Best Workplaces rankings are part of the largest study of workplace excellence and people management practices in Europe, reflecting the workplace experience of over 1.1 million employees across Europe. According to the organizers a “great place to work” is one in which you “trust the people you work for, have pride in what you do, and enjoy the people you work with.” Co-founder Robert Levering put forth this definition in his 1988 book, A Great Place to Work: What makes some employers so good – and most so bad, based on interviews with hundreds of employees at dozens of companies. Twenty-three years later the same definition holds true.

Microsoft Belgium has been in the list since 2003 (except 2005/6 when we didn’t participate) and we’ve been able to maintain a top position in the list for all these years. These are the 2011 laureates and winners:

The jury rapport says this “Microsoft pays particular attention to ‘the New Way of Working’. The central idea behind the ‘New World of Work’ is that Microsoft focuses its business philosophy on the freedom to work whenever and wherever you want. This is based on core values ​​such as management by values​​, flexibility, a culture of trust and empowerment. Microsoft does this to tackle the mobility problems and the expectations of new and current generation of employees on work/life balance. Microsoft was one of the parties that was responsible for launching the first national homeworking day in 2010.”
Full Great Places to work press release in NL en FR.

This is a short impression of the awards ceremony earlier this week: