Best companies to work for 2014: Methodology used to pick the winners

For over 25 years and in over 50 countries, Great Place To Work Institute has been conducting studies to understand and identify the best workplaces. The study conducted in India is based on the same model and methodology that is followed in carrying out similar studies elsewhere, including the US and the Europe where the results are published in Fortune and Financial Times respectively.

The study uses an employee– centric framework that measures the levels of trust, pride and camaraderie in an organization through Trust Index, a proprietary tool developed by the Great Place To Work Institute. It has 57 statements that measure employee experience through 5 dimensions and 5 customized statements for the Indian context. It also captures verbatim employee comments about what makes their workplace great and what would make it better.

Participating companies are evaluated primarily on the basis of their employees' responses to the survey which is given two thirds weight in the overall score. Within each participating company, a sample of randomly-selected employees participate in the Trust Index survey. This sample is selected from the complete list of employees of the organization. The remaining one-third of the score is derived from Culture Audit, a management survey where the company submits comprehensive material that are subject to rigorous evaluation using the Culture Audit framework.

The instrument helps in gauging not only the structure, demographics, compensation and benefits but also the company’s philosophy, values, and the manner in which they are woven into people practices.

Stringent audit processes are followed during the survey. The employee survey scores are tracked and an audit requirement gets triggered wherever abnormal trends are observed in the scores. There are examples of companies that have not been considered for ranking when the standard survey process was not adequately followed.

Great Place to Work Institute, India engages a field agency to supervise employee surveys in some companies where paper based surveys are administered. The agency was deployed at locations with largest concentration of the company’s workforce.

Maintaining and enhancing the rigour of the study is the topmost priority at Great Place to Work Institute, India and we pride ourselves in upholding the process year on year.