Great Place To Work Certification FAQs

Organizations collaborate with Great Place To Work to assess how well their leaders cultivate a highly positive employee experience. Great Place To Work provides top-tier data on the employee experience, gathered from surveys conducted by millions of employees worldwide. This data gives organizations crucial insights into how their employees engage with the workplace and sets benchmarks for working conditions globally.

Thirty years ago, Great Place To Work introduced a groundbreaking employee-focused perspective on the workplace. Today, our Trust Model™ provides an unparalleled opportunity to gain insights into your organization. Through our survey and analysis, employers can measure and monitor employee experience against key metrics and industry leaders.

Earning Great Place To Work Certification has many benefits, including:

• Better recruitment metrics such as offer acceptance rate
• Higher business profitability
• Automatic Best Workplaces™ award eligibility
• Greater employer brand awareness
• Improved employee trust
• Higher retention: 51% higher than a typical non-certified workplace
• Greater employee pride in the company
• Recognition for having great people managers and leaders

The Great Place To Work Trust Index™ Employee Survey broadly assesses the level of trust within your organization and the consistency of the employee experience. Essentially, it measures how reliably employees can expect certain things to occur in their workplace, such as transparent and honest leadership, fair treatment, and recognition.

The Great Place To Work Trust Index Survey specifically evaluates individual employee experiences across five dimensions of a high-trust company culture through 60 statements and two open-ended questions. Three of these dimensions—credibility, respect, and fairness—are linked to leadership actions and the establishment of trust. The other two dimensions assess employees’ workplace experience in relation to their colleagues and the broader organization: pride and a sense of belonging.

These five dimensions foster a workplace culture where employees feel empowered and motivated to do their most meaningful work. Research by Great Place To Work shows that high-trust cultures excel in areas such as recruitment and retention, productivity and innovation, and financial performance, often outpacing their competitors.

Survey answers are assessed on a five-point scale, revealing the most common experience of employees in the organization. Employee scores are averaged to provide an organization-wide assessment of workplace culture: the Trust Index score.

Great Place To Work is the leading global authority on workplace culture. Organizations worldwide collaborate with Great Place To Work to assess how effectively their leaders create an exceptionally positive employee experience. We provide top-tier data on the employee experience, gathered from research-backed surveys completed by millions of employees globally. This data gives organizations critical insights into how their employees engage with the workplace and sets benchmarks for working conditions worldwide.

The Great Place To Work Trust Model, used to evaluate employee experience and award Great Place To Work Certification, was developed through thousands of hours of interviews and focus groups with employees. This process revealed fundamental truths about the employee experience, which have been rigorously tested over 30 years with input from millions of workers around the globe.

To achieve Great Place to Work Certification, your survey results must indicate that around 7 out of 10 employees consistently have a positive experience at work.

Once you’re Certified, we’ll send you an email with access to your survey scores, a digital Certification badge, a toolkit of social media images, and press materials with shareable content. Plus, your organization will automatically be eligible for all our Best Workplaces™ award lists throughout the 12-month validity of your Certification.

Great Place To Work Certification criteria are the global standard for quantifying and benchmarking the employee experience. Using the Great Place To Work Trust Model and the Trust Index Survey, Certification evaluates workplace culture from the perspective that matters the most — the employee — offering the most comprehensive picture on the market of the internal health of an organization.

To be considered for Certification, organizations must have 10 or more employees and must complete a two-step process:

1. Survey employees with the Trust Index Survey.
2. Complete the Culture Brief™, a company questionnaire.

Positive employee responses to the Trust Index Survey (four and above on the five-point scale) are averaged to provide an organization-wide assessment of culture: the Trust Index. Companies that score above the current threshold become Great Place To Work Certified.

Surveys must meet strict requirements for how they are distributed and the percentage of employees who respond to ensure they accurately represent feedback from the company’s full population.

If your score falls short of the Certification threshold, we recommend reviewing and utilizing the insights gained from your employee experience feedback in the survey data. This will help you identify areas for improvement and determine your next steps. You can also seek assistance from our customer success team or, as an additional option, our expert Culture Coaches. Any actions you take to foster a high-trust culture will enhance your chances of earning Great Place to Work Certification the next time you apply. Rest assured, your company’s participation is entirely confidential—we do not disclose client names, information, or scores until they are Certified.

Your Certification is valid for 12 months. Once Certified, if your workplace meets the participation requirements for our lists, your company will automatically be considered for all the Best Workplaces lists you qualify for during the next 12 months.

Absolutely! Regularly obtaining and responding to employee feedback is a crucial aspect of fostering a positive work environment. It's essential to keep a pulse on your employees' sentiments and gauge whether your efforts are leading towards the desired outcomes. In this context, an annual Certification renewal becomes a cornerstone of maintaining strong ties with your employees. It allows you to capture a benchmarked perspective of their feedback, and as societal dynamics evolve, it helps ensure that you're persistently delivering a great experience. An up-to-date Certification is an effective signal to your employees, prospective hires, and clients that you're committed to providing an exceptional work environment. When they see a continuous streak of annual Certifications, they'll understand that you've been consistently dedicated to enhancing the work experience over the years.