The Sunday Times Best Places to Work, Powered by WorkL   

Do you want to gain essential business insight, hear your employees’ voices and enter the Sunday Times hall of fame? Look no further than this prestigious workplace awards programme – The Sunday Times Best Places to Work, powered by WorkL running in the UK and Ireland. 

These well-established awards relaunched last year with a new look and reinvigorated interest in finding and celebrating true champions of workplace engagement. As we move away from the post-pandemic years and settle into the new normal, there is no question that the workplace environment has been significantly altered and retaining top talent within business has never been more important. Yet it’s hard to remember a time when this task was more challenging. Research by WorkL recently revealed that more than a quarter of employees are at risk of leaving their job within a month – the so-called ‘flight risk’. An important factor in employee engagement, wellbeing risk, is also at an all-time high, with a third of employees falling below the average WorkL’s wellbeing score.

But the fact remains that high employee engagement is essential to any business’s long-term success. Research shows that engaged employees drive 20% improvement in productivity and significantly reduce employees’ sickness absence and staff turnover. Individuals who feel they have more control over their working life, wellbeing and environment will take more responsibility for the success of their employer. The so-called ‘Happy Economics™’, where the success of the business is directly linked to happiness of their employees has never been more relevant.

Employee insights

You may be looking for a new tool when it comes to attracting, recruiting and retaining talented employees or you are interested in undergoing a high-quality industry benchmarking process. Maybe you like the idea of being recognised by an influential newspaper, The Sunday Times and the ‘disruptors of the employee engagement industry’ WorkL, as the best place to work in the UK and/or Ireland. Whatever your reasons, securing a place on this prestigious award ranking index will undoubtedly make a major impact on your employees and customers alike.

The entry process is simple, with an easy to set up employee survey that takes no longer than five minutes to complete and is proven to attract a high response rate as a result. This could be the perfect workplace award for you. Plus you can enter The Sunday Times Awards, powered by WorkL. If your organisation operates in both the UK and Ireland you can enter both awards separately.

You will receive a complimentary digital subscription for the Times and the Sunday Times for 12 months.

Like with any other award programme, the process isn’t solely about the organisation’s name in lights. As well as offering you the chance to celebrate success, you will receive wealth and breadth of data to deep dive into your employees’ feedback and to compare your results against global and industry benchmarks. This could be pivotal in driving improvements across your business – additional granular data packages can be purchased separately, including tailored recommendations, powered by Instant Action Software™, that are essential in highlighting and improving specific areas of employee engagement.

The 26 survey questions measure employee experience and it takes less than five minutes to complete, while the dynamic dashboard gives you instant insights into the findings, making the whole process quick yet invaluable.     

Ireland

Top Small Organisations (10-49 employees): €900

Top Medium Organisations (50-249 employees): €1,750

Top Big Organisations (250-1,999 employees): €3,500

Top Very Big Organisations (2,000+ employees): €5,250

There are eleven main categories that will be recognised, giving organisations the opportunity to get the recognition they deserve even if they are not the best at all aspects. For example, if you are demonstrating fantastic examples of ED&I but your overall score is not top of the list. The categories are:

Top 10’s ranked and the rest listed alphabetically by organisation name

Best Places to Work: Small Organisation (10-49 Employees)

Best Places to Work: Medium Organisation (50-249+ Employees)

Best Places to Work: Big Organisation (250-1,999 Employees)

Best Places to Work: Very Big Organisation (2,000+ Employees)

Overall winner and three highly commended across all company sizes

Best Places to Work for women

Best Places to Work for disabled employees

Best Places to Work for ethnic minority employees

Best Places to Work for LGBTQ+ employees

Best Places to Work for 16-34 year olds

Best Places to Work for 55+ year olds

Best Places to Work for employee wellbeing

You can also purchase further granular data analysis (‘slice and dice’) for an additional fee (subject to the size of your organisation) and if you are successful you will be offered to buy a Sunday Times Best Places to Work logo licence to use on all of your internal and external communications.

The awards entry can be paid via debit/credit card or you can raise an invoice which must be paid within 14 days.

The employee survey

While you will be asked to provide additional information about your organisation and the benefits that you provide for your employees, the award outcomes depend solely on the results of the employee survey – which means in this instance Boost cannot offer assistance with the entry (although if you have an employee engagement story worthy of these awards, you are sure to have a great chance entering other programmes, so do please get in touch if this is you!) The comprehensive survey includes questions specially designed by employee experience experts across six key drivers of engagement: empowerment, reward and recognition, job satisfaction, information sharing, wellbeing and instilling pride.

Once your survey is live, a unique link is generated which can be shared across your organisation. For businesses with employees on the go, or those without access to email, you can create a QR code by entering the survey link into one of many free QR generators available online.  To gain accurate representation of your business it is important that you reach the required response rate:

Small Organisations (10-49 employees): 60%

Medium Organisations (50-249 employees): 50%

Big Organisations (250-1,999 employees): 50%

Very Big Organisations (2,000+ employees): 40%

The surveys remain completely anonymous so you can rest assured that results will reflect the true feelings of your employees.

If you would like to discuss the specifics of the survey or questions in more detail then you can contact the organisers directly.

Next steps

Check out the The Sunday Times Best Places to Work 2023 winners, WorkL for Business Platform or browse the really informative awards site or FAQs UK and FAQs Ireland pages. Alternatively reach out to the organisers if you would like to hear more. You may also wish to enter your organisation in The WorkL Happiest Companies Awards which are now open for 2023.

If this has whet your appetite for more employee-focussed awards, don’t hesitate to get in touch with Boost. Our team would be happy to give you a call to have an informal chat about award planning, award entry writing or evaluations and explain our pricing options. You can contact Boost via our contact form or email directly via info@boost-awards.co.uk.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Milly

The Sunday Times Best Places to Work, Powered by WorkL   

Do you want to gain essential business insight, hear your employees’ voices and enter the Sunday Times hall of fame? Look no further than this prestigious workplace awards programme – The Sunday Times Best Places to Work, powered by WorkL running in the UK and Ireland. 

These well-established awards relaunched last year with a new look and reinvigorated interest in finding and celebrating true champions of workplace engagement. As we move away from the post-pandemic years and settle into the new normal, there is no question that the workplace environment has been significantly altered and retaining top talent within business has never been more important. Yet it’s hard to remember a time when this task was more challenging. Research by WorkL recently revealed that more than a quarter of employees are at risk of leaving their job within a month – the so-called ‘flight risk’. An important factor in employee engagement, wellbeing risk, is also at an all-time high, with a third of employees falling below the average WorkL’s wellbeing score.

But the fact remains that high employee engagement is essential to any business’s long-term success. Research shows that engaged employees drive 20% improvement in productivity and significantly reduce employees’ sickness absence and staff turnover. Individuals who feel they have more control over their working life, wellbeing and environment will take more responsibility for the success of their employer. The so-called ‘Happy Economics™’, where the success of the business is directly linked to happiness of their employees has never been more relevant.

Employee insights

You may be looking for a new tool when it comes to attracting, recruiting and retaining talented employees or you are interested in undergoing a high-quality industry benchmarking process. Maybe you like the idea of being recognised by an influential newspaper, The Sunday Times and the ‘disruptors of the employee engagement industry’ WorkL, as the best place to work in the UK and/or Ireland. Whatever your reasons, securing a place on this prestigious award ranking index will undoubtedly make a major impact on your employees and customers alike.

The entry process is simple, with an easy to set up employee survey that takes no longer than five minutes to complete and is proven to attract a high response rate as a result. This could be the perfect workplace award for you. Plus you can enter The Sunday Times Awards, powered by WorkL. If your organisation operates in both the UK and Ireland you can enter both awards separately.

You will receive a complimentary digital subscription for the Times and the Sunday Times for 12 months.

Like with any other award programme, the process isn’t solely about the organisation’s name in lights. As well as offering you the chance to celebrate success, you will receive wealth and breadth of data to deep dive into your employees’ feedback and to compare your results against global and industry benchmarks. This could be pivotal in driving improvements across your business – additional granular data packages can be purchased separately, including tailored recommendations, powered by Instant Action Software™, that are essential in highlighting and improving specific areas of employee engagement.

How do we enter The Sunday Times Best Places to Work, Powered by WorkL?

This straightforward process sees winners selected solely from the results of an employee survey. You will be asked to complete supplementary information, however this is only for editorial purposes and does not influence your position in the awards.

To enter, simply visit the WorkL for Business – Awards platform and choose if you want to enter UK or Irish Sunday Times Awards. You will be asked to select if you are a small, medium, big or very big organisation based on your number of employees, when you would like your survey to start and end and enter how many employees your organisation has. Once you have paid the entry fee and your survey closes, an expert panel will evaluate the results and determine your place on the final list.

The Awards are now live and the deadline for the 2023/24 last entry is 17th March 2024, with all surveys having to be completed by 31st March 2024. The winners announcement will feature in The Sunday Times and separately in the Times Ireland, which is likely to be published early May 2024.

The awards categories are based on the number of employees you have in your organisation and this then determines the entry fees:

UK

Top Small Organisations (10-49 employees): £750 +VAT

Top Medium Organisations (50-249 employees): £1,500 +VAT

Top Big Organisations (250-1,999 employees): £3,000 +VAT

Top Very Big Organisations (2,000+ employees): £4,500 +VAT

Ireland

Top Small Organisations (10-49 employees): €900

Top Medium Organisations (50-249 employees): €1,750

Top Big Organisations (250-1,999 employees): €3,500

Top Very Big Organisations (2,000+ employees): €5,250

The 26 survey questions measure employee experience and it takes less than five minutes to complete, while the dynamic dashboard gives you instant insights into the findings, making the whole process quick yet invaluable.     

There are eleven main categories that will be recognised, giving organisations the opportunity to get the recognition they deserve even if they are not the best at all aspects. For example, if you are demonstrating fantastic examples of ED&I but your overall score is not top of the list. The categories are:

Top 10’s ranked and the rest listed alphabetically by organisation name

Best Places to Work: Small Organisation (10-49 Employees)

Best Places to Work: Medium Organisation (50-249+ Employees)

Best Places to Work: Big Organisation (250-1,999 Employees)

Best Places to Work: Very Big Organisation (2,000+ Employees)

Overall winner and three highly commended across all company sizes

Best Places to Work for women

Best Places to Work for disabled employees

Best Places to Work for ethnic minority employees

Best Places to Work for LGBTQ+ employees

Best Places to Work for 16-34 year olds

Best Places to Work for 55+ year olds

Best Places to Work for employee wellbeing

You can also purchase further granular data analysis (‘slice and dice’) for an additional fee (subject to the size of your organisation) and if you are successful you will be offered to buy a Sunday Times Best Places to Work logo licence to use on all of your internal and external communications.

The awards entry can be paid via debit/credit card or you can raise an invoice which must be paid within 14 days.

The employee survey

While you will be asked to provide additional information about your organisation and the benefits that you provide for your employees, the award outcomes depend solely on the results of the employee survey – which means in this instance Boost cannot offer assistance with the entry (although if you have an employee engagement story worthy of these awards, you are sure to have a great chance entering other programmes, so do please get in touch if this is you!) The comprehensive survey includes questions specially designed by employee experience experts across six key drivers of engagement: empowerment, reward and recognition, job satisfaction, information sharing, wellbeing and instilling pride.

Once your survey is live, a unique link is generated which can be shared across your organisation. For businesses with employees on the go, or those without access to email, you can create a QR code by entering the survey link into one of many free QR generators available online.  To gain accurate representation of your business it is important that you reach the required response rate:

Small Organisations (10-49 employees): 60%

Medium Organisations (50-249 employees): 50%

Big Organisations (250-1,999 employees): 50%

Very Big Organisations (2,000+ employees): 40%

The surveys remain completely anonymous so you can rest assured that results will reflect the true feelings of your employees.

If you would like to discuss the specifics of the survey or questions in more detail then you can contact the organisers directly.

Next steps

Check out the The Sunday Times Best Places to Work 2023 winners, WorkL for Business Platform or browse the really informative awards site or FAQs UK and FAQs Ireland pages. Alternatively reach out to the organisers if you would like to hear more. You may also wish to enter your organisation in The WorkL Happiest Companies Awards which are now open for 2023.

If this has whet your appetite for more employee-focussed awards, don’t hesitate to get in touch with Boost. Our team would be happy to give you a call to have an informal chat about award planning, award entry writing or evaluations and explain our pricing options. You can contact Boost via our contact form or email directly via info@boost-awards.co.uk.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Milly

Boost – a helping hand entering awards

Boost is the world’s first and largest award entry consultancy, having helped clients, from SMEs to Multinationals, win over 2,000 credible business awards and rankings. Uniquely we have a bespoke cloud-based awards planner tool and a database of over 5,000+ awards, whilst our whole team of in-house writers, graphic designers and awards experts can give you maximum support when entering awards. Increase your chances of success significantly – call Boost on +44(0)1273 258703 today for a no-obligation chat about awards.

(C) This article was written by Milly Bones and is the intellectual property of award entry consultants Boost Awards. Images used with the kind permission of WorkL and The Sunday Times, who sponsored the content.