Push-ups and massages: Perks at Australia’s best places to work

A company listed as one of Australia’s best places to work has shared the extensive list of perks its employees are entitled to in a sometimes bizarre video.

Australia’s “best workplaces” have been revealed as employers battle for talent in a tight jobs market, where staff are increasingly demanding perks including flexible work.

The Australia’s Best Workplaces 2022 list, produced by the Great Place to Work Institute, named the country’s top employers in the micro, small, medium and large categories.

In the micro category, Sydney-based HR firm The Recruitment Company came in first place. The firm, which has just 22 employees, focuses on specialist IT and public sector recruitment.

Howden Insurance Brokers was named the best small workplace with 51 employees, Melbourne IT company Mantel Group was the top medium workplace with 484 employees, and global tech giant Cisco, which has 1385 Australian staff, was named the best large workplace.

A promotional video released by the company showed employees having a great time doing push-ups, making smoothies, getting massages and having after-work drinks.

“Cisco Australia is a great place to work for many reasons — our people have the trust and flexibility to integrate their work and personal lives in ways that empower them to be their best,” said chief human resources officer James Comer.

“Our people know their culture is inclusive, and that enables a uniquely Australian Cisco experience.”

At each of the top-ranked companies, more than 90 per cent of employees said it was a great place to work, compared with 56 per cent of employees at a typical Australia-based companies.

The ranking is based on workforce surveys featuring more than 60 questions “describing the extent to which their organisation creates a great place to work for all, meaning that the company empowers all individuals to reach their full human potential”.

“Eighty-five per cent of the evaluation is based on what employees report about their experiences of trust and reaching their full human potential as part of their organisation, no matter who they are or what they do,” the Great Place to Work website says.

“We analyse these experiences relative to each organisation’s size, workforce make up, and what’s typical in their industry and region. The remainder of the evaluation is an assessment of all employees’ daily experiences of the company’s values, people’s ability to contribute new ideas, and the effectiveness of their leaders to ensure they’re consistently experienced.”

Cisco has been named Australia’s best large workplace. Source: YouTube

‘Workers have reset priorities’

Earlier this week, global HR firm Randstad released its own report naming G8 Education as the most attractive employer in Australia, followed by BHP and NSW Department of Communities & Justice.

The annual Randstad Employer Brand Research, which surveyed more than 6000 Australians, found most workers looking for a new role prioritised work-life balance (62 per cent), followed by attractive salaries and benefits (58 per cent) and job security (56 per cent).

The firm noted that with unemployment falling to a 50-year low of 3.5 per cent in June, “Australian workers have never had more opportunity to call the shots”.

“The research paints a picture of a confident workforce, with employees not hesitating to seek new pastures if they feel their employer is not meeting their priorities,” Randstad said.

“In fact at the start of this year, one in four (28 per cent) indicated they intended to change employers within six months, higher than a year ago (24 per cent).”

The study found more than one in three workers did not feel their employer was currently offering good work-life balance.

“While remuneration is key in a competitive job market and inflationary economy, Australian workers have reset their priorities following the pandemic and striking a balance between their work and personal lives is no longer a nice to have, it‘s an essential,” said Angela Anasis, executive general manager for Randstad Australia and New Zealand.

It comes as new data suggests employers have been defeated in the battle to force staff back into the office, with more than one in four Australian companies no longer expecting their staff to show up in person.

A survey of nearly 1200 companies, conducted by the Australian HR Institute in July, found just 4 per cent required employees to work in the office full-time.

Of those surveyed, 7 per cent of organisations allowed employees to work from home continuously, while 34 per cent had no set number of days required in the office but did encourage it.

More than half of the organisations revealed they were offering incentives to lure staff back to the office, such as social events and free coffee or meals.

“Work from home” is now the top keyword searched on employment marketplace Seek.

Employers have been defeated in the work-from-home battle. Picture: Jeremy Piper/NCA NewsWire

Best place to work has no office

Highlighting the growing work-from-home trend, a New Zealand company was been left stunned after being named one of the top places to work in America — despite having no offices there.

Joyous, a human resources tech start-up based in New Zealand and funded by Australian venture capital, was named in this year’s Will Reed Top 100 Early-Stage Companies to Work For list.

Will Reed, a US-based executive search firm specialising in talent recruitment for start-ups, says its list celebrates companies that are “radically on-mission and creating human-first cultures that contribute to their employees’ sense of meaning, value, wellbeing and belonging”.

“Each company’s application was anonymously reviewed by a panel of 13 judges comprised of industry thought leaders and Will Reed team members,” its website says.

Speaking to The Australian, Joyous founder Mike Carden said being named on the list came as a surprise because the majority of his fewer than 50 staff live in Australia and New Zealand.

Joyous only employs six people in the US, all on remote-work contracts, and has no office there.

“I’m not sure who nominated us,” he told the newspaper.

Mr Carden told The Australian the benefits that won over the judges included a free home office set-up with an electric standing desk, stock options, six long weekends per year, health insurance, counselling services and extra parental leave.

After the company won, Will Reed requested an address to send the plaque.

“I guess we can put it in the reception of the office we don’t have,” Mr Carden said. “Turns out it is being shipped to New Zealand. I really have no idea how that came to pass, but sadly at this stage it hasn’t arrived yet.”

Joyous, founded in 2017, is backed by Aussie VC firms Square Peg Capital and AirTree Ventures.

— with Chantelle Francis