Are you working for the right company?

The list of the top 50 Best Places to work in 2015 was published last week by Glassdoor, the career community based in California. Not surprisingly, Google is in the number one spot. Other companies on the list included Southwest Airlines and Disney along with other big brand names. All of these companies have something in common: their employees are happy and engaged with their brand promise and they provide a good Customer Experience. You see the two things are intrinsically linked.

I wrote about Google, Southwest Airlines, and Disney before. In the posts, I explain what makes a great employee environment. What was interesting to me was in comparing the comments about the companies from the Glassdoor survey, all reveal one thing they have in common: their employees are proud to work there.

Pride is an interesting emotion. When you feel proud it means you feel a deep pleasure or satisfaction as a result of your achievement or those of someone close to you. What are the factors that allow pride to permeate the halls? I would argue there are a few, including:

1. A defined brand promise you believe in: A brand promise is the implied agreement you make with your Customers about what they can expect from your organization. There should be no doubt here what that is for your organization, your employees, or your Customers. Along with that, you need aCustomer Experience Statement explaining the focal point of the Customer Experience and defining the goal of employees’ day-to-day activities.
2. Recruitment of the right type of employees: Do you fit there? Does it feel right? Notice the word feel. It has to feel right. This means that defining what that feeling is, and then recruiting for the type of people that are likely to be this way naturally is key. There is no point in Disney recruiting people to work in their parks if they are not people orientated. Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is key. Each of these three organizations, as well as many other on the list, have comments taking about working with “friendly people.” Chances are they are “friendly” because they have a high EQ.
3. An environment of trust, empowering employees to do their jobs: My first book, Building Great Customer Experiences emphasizes the need to have inspirational leadership, an empowering culture and empathetic people who are happy and fulfilled. Empowered is key here, as it implies employees feel they have the leeway to do their jobs in the way they see best. Their organization trusts them to do so. That’s why Google does so well on surveys, why Southwest employees create musical or stand up performances during routine business, and Disney continues to deliver the magic.
4. An excellent customer experience: Your Customer Experience creates a reputation. Like anything, people want to be associated with organizations with a great reputation. Can you deny you are impressed when someone tells you they work at a great company? Depending on where you work, you might even be envious of their situation…

Google, Southwest, and Disney have a long history of providing each of these things for their work environment. As I have said before, this is no accident but instead the result of excellent leadership and vision. Time will tell whether the remaining 47 companies on the list have the same commitment to excellence. Perhaps even more relevant, however, is whether you are doing what you can to create this type of environment for yourself or your employees where you work.

This article is published in collaboration with LinkedIn. Publication does not imply endorsement of views by the World Economic Forum.

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Author: Colin Shaw is the CEO of Beyond Philosophy.

Image: Facebook employees work in the design studio at the company’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California.