A Quarter-Century Legacy
Great Place to Work® began with an unexpected discovery. In 1981 a New York editor asked two business journalists – Robert Levering and Milton Moskowitz – to write a book called The 100 Best Companies to Work for in America. Though the pair were skeptical they could find 100 companies that would qualify, they agreed, starting a journey that would lead to more than 25 years of researching, recognising, and building great workplaces.
What was the core insight uncovered by the pair’s extensive research? It was that the key to creating a great workplace was not a prescriptive set of employee benefits, programmes and practices, but the building of high-quality relationships in the workplace -- relationships characterised by trust, pride, and camaraderie. These relationships weren’t a “soft” activity, but key drivers that help improve an organisation’s business performance. The role of trust in the workplace became core not only for that first, pioneering 1984 book, but its 1988 sequel, A Great Place to Work: What makes some employers so good - and most so bad.
These insights led to the founding of Great Place to Work Institute. Business leaders around the world adopted the Institute’s models and methodology as a valuable way to measure and create great workplaces. In 1997, FORTUNE (in the United States) and Exame (in Brazil) partnered with the Institute’s research arm to produce the world’s first 100 Best Companies to Work For workplace rankings. Great Place to Work gradually opened doors in 45 countries around the world with more growth slated in the coming years.
Great Place to Work® in INDIA
The Great Place to Work started operations in India in 2003, in conjunction with a local consulting firm. The founding members were Anil Sachdev and Prasenjit Bhattcharya. Great Place to Work established itself as an independent entity in India on 21st May 2007, with Prasenjit Bhattacharya serving as its CEO.
In collaboration with Businessworld, Great Place to Work in India published lists of Best Workplaces in India in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2007. In 2008, however, it published the Best Workplaces in India list in collaboration with The Economic Times, the largest-circulation business daily in India and the second largest globally.
In its first four studies, the Best Workplaces list in India honoured the Top 25 organizations. This number went up with a Top 50 list in 2008. At the same time the number of companies participating in the list process, went up almost by 50%, compared with previous years. Over 500 organizations registered for the 2011 Study making it one of the largest studies in workplace culture in the world. Great Place to Work in India is committed to a vision of making India a great workplace.
