Yay – we can call ourselves officially a “Great Place To Work”! With an overall score of 86%, Bluu lives up to the intention of being a great place to work. But what does that mean exactly? Luk Denayer, managing partner of Bluu, elaborates.
GP2W?
Great Place To Work™ is a global organization with over 30 years of experience in conducting research on Workplace Culture. By conducting an elaborate, calibrated employee survey, you can measure how great your workplace actually is, with 70% as a minimum overall score to succeed. And we got 86% – so that’s great, right?
Luk: “Yes, it’s even better than I hoped! For a first entry with a group of companies that only started 3,5 years ago, 86% is pretty amazing. There’s even one question where they explicitly ask if you consider your company a great place to work, on which 92% answered yes.”
“It has always been the ambition of Bluu to be a great place to work. It’s even one of our core values.”
Luk Denaeyer
Great place to work and grow
Luk: “From our start 3,5 years ago, it has been the ambition of Bluu to be a great place to work. It’s one of our core values. But, I would rather speak about a great place to grow. A great place to work is mostly focused on culture, collaboration, management, … I think we should pursue more and push further to a great place to grow, where people are stimulated to learn and evolve.”
Why do the survey now?
Luk: “We didn’t have specific actions in place to build up to being an official great place to work; I just felt that we were ready for it now. I also believe that you have to practice what you preach, and measure what you practice – and that’s exactly what we did now!
Why is it important?
Luk: “Well, it’s a topic that is very close to my heart. I knew when I started Bluu, together with Anni Hielscher, I wanted it to become a great place to work (and grow). And it’s amazing to see that most colleagues are also somehow motivated to make that happen. I love working with people who also carry that ambition in their hearts or DNA so I knew we could make it. In one way or another, you always attract like-minded people.
Luk: “Obviously, the official certificate is a great tool to showcase for recruitment purposes. But first and foremost it’s important to the people who already work here. It’s an additional confirmation that what we claim to be, is actually true. We mean it, we measure it and we improve it.”
“And that’s how I look at our score of 86%: it shows us where to grow. I consider this score as the baseline measurement. We can use it as the starting point for something greater. Not to achieve a higher score next time, but to create the best workplace possible for our people.”
So what’s next?
Luk: “During the summer, Nathalie (Claeys, talent coordinator at Bluu) and I will set up a plan of action and sit together with all companies. Some changes will be common on a Bluu level, others will be specific for the different companies. It’s more of a starting point to generate change.”
Next year, we’ll go for another GP2W certificate? 😉
Luk: “If I feel we made enough effort and grew noticeably, why not? But honestly, I’m more interested in how the people feel about their workplace than for example reaching the top 10 Best Places to Work or a certificate.”