5.4 million minutes. 90,000 hours. 3,750 full days. That’s how long the average person spends at work in their lifetime.
We can’t underestimate the influence that work has on our lives. I firmly believe that when we work at a great place to work – a place where we feel cared for and where we feel like we belong – it makes us better partners, parents, children, friends, and community members.
What makes for a great place to work? Luckily, thanks to 30 years of research from our friends at Great Place To Work®, we know that a great workplace is one where employees:
- trust the people they work for;
- take genuine pride in their work;
- enjoy collaborating with their colleagues; and
- experience a safe and supportive workplace atmosphere, irrespective of their role, identity, or position within the organization.
Wouldn’t you want to work for a place like that? I know I do.
Not only is creating great workplaces good for our people, it’s good for business. Companies rated on the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For® list curated by Great Place To Work have consistently outperformed the market by a factor of 3.36 over the last 25 years, according to global index and data provider FTSE Russell.
The compounding effect of being a great workplace over time is really incredible.
Great Place To Work Certified Companies also realize 50% higher retention compared with their peers, are 15x more likely to be picked by job seekers, and have a 6x more chance of being recommended by their employees. What’s more, the companies that have the highest “Innovation By All” metric compared with the lowest in that same measure have 5.5x faster revenue growth.
Having culture-focused technology solutions as a critical part of an HCM strategy is imperative to being a great place to work AND a great business. You need the commitment to creating a great place to work, and you need the technology to power your journey.
We are out to change the world, one workplace at a time.
When UKG acquired Great Place To Work in September 2021, I distinctly remember CEO Michael Bush telling a group in a team meeting that, “We had aspirations to help 100,000 businesses around the world become great workplaces. By joining UKG, we can finally make it happen!”
Together, he said, we could change the world. I got goosebumps.
Now, in 2024, UKG is all in on a clear mission: Inspire every organization to become a great place to work through technology built for all.
You’ll notice the lowercase ‘great place to work’ in that statement. That’s because we’re not stopping at the data and wealth of knowledge that the Great Place To Work Institute has brought to our customers.
We’ve made a commitment across our entire company to transform the core of everything UKG does. There will be more than 15,000 people working towards the exact same goal. Every U Krewer, regardless of their role at UKG, will understand how their individual department will deliver on our new mission.
From a pure product standpoint, we’ve already begun delivering. Whether it’s the UKG Great Place To Work Hub that can guide HR leaders and people managers with proactive, curated insights and recommendations, the multi-country payroll experience of UKG One View, our FleX fabric that helps connect popular applications so employees can do more within their preferred ways of working, or the generative AI-powered conversational experiences that make it easier to work within the UKG Pro and UKG Ready HCM suites.
With the world’s largest collection of people, workforce, and culture data powered by AI, our HR, payroll, workforce management, and culture solutions can drive those great workplace experiences that lead to extraordinary business outcomes.
And the product piece is just the beginning.
This is a larger movement to change people’s experience at work.
We want to do more than solve complex HCM, payroll, and time and scheduling problems for our customers. Our goal is to be laser focused on the employee experience. We’re thinking about ways we can help every customer be a great place to work through every single interaction we have with them.
- What can we design in our products to help employees feel that their company really respects them and is transparent, fair, equitable, and encouraging?
- How can our services and implementation teams highlight applications, features, and functions customers can use to improve their employee experience?
- How can our relationship management teams lead conversations using customers’ Great Place To Work Trust Index scores to showcase best practices for improving in areas of need?
- How do we partner with other tech providers who can manifest this vision?
And on and on.
This is what’s on our mind. We know what it takes to create a great workplace and we are uniquely qualified to help our customers create theirs. Not only do we have the data, but we’ve seen the impact within our own walls. We understand the connection between a great culture and a successful business.
I believe what we do at UKG can have a positive butterfly effect on communities all over the world. As Michael said two years ago, we want to make an impact on 100,000 organizations worldwide.
We’re excited to be on this journey with our customers.