The basic elements of a positive employee experience don’t change depending on where you live in the world.
Employees in Latin America need the same things from their managers and colleagues as employees in Europe or Asia: trust in leaders, pride in their work, and connection with coworkers.
Great Place To Work® analyzed more than 6.2 million survey responses representing the experiences of 18 million workers worldwide to find the 25 companies on Fortune’s World’s Best Workplaces list today year.
These companies easily beat the average workplace experience in the world. In the winning companies, 90% of employees report having a good workplace, compared to a little more than half in most regions of the world.
“It doesn’t matter what country or continent you call home,” said Michael C. Bush, CEO of Great Place To Work. “What matters is that companies build trust with their employees. Workplaces with high trust listen to all their people, change, adapt, measure, and iterate.
All over the world, having a good workplace can change the lives of employees.
“We have data that proves that some large companies create an experience for unknown people that is better than their other experiences in their country,” Bush said. “When businesses create a better place to work and live for everyone, it’s better for the world.”
To qualify, companies must operate in three or more countries, employ at least 5,000 workers worldwide with 40% or 5,000 employees outside their country of headquarters.
This year’s list is more competitive than ever, with a 28% increase in companies participating in the global survey from 2022, and a 40% increase in the number of surveys received.
The 25 winning companies had a greater percentage of workers reporting fair pay (75%), healthy work-life balance support (84%), and a voice in decisions affecting their lives (81%), compared to the average global workplace.
At the winning companies, 88% of employees would recommend their employer to friends and family—34 percentage points higher than the global average of 54%.
What does “big” look like.
Here are some of the ways the companies on the list are investing in their employees and creating experiences that lead to stronger business results:
1. Involve employees in decisions that affect them.
The Hilton, the new No. 1 on this year’s list, ensuring that employees have their voices heard when making decisions that affect them.
In Central and Latin America, Hilton launched “My Voice Matters,” an eight-week listening campaign where leaders received feedback from more than 5,000 team members. A commitment to listening is why 84% of Hilton employees say management involves them in decisions that affect them—three percentage points higher than the average for all companies winning.
2. Make sure every employee has a fair, involved manager.
On World’s Best Workplaces, 79% of employees say their manager doesn’t “play favorites—and at Cadence, No. 9 in the list, it is 86%. To do this, Cadence has 90% of its managers worldwide complete unconscious bias and ally training.
Cadence’s focus on developing its managers is reflected in its mentoring program, which comes out of work with employee resource groups (ERGs). By supporting mentors and mentees, the company is able to build deep trust between workers and management.
3. Encourage every employee to find a healthy work-life balance.
In Atlassian, No. 16 on this year’s list, 94% of employees say they are motivated to find a healthy work-life balance, 10 percentage points higher than the average of winning workplaces.
One of the unique things that Atlassian offers is a distributed work environment. Employees are not required to work from an office and can spend 90 days a year working away from their permanent work location. Teams are mapped across time zones, with team members maintaining an overlap of at least four hours per workday to support collaboration.
Remote work isn’t a panacea for the employee experience, but the way Atlassian enables remote teams offers a level of flexibility that its team members greatly appreciate.
4. Connect every employee to meaningful work..
In DHL Express, No. 2 on the list, 90% of employees report that they feel their job is more than “just a job.”
That’s in part due to the company’s efforts to support the communities in which it operates, spending 1% of net income each year giving back. Some examples of this commitment are how DHL helps refugees to find a new start in the company, or efforts to reduce its climate footprint.
To ensure that every employee feels connected to the company’s mission, countries are asked to cascade information and involve employees on the question of purpose. For example, in America, employees are asked to upload their own personal goals to start a conversation about how each employee contributes to the larger goals of the organization.
Learn more about these winners and submit your company to make the Best Workplaces™ list by visiting the Great Place To Work website.
Ted Kitterman is a content manager at Great Place To Work®.