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Study shows being recognized as a great place to work benefits employers

TAKE HEART, employers: the time, effort and money you put into entering those “Best Places to Work” contests are not a waste of time. In fact, it’s helping you keep your current employees and attract new ones.

That’s one of the key findings of a Rutgers University study released this past summer that looked into how these competitions impacted company employees. The study surveyed more than 600 employers in the U.S. and Canada. In fact, the Canadian employers, which made up two per cent of the study group, were all from Atlantic Canada.

One of the study’s co-authors, Rutgers University professor David G. Allen, says prior research has shown certification positively affects a company’s financial performance and employee attitudes. What this study showed was that companies that won these competitions had lower employee turnover rates the following year. It also found that gaining a “Best Places to Work” certification attracts more highly qualified job applicants (but only for smaller companies and only when jobs are scarce). “For companies entering these competitions, it can be a bit of a pain,” Allen says. “But this does provide evidence that it can be worth it to participate in them.”

Yes it can. However, the study reveals that while the first certification reduces employee turnover, repeated certifications did not decrease employee turnover or increase applicant quality any further. So does that mean once employers in Atlantic Canada get one of these certifications that there’s no need to continue to get them year-after-year?

Allen says they don’t have any data on that, but he wouldn’t advise it. “We don’t know what the effect would be of falling off these lists,” Allen says. “But I do think that it might be risky for employers.”