The ranking of the best companies to work for: Chiesi and Bending Spoons feature in the top 100

“Chiesi and Bending Spoons prove that even from Italy, it is possible to compete at the very highest level in Europe.” Beniamino Bedusa, president of Great Place to Work Italia, commented on Italia’s presence in the ranking of the 100 best workplaces among European multinationals. Scrolling down the list, Chiesi is in 21st place and Bending Spoons in 69th, the only two Italian companies in the EU top 100. “The fact that two Italian companies feature among the 100 best in Europe, in a ranking made up of large organisations, is a significant achievement,” says Bedusa. “They come from different sectors – pharmaceuticals and software development – and this confirms that a great working environment does not depend on size or sector, but on the trust that leaders are able to build with people every day.”

At the top of the European podium is the luxury hotel chain Hilton, followed by the biotechnology and pharmaceutical company AbbVie and the logistics firm DHL. Rounding off the top ten are Cisco (Information Technology), Specsavers (retail), Allianz (financial services and insurance), Stryker (manufacturing), Aviva (financial services and insurance), Siemens Healthineers (healthcare) and Salesforce (Information Technology). At sector level, however, there are differences in representation within the ranking. Among the sectors featured, information technology (28%), financial services and insurance (14%) and professional services (12%) dominate, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals and retail (10 per cent), manufacturing and production (9 per cent), healthcare (4 per cent), hospitality, construction and other sectors (3 per cent), transport (2 per cent), education and training, and advertising and marketing (1 per cent).

The ranking is based on the opinions expressed by a sample of 1.2 million European employees from various countries, including Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom. The findings suggest that large companies (with at least 500 employees) that put people first and create workplaces based on trust are also those that perform best in terms of business results and staff retention.

As mentioned, only two Italian companies feature in the ranking of the best workplaces in Europe, but neither is in the top ten: Chiesi is in 21st place and Milan-based Bending Spoons in 69th. According to Bedusa, given that ‘no Italian company is in the top ten, the challenge is to make this result less of an exception. The companies that stand out are those where leaders listen, communicate clearly and ensure their actions match their words. And they do so consistently for everyone, not just for a select few. The data from this ranking tells us that investing in trust is not just a matter of workplace culture, but a business decision: it is precisely the large companies that put people at the centre that achieve better results in terms of staff retention, agility and performance. This is why it is important that more and more Italian organisations make employee trust a priority.”