Waldkirch – The Great Place to Work® Institute honored Germany’s Best Workplaces 2021 yesterday evening. For the 19th time, the sensor company SICK was recognized as a particularly attractive employer for its good workplace culture. For the first time in the competition’s history, the prize-giving ceremony took place virtually due to the current pandemic.
SICK AG took 4th place in the category of companies with 2,001 - 5,000 employees. In addition, SICK received the silver medal in the "Best Employer Baden-Württemberg 2021" competition for companies with more than 1,000 employees. This assessment was made on the basis of an anonymous survey of 1,000 SICK employees on a variety of topics covering all aspects of workplace and corporate culture. 91 percent of respondents agreed with the statement that “All in all, this is a very good workplace”, a result with which SICK led its comparison group by a long way. SICK was also able to achieve above-average results regarding the Great Place to Work® topics of trustworthiness, respect, fairness, pride, and team spirit – improving yet again compared to last year. Those surveyed stressed that SICK enabled a good work-life balance, and supported agility and transformation within the company. The Great Place to Work® Institute’s Culture Audit again rated SICK AG’s social, ecological and cultural commitment as “excellent”.
Corporate culture promotes ties in times of pandemic
In response to the current coronavirus crisis, participants were also asked about their employer’s management of the pandemic. 94 percent said that SICK had effective measures for protecting the health of its employees. 95 percent also confirmed that SICK had given them the necessary support to cope with their personal situations during the pandemic.
“The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic makes demands of us all – both privately and professionally. SICK AG has so far remained stable during these challenging times, which is mainly due to the high personal commitment and flexibility of our employees,” said Cornelia Reinecke, Senior Vice President HR at SICK AG. “We are grateful for the approval of our employees, and pleased that our innovation-oriented corporate culture also brings us all together in difficult times,” Reinecke commented on the award.
The independent Great Place to Work® research institute is active worldwide and has repeatedly honored subsidiaries of the international SICK Group in recent years including, for example, SICK in Finland, Austria, Sweden, Chile, the USA, Singapore, and Southeast Asia. SICK was also honored as one of Europe’s Top 100 Employers in 2017.
Great Place to Work®
Throughout Germany, companies of all sizes and in all industries took part in the Germany’s Best Workplaces 2021 competition organized by the Great Place to Work® Institute. They underwent a voluntary examination of the quality and attractiveness of their workplace culture by the independent Great Place to Work® Institute, as well as assessment by their own employees. The 100 best employers were chosen from the whole field of participants in six categories, depending on company size. The annual Germany’s Best Workplaces competition has been partnered by the Handelsblatt (a newspaper specializing in business and finance), Personalmagazin (a specialist HR magazine), the German Demographic Network (ddn), and the Ludwig Erhard Award Initiative (ILEP) since 2002.
Evaluations are based on a detailed anonymous survey of employees on central workplace topics such as the quality of collaboration, appreciation, identification with the company, remuneration, personal professional development opportunities, as well as the promotion of health and a healthy work-life balance. The measures and activities of corporate human resources were also assessed in an audit. The results of the two assessment instruments (the Great Place to Work® employee survey and the Culture Audit) are weighted 2:1, whereby the employees’ assessment has the greater weighting.