to learn and grow.
With exponential advancements in communication technologies, it will be easier, faster, and clearer to communicate with other globally. However, that also means their will be more opportunities for misinterpretation, awkward exchanges, and things to get “lost in translation.”
For the rest of the session, we’re going to engage in conversation together about how to address global communication at work. To lead that conversation, I want to invite my colleague, Christine to the stage.
Fun photo! :D
1) Talk about a time when something got “lost in translation” at work?
For example, we experienced a “lost in translation” moment with Fabio!
We sent this presentation to our GPTW partners around the world and wanted a few of them to join us today.
Our partner in Italy, Andrea, asked “Who is that guy?” and couldn’t believe of all the people, we chose this “no name” person for Europe
And that’s why he decided not to come - No just kidding!
Let’s begin our “cone of silence” for one minute.
We’ve now all shared general conversations that have been lost in translation, but now we want you to reflect and share about a tough conversation to have at work: politics.
We want you to think about a political shift that personally affected you or your organization. IT IS ELECTION DAY and SUPER TUESDAY AFTER ALL!
When it comes to talking about politics at work, traditional advice says – don’t do it. Avoid at all cost.
However, with growing participation and polarization worldwide, organizations can’t ignore that political identity is becoming as much a part of the employee experience as a person’s race or age.
It’s no longer an option to avoid politics at work. The conversations are going to happen.
At leading organizations, they are taking the steps to cultivate more productive and inclusive discourses.
They are setting the stage for continuous conversations and reinforcing employees’ common purpose and connections.
This allows them to maximize the potential of all their employees, regardless of belief, while mitigating the negative impacts from political polarization.
What political shifts have affected you or your organization?
Start the cone of silence now
===
These political shifts and policies can prevent people from being their full selves at work.
Brexit, family separations at US-Mexico border, world-wide marriage equality
Us looking afraid with arrows coming at us from different directions
Teeter-totter: one side shows balanced other unbalanced or trying to make it unbalanced
One of the impacts of these political trends is “CONSTANT FEAR”
===
These political shifts can prevent people, often from underrepresented or marginalized groups, from bringing their full selves to work.
These external pressures can create a need for psychological safety – so how we position workplaces as safe-havens for your employee’s mental health?
For us, we wanted to find a way to include Andrea from GPTW Italy because his expertise is invaluable.
We had a couple conversations to discuss what would be best: should we share a video, could we livecast him into the room,
And although he isn’t physically here today, we________________ and decided that the best course of action was to produce a live webinar …
So what could you do to help workplaces proactively set the stage for more inclusive, curious, and empathetic conversations?
How would you go about problem-solving for the effects your own political shift may have on your employees at your workplace?
Nancy:
Thank you all for sharing and engaging with us in these group discussions.
A sentence or two commenting on what was shared if you feel like it!
People want more from their leaders and workplaces: more transparency, more communication, and demanding more social consciousness.
This can lead to awkward conversations and missteps in communication, like we have discussed in our own experience today.
But there's a great cause for hope. The best workplaces – and all of you! - are showing us the way.
And our research – with the help from our celebrity alliterations - shows what matters most in different regions:
Community with Childish in US and Canada
Safety with Shakira in Latin America
Fairness with Fabio in Europe
And Sustainability with Sandra Oh in Asia
With the best workplaces as role models, the help of data science, and consistent conversations with a caring group like all of you, a better future is in sight.
Organizations that take time to understand the employee experience and address what matters can improve in ways that are better for business, better for people and better for the world.
One way that they're better for the world is that they're caring. not just for us and our colleagues, but for our roommates, second moms, and extended families. ....because after all, are we not all one big GLOBAL family.
Thank you all for joining us today and we hope you all enjoyed the session.