The Best Workplaces™ label distinguishes the very best employers from the certified organisations. In Belgium, we determine three lists for large, medium, and small organisations. These companies have the highest levels of trust and the most inclusive cultures in Belgium. To share the example of these organisations that managed to be great employers, Great Place to Work® organised the “Learn from The Best” Inspiration Session once again. Here, everyone got some tips and tricks from the leaders of companies recognised on the Best Workplaces 2022 list.
During this session, Thomas Van Eeckhout (CEO of Easi) provided us with insights on how Easi managed to get the expectational result of being a Best Workplace for eight years in a row!
Becoming The Best: Easi
Here are three keys to success, according to Easi.
1. Value-driven company
Easi uses its six core values (responsibility, commitment, positivity, caring, excellence and shareholdership) as a compass when making important decisions in daily life. These are also the critical criteria to use when hiring, firing and promoting people. Moreover, Thomas revealed that “they also use the values as a condition for becoming a shareholder”. At Easi, 30% of the employees (or “collaborators”, as they call them) are stakeholders. Over 1OO collaborators are thus co-owners of the company, making it a powerful model. This is entirely based on their culture; it had allowed Easi to act upon their values.
2. Recruitment and retention
“As a CEO, the core business is HR: recruitment and retention”, explains Thomas. It is their key to success. “We treat people the way we want to be treated, and it’s about the crossroads between what is good for our people and what is good for our business and customers.” As an IT company, they differentiate themselves by focussing on humanised technology.
The only way to keep growing and performing well these days is to have people aboard who live up to your daily values! Easi is now a company with more than 400 employees, wherefrom they hired 113 people last year, and they plan to hire at least the same amount this year. Having an excellent culture fit makes Easi successful, so focussing on good recruitment and retention is key.
During the session, employee Anne-Sophie shared her personal story on why she thinks Easi is a great workplace. Her journey started when she replied to a LinkedIn message from Easi. “Maybe it was the title of being a Best Workplace that made me answer to their message and not the ones from other companies”, Anne-Sophie said. Using the certification is helpful to attract talent. Next, her interviewer could capture Easi’s values very well, and she saw that there was a good culture fit. Now, Anne-Sophie is already working at Easi for more than 18 months, and she feels like she has learned a lot and will keep having these opportunities. According to her, the company also puts retention in a central place.
3. Great Place to Work as a mirror
“By defining the Great Place to Work model in our company, we can keep track of what can be improved and what is going well in an authentic way. Great Place to Work serves as a mirror for Easi, so we can see if we still ‘walk our talk’”, Thomas explained. For example, their mission to be happy at Easi is an outcome of the research. Thomas stresses that well-being at work is not enough; happiness goes further. The fun events and benefits are certainly nice to have. But considering it an intrinsic great workplace where you enjoy your job and the people you work with is due to a good culture fit. “It is a two-way street, where employers create a context where collaborators can be happy and have ownership over their career”, clarified Thomas. It is about fulfilling the needs that people have.