The 50 best places to work in Australia revealed

Companies that specialise in software development and information technology make up almost half of the best 50 places to work in Australia, according to the latest list produced by research institute Great Place to Work Australia.

The ninth annual list of great places to work in Australia is based on surveys of close to 52,000 employees from 135 companies, which were conducted between October 2015 and July 2016, as well as an evaluation of the employers’ policies and procedures by Great Place to Work Australia.

According to the research institute’s definition, a great place to work is “where you trust the people you work with, have pride in what you do, and enjoy the people you work with”.

Prominent IT and software companies to feature on the list include Salesforce, which topped the list of employers with 100 employees or more.

Atlassian came in third on the same part of the list, while SAS Australia was ranked 15th and Envato took 17th position.

Cloud service provider Rackspace Australia took out the top honour for the best places to work in Australia with under 100 employees, with Meltwater News Australia, Campaign Monitor and BigCommerce also featuring on the list of smaller employers.

Retailers were also represented on the lists, with cosmetics retailer MECCA Brands coming in at number four on the list of employers with more than 100 employees, and Vinomofo coming in at number 22 on the list of employers with under 100 employees.

Companies in the healthcare, professional services, manufacturing, biotechnology, construction and financial services sectors also appear on the list.

What makes a great place to work

IT services provider Insentra has been operating for six-and-a-half years and managing director Ronnie Altit says his focus from day one has been on the company’s internal corporate culture.

Insentra was ranked as the eighth best place to work with under 100 employees and Altit told SmartCompany the ranking is a “testimony” to Insentra 42 employees.

“One of our core values is ‘one team, one dream’,” he says.

“This helps everyone see we are realising our dream.”

Insentra is a consultancy firm that aims to assist other IT sellers in a variety of areas, including data protection, data security, and cloud and migration services.

Altit says the business has “zero voluntary turnover” of staff and a key part of developing this culture has been placing complete trust in employees.

“I hire very intelligent people. They are adults, who behave like adults and so we treat them like adults,” he says.

“I’m not skilled in running a daycare centre and I don’t want to run an adult daycare centre.”

Instead, Altit says his role is to “remove barriers” for his employees to enable them to do the best they work they can.

One way Insentra encourages this is through its “pebble in the shoe” policy. Employees are encouraged to come to management with a problem while it is still a “pebble in their shoe” and not to “walk around with it and let it turn into a blister”. Staff are also told they can take their issues straight to Altit as managing director, without fear of bypassing their immediate managers.

“I consider my staff first and clients second, because my employees consider the clients first,” Altit says.

“We want to help staff become better versions of themselves.”

The 50 best places to work in Australia:

Employers with 100 or more employees

Employers with under 100 employees