Is your startup a great place to work?

Leaping the next tech hurdle or obsessing over how much runway remains until the cash runs out are generally among founders’ most pressing concerns.  

But Kalyn Ponti (KP) advocates for another priority: creating a great place to work. “People are the lifeblood of organisations,” she says. “Technology doesn't disrupt, people disrupt.”

The CEO of employee experience and HR consultancy Humankind draws a direct line between the experience a business creates for its employees and how well that business performs.

“Employee experience is really about delivering outcomes for the organisation and allowing people to really thrive,” she says.

Among the research that backs this up is a report released earlier this year by McKinsey Global Institute. It analysed 1,800 large companies across sectors in 15 countries, exploring how much they focus on developing human capital and whether they financially outperform their sector peers.

It found “a dual focus on developing people and managing them well gives a select group of companies a long-term performance edge”. This ‘select group’ were not only more profitable than their peers, but were more resilient in times of crisis and had faster revenue growth.

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Survey launch

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Humankind is among those getting behind a new programme that aims to help Kiwi companies harness the power of employee experience to enhance workers’ lives, and drive better business performance.

‍Best Places to Work has kicked off with a survey that allows companies to assess engagement levels among employees. As well as offering insights into just how good a company is to work for, the survey will highlight areas for improvement and allow businesses to benchmark themselves against their peers.

Those who rate highly in the survey will then be eligible to enter an awards programme recognising New Zealand's best workplaces across a range of categories and company sizes; a masterclass series will follow aimed at helping organisations improve employee engagement, offering insights from exemplary workplaces and employee engagement experts, and running from July to September next year in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

The programme has been co-founded by the founding team behind Caffeine (yes, that’s us!) – James Hurman and Julie Gill, who is also the programme’s CEO. The Employer and Manufacturers Association (EMA), which represents and supports more than 14,500 member companies around New Zealand, is putting its weight behind the programme, supporting it as a foundation partner. Recruitment firm Haines Attract and health insurer nib are also sponsoring the programme alongside a number of delivery partners.

Humankind is among the latter and has helped hone the programme’s definition of what makes a great place to work and design the survey. KP says the survey aims to unearth both the specific workplace conditions that drive an organisation’s performance as well as the innate human needs of its employees.

The survey, which runs until February next year and is open to organisations of all sizes, will highlight where businesses should best focus their employee engagement efforts – a factor important for startups where resources are often limited – and deliver other benefits.

“People have always been driven by autonomy but now, more and more, they’re looking for agency. People want to voice … so this is a mechanism to be able to do that and deliver on that value proposition for people.”

The Best Places to Work awards will be assessed on the quantitative survey information and qualitative information gathered from eligible organisations about specific initiatives that help them create a great workplace. She sees being named a Best Place to Work as a tool companies can leverage in a tight talent market.

“What we're finding is employees are now asking for proof when they're going to an organisation – that it's not enough just to hear about the great culture; they're actually asking for proof of what it’s like to work at this organisation.”

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Growing New Zealand’s employment brand

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EMA head of marketing and communications Lisa Dean says for startups in particular, the programme provides support to get employee engagement best practice in place from the get-go.

“We have a massive industry of entrepreneurs and innovative businesses that are really doing amazing things. They start very small and lean, and they might only have four or five or six employees, but as they grow and bring on more people often the right ways of doing things gets put on the back burner, or they don't even know what's the right thing to do.”

On the other hand, the nimble and flexible nature of startups mean that some small companies are among the most innovative when it comes to creating great workplaces, and she says the programme could help those firms transfer that innovation to other, larger workplaces.

And in an environment where many innovative New Zealand companies are competing in a global marketplace for talent, the programme will help rise the tide of New Zealand’s workplace reputation, she says. “It’s about celebrating business and celebrating best practice and showcasing that to other businesses … so we put New Zealand on the map as a place to come and work and live.”

Adds KP: “Being able to showcase that we are a country and an economy that has phenomenal places to work will play a big role in being able to attract the talent that we need.”

We asked KP, what makes a great place to work

1. Alignment to the future: Are your people connected to the business’ strategy, vision and purpose?
2. Trust in leadership.
3. Connection with the team: Do your people feel like they belong?
4. Performance and growth: Is the organisation growing and successful?
5. Wellbeing: Does the organisation support employees’ good mental and physical health?
6. Culture and environment: Is employee input and flexibility valued and fostered?  
7. Innovation: Organisations that focus on people and performance outperform their peers in terms of innovation and profitability.

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Caffeine is the Best Places to Work media partner for the startup community. Survey entry is now open.

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