Larger companies tend to have a more comprehensive set of employee programmes, especially professional development, rewards and appreciation schemes, and work-life balance.
However, smaller companies enjoy a better proximity between management and employees, which makes it easier to develop trust-based relationships.
For the Best Workplace Europe rankings, large companies are those with more than 500 employees, and these make up one-third of total participants.
The small and medium-sized have between 50 and 500 employees. In workforce terms, the largest company of the 100 in the two European lists is SAP with 14,249 employees and the smallest is 4flow with 56 employees.
The best small and medium-sized workplaces increased their revenue by 34 per cent last year, which is significantly faster than the 20 per cent growth achieved by the larger companies. With a growth in staff of 20 per cent, higher that the 16 per cent in larger companies, small and medium-sized companies nevertheless enjoyed a significantly higher gain in productivity.
Microsoft, the software company, was this year’s best large workplace, with 14 subsidiaries individually making the European list. “The ability to attract and retain the top talent is the biggest advantage of being large,” says Lisa Brummel, senior vice-president for human resources. “Once you have built a culture and a set of attributes that you are known for, you build a brand in the marketplace.”
This is borne out by the fact that the best large workplaces receive 10.5 job applications per employee. In contrast, the best small and medium-sized workplaces receive only 5.6.
The challenge for large companies is to replicate their employee culture every time they expand into new territories or business areas. “Compared with a small company in just one location,” says Ms Brummel, “trying to keep a small company feel among 85,000 people spread across 100 countries takes some work.”
Another software company, Reaktor Innovations from Finland, is the best small and medium-sized workplace. This is the first time that this 80-people company participated and it went straight to the top with a score of 96 per cent.
“In a small company, it is easier for people to know each other personally,” says Vesa Lauronen, chief executive. “There is less bureaucracy and the company as a whole is more flexible. One of the most important factors making a good workplace is to be able repeatedly to reinvent myself, my team and the whole company.”
He also believes a smaller company is also more agile in adapting to customer needs in a constantly changing market. However, he has to recruit the best people against larger companies with a global presence and a better known brand.
“Our size of 100 people sets some boundaries for truly delivering globally,” he says. “However, the most important thing that guarantees our success is that the company is driven by human values and pride in delivering quality above everything else.”
One employee wrote: “At Reaktor it is possible to implement ideas that could not be supported in any ‘regular company’.” Another wrote: “What is special and unique about our company is that it is not just a workplace, but a community.”
There are small differences between large and smaller organisations in various areas, although they are not significant compared with general trends. For instance, voluntary employee turnover at the large companies is 7.4 per cent, compared with 8.8 per cent at small and medium-sized companies.
Conversely, absenteeism is only 2.5 per cent at the small and medium-sized workplaces, compared with 3 per cent at large workplaces.
Counter-intuitively, small and medium-sized workplaces provide 70 hours of formal training annually, whereas large workplaces provide only 62 hours.
Of course, all organisations start out small and Microsoft’s Ms Brummel points out that it is important to carry the unique culture forward as a business develops into a large company.
“You have to work hard as you grow,” she says, “but we have the advantage of a very strong employee-centric culture that can be extended to support us as we enter new markets, businesses and countries. However, you have to keep investing in the employee experience or else you will eventually get employee fall-off.”
Cisco is another very big company that has done very well in the survey. “Because of the way we work, we still act like a small company,” says Nikki Walker, its European director for inclusion and diversity.
“We drive a culture that avoids a big company mentality, with lots of bureaucracy and levels. It is important to move away from a ‘command and control’ management philosophy to a completely collaborative environment, which is more like a smaller company, where you have much closer relationships with people.”
