Research Methodology

Britain’s Top Employers™ is a project that delves into the heart of employer intelligence through the HR Benchmark™ research process, identifying the very best employers (companies) in the country and publishing case studies on their success to build and entrench the leading employer brands.

Previously, much of the research into which companies are leading employers was based on accessible market information and interviews with HR professionals in organisations, all vetted and scored by a dedicated panel of industry and academic experts. Although a credible way of identifying top performers, CRF was not satisfied that we were doing enough to answer the many questions those top performers had regarding how they compared to the market and to their peers regarding their human resource practices.

CRF believes that to be successful in the long term, organisations need the human resource function to take on a synergistic role in driving the business. HR’s strategic priorities, such as developing and driving a dynamic and effective workforce, must be directly linked to the priorities and goals of the business at all levels.

To tackle the issue, CRF International developed a more scientific and objective approach to assessing employer performance and to provide answers on people management best practice to these organisations, many of whom who’ll find in this book.

Broadly, we asked ourselves a number of key questions:

1. What is the role of HR policy in driving business strategy? What should its role be?

2. What are the challenges companies face to in attracting and retaining talent relative to the market average?

3. What are companies doing differently to one another that is either driving or hindering their HR strategy success?

4. What type of information do companies need to address the HR challenges they face and to draw up more effective strategies?

5. What are the global HR trends and what are the lessons from which UK companies can learn, and the tools which they can harness?

In answering these questions, we assessed the following areas of human resources and business strategy:

  • Sourcing and Retention Strategy, which impacts organisational ability to attract and retain talented staff.
  • Education, Training and Development, which grows and nurtures that talent.
  • Total Rewards, which incentivises the talent and bolsters individual and organisational achievement.
  • The Role of Human Resources, and its transformation to that of a key strategic business driver.
  • Ethics and Compliance, which establish and drive employer frameworks of integrity in business culture and operational efficacy which underpins employee satisfaction.
  • Diversity, which provides companies with the ability to run the business holistically with an inclusive approach to talent, rather than an exclusive approach.
  • Corporate Responsibility, which personalises the company not only to charitable causes but also to employees whose level of engagement are radically affected through this.
  • Corporate Governance and Legislation, which legitimises the institutional and policy framework of corporations again impacting the ‘state of mind’ of the workforce.
  • Knowledge Management, which is perhaps the greatest buzz-phrase at the moment but which is integral to individual success. This in turn translates into organisational success as knowledge is shared, learned, unlearned and employees feel engaged, rather than alienated.

The HR Benchmark™ is characterised by some 80 questions delving into the nine aforementioned areas reveal significant detail on individual companies’ performance. This is used to identify and trumpet the Britain’s Top Employers. The publication is a dedicated employer brand communications tool that works to assist companies in retaining and attracting the very best talent and thus boost all areas of the business.

But the HR Benchmark offer even more than this to participating companies. All participating companies are given the opportunity to benchmark themselves against a group of selected peers (chosen from the list of qualified participants) as well as the opportunity to be benchmarked against the UK average on each question. And as we move forward, local participating companies will have the tools to benchmark themselves as employers against companies in China, South Africa, Spain, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland and The Netherlands who participate in the international Top Employers™ series published by CRF International.

 
 
 
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