efforts? Re-jigging a work environment goes beyond just putting in a pool table or a juice bar; it's a cohesive effort that stretches beyond the physicality of the workplace. And talking to a number of organisations in the last month, it's clear what's really at stake here. Authenticity and honesty.

We looked at the Great Place to Work List for guidance. The Great Place to Work Institute is a research and management consultancy which prides itself on listening to employees and evaluating employers, looking to find out what makes a workplace great. And they say the same thing -- the foundation of every great workplace is trust. And trust comes from authentic words, authentic behaviour and honesty. Every year, this Institute produces various Best Companies to Work for lists, looking as far as 40 countries around the world. The selection is primarily based on employee responses to their own proprietary survey and further information is provided via another proprietary questionnaire developed for the employer.

We got in touch with three companies that made this list this year, Red Balloon, NetApp and Russell Investments to find out what makes for a great workplace.

The NetApp Story
NetApp ranked #1 on the Fortune magazine 2009 List of 100 Best Companies to work for. Looking more closely, you'll find success stories about the NetApp experience not only in the US but in Germany, India, Australia, France and the Netherlands, to name a few. (1)

Speaking with CY Yau, the Human Resources Director for the APAC region, CY was clear about what the primary catalyst for this result was - culture and desire. Stressing the simplicity of their values, it was an expectation and understanding across the board that everyone goes beyond what's required. The values we've all heard them before... leadership, trust and integrity, but the difference CY asserts, lies in leaders who don't just talk about it but live these values daily. Probed for an example, CY talked about how leaders came down, from the US, to visit every quarter. "Our head of sales and our Vice-Chairman visit regularly, not just to give speeches, but to walk in your shoes. They visit the customer with the sales people. They're here to make the sales call with the front-line managers and fight the war, so to speak...You know, it's not uncommon for our CEO to come down and ink deals because it's about a genuine show of camaraderie here. It's about what we can do to seal the deal", he explains.

"A great place to work goes beyond the physical environment. I was with eBay for 3 years and if you look at Google, for example, they provide one of the best work environments. You know, there's a saying there, that you're always about 20 steps away from a snack bar machine. We don't have this. At Google, they want your time, your life. At NetApp, we tell our people to get a life."

With success stories like this, it's always curious to see how international organisations manage to manifest these results across different geographies and cultures. Would these policies be largely generated at headquarters and streamlined down or would there be substantial differences at a national level? CY argues that largely, these values flow through from the headquarters. Their headquarters is viewed as the nerve centre of excellence. Unique country differences do exist however, on the issue of openness, for example.

"In the west, anyone can ask questions; in Japan, its frowned upon. So, we have to coax them to do so", CY explains. "With other countries, we are restricted by size (before we can participate in the Great Place to Work List). But that's ok because it gives us an opportunity to work on what we need to."

A happy workforce
Creating a good work environment is also about a happy workforce. So how do organisations keep people happy? Best practice organisations, firstly, treat their people well. There's a sense of respect and understanding that they treat their employees the way they themselves want to be treated. Secondly, communication that works two ways. Best practice organisations see the value and importance of not only being able to communicate with the workforce but ensuring that their people can talk with them as well. Everyone talks about the value and importance of good communication, of keeping communication lines open and this is key regardless of good times or bad. "We have a policy here that there is a one on one between manager and their executives, some weekly, some fortnightly. It goes beyond work to their concerns, their family, other issues. It's a genuine discussion," CY clarifies.

Thirdly, good organisations show their people they care, by focusing on employee needs. Training and development, for example. Expecting talent to stay and be productive when an organisation is not willing to invest its time and resources, is unreasonable. Over time, as the gap enlarges between what you say and what you do, people will view you with distrust and act on it, ultimately paying far more credence on your actions rather than your words.

Caring for people, good organisations show, takes the concern outside of the organisational needs. This goes beyond our basic needs and looks to see our impact on our community, our environment, our heritage. The choices are varied but the focus is on a joint concerted effort, looking at creating an impact outside of the organisational mandate and manifesting real value.

Volunteer Time Off Programme
At NetApp, a unique effort is the Volunteer Time Off Programme. This allows full time employees to take up to five full days off per calendar year with full pay and benefits to do volunteer work of their choice. This is a particularly US-centric programme currently and has its roots in an autism success story which has since manifested itself in different forms of charitable outreach programmes. Some of it is partial missionary work where they may go beyond the five days, taking their own time off to do so.

In Asia Pacific, these community outreach programmes tend to be quarterly, with a focus on perhaps providing assistance at a home or charitable organisation, with a particular focus on benefitting children. In Japan for example, some programmes have included beach cleanups and work for the homeless. The reality is that there is always a core group of people who want to be involved.

Caring about people also necessarily involves understanding their circumstances and choices, to some extent. It involves understanding, appreciating and empathising with these issues. NetApp's Leave of Absence Policies, for example, go above and beyond what is required by law or common practice. For example, if an employee wants to take a break for say two to three months to care for aged parents, they can do so, on the understanding that they have a job when they return.

The cultural difference in Asia however, is the focus on work; it's a choice we make. The tendency in this region therefore, is for more work life balance instead. So, this was what was looked at in the case of a sales manager, who gave birth recently to her second child and was entitled to four months leave. Her client was in trouble and after much discussion with her managers, it was agreed that the sales manager would return to work after the second month and work half days. Everyone was happy with this option and the client was serviced.

The question CY asks is, "Do you value your employees?" If you do, you need to look at the ground rules and consider whether there's room for flexibility. If there is, the key word here is listening and considering what makes sense for you. "Hey, the work needs to get done. You can't offer work life balance to the receptionist, for example. But I may be able to offer her something else," he clarifies.

Ask yourself, what objectives you want to achieve? What values do you embrace? What can you offer that works well?

The Russell Story
We turn our attention now down under as we take a look at Russell Investments, a global investment management company. We managed to get in touch briefly with Scott Ide, Director for HR Asia Pacific Region for Russell Investments Australia about their experience. Coming into the firm with a Human Resources and recruitment background, Scott is in his fourth year there. We posed the same questions to Scott about the policies on creating a positive work environment being largely generated at headquarters to which he replied, it was a fifty fifty split.

"Most important are purpose and values. Our purpose, increasing financial security. We have a genuine focus on our people, their families and their own personal goals. There's a lot of charitable work and programmes on financial literacy for the youth. In Australia for example, we support the Smith Family (national independent non-profit organisation supporting disadvantaged Australian children). If we were to look at some of the differences at a country level, I suppose the Russell five days would be a good one. This programme gives associates five days leave on top of their annual leave. In our early days, when we were smaller, we used to close the office between Christmas and the New Year and in doing that, we decided not to dock this from the annual leave. It then turned into an official leave day, " Scott explains.

The notable point about the "Best Company" list is that selection is on the basis of employee responses, although further information is garnered from employers. Scott went on to outline what he believed were the top five themes behind employees regarding Russell a great place to work.

The first major theme centred on management. The fact that it was approachable, transparent and communicated well. There was a great deal of trust generated by establishing one on one relationships between the executives and the managers. Ultimately, people were comfortable asking any question. The second one was that the company had a strong people focus in the opportunities and benefits it offered. Thirdly, Scott argued, work life balance was promoted. "You're not judged on face time but on outcomes and results. One lady works four days a week, running the retail business. Another lady bought an extra four weeks' leave. It's that sort of flexibility that allows us to retain these people and it starts from the top".

Fourthly, there's a strong focus on employee well-being. "There's a tremendous amount of change in the workplace, in our environment and in the marketplace. And the resilient capability of an organisation comes down to the resilience of the employee and their being able to withstand it." There's a whole host of programmes centred on this value. Their vitality programme enlisted a vendor called Good Health Solutions, who provide health management programmes. Russell itself has a robust calendar of events with a different focus for every month ranging from 20 minute health checks for all, flu shots, a ten week yoga series, workshops on stress management and nutritional seminars, to name a few.

Lastly, there's a great history around the firm's culture of camaraderie. Scott argued that culture doesn't just happen and actually needs to be worked on. The focus is on the leadership team and their behaviour. This meant that the organisation focused on working on the leadership team's ability to communicate effectively and sincerely. HR driven no doubt, but it's not a HR process. It is a business process.

One could argue that yoga classes and workshops on stress and these seminars are really the privilege of the successful, profitable organisations. That those struggling in their early years, small businesses or even those that haven't yet broken even, are really not at liberty to offer these options. But the question was, in these economic times, how does one continue to push ahead with these initiatives if one is being affected by these much larger cycles?

It comes back to the point made earlier about the gap between what we say and what we do. People ultimately come to work to be paid a salary, undoubtedly. Yet, Scott argues, studies show that when people leave, money is very much further down the list than expected and top of the list is the manager. Or their role or their future opportunities. And that is what Russell focuses on.

"Look at it as an emotional bank account. We're constantly trying to make deposits into their account and we assess our success through anecdotal feedback and surveys like the Great Place to Work list. If you're in credit, if you're doing all the right things, you can draw on that credit in the tough times. But if you're not, or if you're doing only some of these things, when tough times come, you don't have much to draw on."

What works? Russell finds the support they provide employees around professional development to be one of their more successful programmes. Different things are explored, for example, an educational system allowance. Here, further education is supported regardless of whether its an honours, certificate or master's degree programme. Internal mentoring is also provided, rolling over every nine to twelve months, well received by both protégés and mentors.

What both Scott and CY are clear on though is the whole issue around the generational gap. Generational differences are bound to exist in any workforce sufficiently large. When working closely together, there can be a tendency to draw on these differences as a way to put our own agendas forward, at times. Many have argued about how best to address the needs of these different generations in workforce policies and practices and perhaps no one has the answer. But both Scott and CY argue that these are really not points of differentiation that matter to their organisations. These organisations focus on the individual and not generational traits. They look for the commonality as opposed to the differences and to treating everyone fairly regardless of age or gender.



CY Yau is the Senior HR Director for Asia Pacific at NetApp. He is responsible for all human capital management across the region, including driving the Great Place to Work strategy, talent acquisition and retention strategies and talent development for all Asia Pacific countries including Japan.

Scott Ide is Director of Human Resources of Russell Investments in the Asia Pacific region. Based in Sydney, Scott is responsible for all aspects of Russell’s human capital agenda in the region. He leads a team which delivers a programme to drive the firm’s organisational and individual effectiveness.

1 US – First place in FORTUNE Magazine’s 2009 “Best Companies to Work For”. Germany – 9th place in the “Best Workplaces in Germany” by the Great Places to Work Institute™. India – 14th place in India in the “Best Employers in Asia Pacific” Study by Hewitt Associates. France – 14th place in the “Best Workplaces France” by the Great Place to Work Institute™ France. Netherlands – 11th place in “25 Best Places to Work” by the Great Place to Work Institute™ Netherlands.