Best place to work for five years!

NI achieves Laureate status, named in Top 5 Best Workplaces for Generation Y and Top 5 Most Fun and Friendly Workplaces in BritainNational Instruments has achieved prestigious Laureate status in the Britain's Best Workplaces Programme, after being named one of the the 50 Best Workplaces for a fifth consecutive year. NI is now among only 20 companies there, from hundreds that have been recognised by the Great Place to Work® Institute, to have achieved the accolade of Laureate status.

How the list is compiled

The Great Place to Work® Institute compiles the list of best workplaces each year, surveying employees from participating companies. Two-thirds of the score is based on how these employees respond to the independent survey, measuring the quality of their workplace culture. The remaining third of the score is based on an evaluation of company responses to a Culture Audit©.

The 2010 Great Place to Work® UK’s Best Workplaces Special Report is published this week in the Financial Times and The Guardian. The ranking is based primarily on employees' responses to the annual survey conducted by the Great Place to Work® Institute (the Trust Index©), and supplemented by companies' responses to a Culture Audit©.

“It is an honour to be recognised again in the UK’s Best Workplaces top 50, and to be ranked in the list for the fifth year running, particularly following one of the most challenging periods in the economic and employment climate in decades”, said Robert Morton, NI UK & Ireland Managing Director. “These results demonstrate that NI remains a company built-to-last, one which truly values its people, even in challenging times when it can be difficult for some companies to keep commitments. This also illustrates the rock-solid success of our 100-year plan for being a stable company that empowers employees and customers to change the world. Being a great place to work and long-term business success go hand-in-hand, and NI UK is full of talented people, committed to the company's success, who have fun helping to build one of the UK's leading providers of measurement and automation technologies and one of its best workplaces.”

Whilst National Instruments is best known for pioneering virtual instrumentation with its LabVIEW graphical system design platform, internal programmes support the company’s belief that well-rounded employees foster the NI community spirit and inspire excellence. NI UK employees are actively supported in their efforts to give back to the community through a wide range of activities, including LEGO® MINDSTORMS® events in schools, the Newbury Crafty Craft Race and a variety of fundraising efforts. Subsidised local gym membership encourages a healthy lifestyle, and activities such as Employee Appreciation Week, staff parties and company-wide meetings foster camaraderie and a sense of community within the corporate environment.

“We are proud that NI and our employees successfully weathered this economic storm together,” said Saminder Gill, NI UK & Ireland HR & Operations Manager. “Our leadership made concerted efforts during this time to increase open communication with employees through quarterly business discussions and company meetings, all the while maintaining the work-hard, play-hard culture that keeps our company unique. Many efforts like these helped earn the trust and commitment of our employees, reflected in both the continued success of our business and our status as a Laureate in the Best Workplaces programme. All these achievements are made possible by our ‘people advantage’ – hiring the best and brightest, creating a great work environment and offering superior employee development – which remains central to the long-term success of all NI stakeholders, creating and sustaining competitive advantage for us.”

In addition to the British honours, the Great Place to Work® Institute has also named National Instruments one of the best places to work in France, Germany, Italy and Mexico during the last year, and for eleven consecutive years in the USA.