Member Article

Opencast among UK's most loved workplaces

Global news publisher Newsweek has announced its first-ever annual rankings for the UK’s Top 100 ‘Most Loved Workplaces’ list – and Tyneside technology consultancy Opencast is ranked at number 19 on the list.

The 2022 UK Top 100 Most Loved Workplaces list is the result of Newsweek’s collaboration with the respected Best Practice Institute (BPI), a leadership development and benchmark research company.

The 2022 results were determined after surveying more than 1.4 million employees from businesses with workforces varying in size from 50 to more than 10,000.

The Most Loved Workplace list recognises companies that put respect, caring and appreciation for their employees at the centre of their business model and, in doing so, have earned the loyalty and respect of the people who work for them.

BPI measured five critical areas to gauge employee sentiment:

• How positive workers feel about their future at the company • Career achievement • How much employer values align with employee values • Respect at all levels • The level of collaboration at the company.

In addition, areas such as inclusion, diversity, equity and belonging, and company response and adaptability to the Covid pandemic, such as return-to-office rules, were identified and analysed in relation to the five critical areas that were measured.

Opencast’s place in the UK Top 100 list follows a comprehensive look at workplace sentiment – and analysis of its engagement data shows that Opencast people are happy and satisfied at work.

The BPI research used information provided by Opencast about employee satisfaction and sentiment, including the level of respect, collaboration, support and sense of belonging they feel inside the company.

Welcoming the announcement, Opencast chief people officer Cate Kalson said: “We are delighted to be recognised by Newsweek and the Best Practice Institute as one of the UK’s Top 100 Most Loved Workplaces.

“We are especially pleased to have had recognition from the institute for our focus on inclusion and belonging. We work hard to ensure that there is respect for all, that all our people’s voices are heard and valued.

“Opencast is steadily creating a more diverse workforce. We have designed our recruitment processes around our inclusive values. Opencast now employs people from more than 32 different nationalities across the business – nearly double the number of nationalities in 2021. In the past 12 months, we have also increased the proportion of our female workforce by a quarter.”

Cate continued: “With our increased diversity we need to ensure that everyone can thrive at Opencast, so we measure our inclusion climate thoroughly and engage in change initiatives to address areas where we aren’t reaching our high ambitions.

“For example, we are taking part in a cross-company mentoring programme that is focused on supporting career progression for people with underrepresented characteristics, whilst also exposing all of our senior leaders to the challenges and barriers that people can face.”

Louis Carter, founder and chief executive of BPI, said: “The companies on the Most Loved Workplaces list represent the best at placing love at the centre of their employee experience. The number of applications this year and analysis of survey data reinforces our original findings that love is the strongest predictor of the strength of a company’s culture, employee engagement, and satisfaction.”

To identify the UK’s top 100 companies for the Newsweek ranking, companies were evaluated and scored as follows:

• 35% of the initial score was based on employee survey responses • 25% was derived from analysis of external public ratings from sites such as Comparably, Careerbliss, Glassdoor, Indeed and Google • 40% came from direct interviews with and written responses from company officials.

Newsweek then conducted additional research into every company on the list, as well as the top runners up, to determine the final list of 100 companies and their ranking. The list includes both UK firms and companies with a strong UK presence that are based overseas.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Hoults Yard .