How do you select companies to send your resume to? What are the best Italian companies to work for and which ones offer the best working environments for their employees?

The Great Place to Work® Institute compiles a list of them every year. We are talking about the global research, consulting and training company that works in 45 countries around the world with corporations, nonprofit organizations and government agencies to analyze more than 5,500 businesses and around 10 million workers to locate the best workplaces worldwide.

As for Italy, the 2015 ranking has just been released and it is divided into two lists: Large Companies, namely organizations with over 500 employees; and Italy’s Best Workplaces, namely organizations with between 50 and 499 employees.

The institute has selected three criteria to rate the quality of the working environment: the relationship of mutual trust between managers and workers; the feeling of pride in their work and in the organization to which they belong; and the quality of the relationships with colleagues. Five dimensions of analysis develop from these criteria: Credibility, Respect, Fairness, Pride and Camaraderie.

The first three measure employees’ confidence in their managers, while the other two evaluate the perception the employees have of their job, the company, the relationship with their colleagues and corporate welfare.

The workers’ perception was collected through the Trust Index©, a questionnaire administered to 35,000 workers from 98 companies. The analysis was conducted by a Culture Audit, where the Institute evaluates corporate human resource management and organization models. A qualitative analysis of aspects such as flexible and remote work, projects for professional development, incentives, comprehensive health insurance, corporate-sponsored child care and scholarships for children.
The 98 companies decided to undergo spontaneous evaluation by their employees. For Alessandro Zollo, CEO of Great Place to Work® in Italia:

Companies with employees who endorse the company’s values and who trust their managers have superior economic performance, they grow even in times of crisis, they export and do so with well selected and capable employees.

Therefore, the companies most concerned about the welfare of their employees are those that attract the best growingleaders in a virtuous cycle of satisfaction and staff motivation, productivity improvement and corporate reputation.

Which Italian company is on the top of the list? Microsoft Italy is the winner for the third consecutive year for its flexible work policies and workplace benefits. The pharmaceutical company Sanofi Pasteur is at the top of the ranking for small businesses.

Here is the list of the top 10 companies. The full results can be viewed in the report by Great Place to Work®:

  1. Microsoft Italy (sector: information technology)
  2. FedEx Express (sector: transportation)
  3. EMC Computer Systems Italy (sector: information technology)
  4. Bricoman (sector: home improvement)
  5. Eli Lilly Italy (sector: pharmaceutical)
  6. IKEA Italy Retail (sector: furniture retail)
  7. Bottega Veneta Italy (sector: fashion)
  8. Adecco (sector: professional services)
  9. Quintiles (sector: pharmaceutical services)
  10. Lidl Italy (sector: retail)