Great Place to Work® 2023 – ISR ranks among Germany's best employers in three competitions (regional, industry-specific, and national).
Every three years, we participate in the Great Place to Work® employee survey to obtain valuable and honest feedback from our employees about our corporate and workplace culture. For example, we were recently (2020)recognizedby Great Place toWork®as the best employer in Lower Saxony-Bremen and as the best employer in the information technology and communications (ITC) industry.
We deliberately choose an experienced partner such as Great Place to Work®, an international research and consulting institute that is now represented in around 60 countries, to conduct a company-wide survey. Great Place to Work has set itself the goal of supporting the analysis, visualization, and subsequent development of the respective corporate and workplace culture.
Specifically, Great Place to Work® certifies a large number of companies each year on the basis of two research instruments. The anonymous employee survey accounts for ¾ of the evaluation, while the so-called culture audit, an analysis of HR measures, accounts for ¼. In addition to certification, Great Place to Work® also recognizes excellent employers for particularly good performance in various competitions—Germany's Best Employer, regional comparisons, and industry-specific comparisons.
Our employee survey began in mid-September 2022. All employees who had joined ISR by August 1, 2022, had two weeks to submit their feedback. This resulted in 204 potential participants, with an excellent participation rate of 80%.
The Great Place to Work® model – what is it all about?
The content of the employee survey is based on the Great Place to Work® model, which consists of these five focus areas:
It measures the extent to which a very good corporate culture and excellent working conditions exist.
The focus area of credibility examines whether there is open communication between employees and managers and whether they are perceived as competent. The focus area of respect determines the level of employee support, cooperation with managers, and the extent of recognition. Fairness, on the other hand, covers topics such as balanced remuneration, neutrality and fairness towards employees, and equal treatment of all. The focus area of pride aims to determine whether employees are proud of their personal contribution, the work of the team, or the image of the company. Finally, the focus area of team spirit assesses whether there is a friendly working atmosphere, whether interactions are characterized by familiarity, and to what extent "everyone pulls together."
And what was the result? Our triple win at Great Place to Work®
This year, we received three awards:
In a regional comparison (Lower Saxony-Bremen), we achieved an outstanding 2nd place among companies with 50-250 employees. A total of 74 companies took part in this competition, of which 10 were honored.
In an industry comparison (ITC) , we achieved an impressive 16th place among companies with 101-250 employees. A total of 274 companies took part in this competition, of which 100 were honored.
But as we all know, the best comes last! Out of a total of 931 participating companies, we also made it into the top 100 best employers in Germany. The top 100 are divided into six company sizes. Specifically, we were able to achieve 20th place in the category 101–250 employees. You can find all the rankings here: .
In addition to all these awards, we are particularly pleased that the overwhelming majority of 90% stated that ISR is a very good place to work. In the focus area of team spirit, 92% of our employees agreed that teamwork is characterized by a friendly atmosphere and a high level of familiarity. What's more, everyone pulls together in line with the ONETeam motto. We are extremely proud of this!
What's next? Our lessons learned
We naturally want to use feedback from our employees to make ISR an even better place to work. After improving our benefits and social services in 2017 based on the Great Place to Work results, we convened a task force in 2020 that was very committed to promoting health in the company. Since then, ISR has introduced active breaks, motivational talks, and a health podcast.
We are still planning which specific measures will be derived from the feedback for 2023. In any case, we will do everything we can to further increase employee satisfaction through additional targeted measures before our next participation in three years. We are therefore convinced that we will be able to raise the bar even higher in the final results in 2026.
Further information and an overview of our previous rankings can be found here:
ISR company profile on GPTW .
Press release on the Best Employers 2023 .
Alicia Möpert
ISR Academy
