CJ Best Places to Work in Construction: A round-up

Is your average working day like an episode of The Office or are you enjoying challenging tasks in an environment you can only describe as ‘Utopia’?

If your answer was the former, then read on with envy; if your answer was the latter, then you were probably one of the 320-plus people at Lord’s Cricket Ground on 6 June for the Contract Journal Best Places To Work In Construction Awards 2007.

Sponsored by Hays Construction and ConstructionSkills, the awards are now in their third year. Of the 120-plus companies that entered the awards, 39 made it through to being shortlisted.

What makes these awards unique is that the judges are the companies’ own employees.

Firms that entered the awards were sent an online questionnaire to be distributed among their staff. Questions covered areas such as: salary, hours worked, time with the company and plans to change job.

In addition, there was a list of statements to which employees had to agree or disagree to varying degrees, for example: “I receive recognition from my boss when I do a good job”, and; “I have confidence in my company’s senior management”. Each answer was given a mark, varying according to the strength of the answer.

Finally, employees were asked what makes their organisation a good place to work and what they thought would improve the workplace, and to give the company a score out of 20.

Companies were also sent a questionnaire to be completed by their HR managers/directors, covering terms and conditions, training investment per employee and so on. Based on this mixture of qualitative and quantitative data, CJ was able to rank companies in order in 10 different categories.

CJ editor Emma Penny said: “I must congratulate all the companies that entered these awards. It’s a brave step for any organisation to allow itself to be put under the spotlight by its own staff.

“In this industry, a company’s people are its biggest asset, so getting it right as an employer can have a massive pay-back.

“One thing that was universally mentioned in both positive and negative lights was communication – with some companies being praised and almost as equally criticised by their workforce for their communication.

“It’s an issue that crops up everywhere, and clearly one that few companies have cracked so far.”

Go to the links below to find out who won and why:

• Photo gallery and comments from the winners
• Video interviews of winners and views of the event