Cisco has been crowned the Best Place to Work in Australia for companies with more than 1000 employees.

The Great Place to Work Australia study is conducted based on a comprehensive assessment of workplace culture by Great Place to Work Australia.

The benchmark study publication comes amid the COVID-19 crisis, which has upended daily life and business operations throughout the world. The ranking of Australia's Best Places to Work 2020 is based on data collected prior and during the novel coronavirus outbreak.

The list recognises companies in three size categories: Under 100 employees; 100-999 employees; and Over 1,000 employees. TThe survey found that an overwhelming 97% of employees said taking everything into account, Cisco Australia is a Great Place to Work.

“This is such a proud moment for our Cisco Australia - New Zealand team to be recognised at the #1 Best Place to Work in Australia," says Ken Boal, vice president of Cisco Australia - New Zealand.

"We've improved our results by listening to our employees and improving our workplace culture – through increased transparency, trust, and our greater purpose to power an inclusive future," he says.

Zrinka Lovrencic, managing director at Great Place to Work Australia, says "The COVID-19 pandemic is a challenge facing organisations across the globe, and it puts a premium on being a high trust people-first culture.

"We celebrate the companies that earned places on our 2020 Best Places to Work benchmarking study, and we hope this will inspire more companies to continue maintaining and building trust with their team members.

"Over the last 30 years Great Place to Work research confirms every year that employees flourish in high-trust workplace cultures. This year, 39,156 Australian-based employees from 124 companies participated in the benchmarking study," says Lovrencic.

"Through the 2020 Best Places to Work study process, we have had the opportunity to observe how businesses inspire, invent, and innovate as they introduced new initiatives whilst navigating through this changing landscape. Such balance is particularly important now, as employees and organisations wrestle with health and economic challenges created by COVID-19."

Great Place to Work Australia, part of Great Place to Work Inc, is a global research and consulting firm specialising in employee engagement, organisational alignment, and its effect on high performance workplace cultures.

Companies nominated for the Best Places to Work benchmarking study must go through an application process and are selected and ranked on the basis of employees' responses to the Trust Index Employee Engagement Survey (2/3 of the score), which measures employee perceptions of their workplace. The Culture Audit, completed by management and evaluated by the Great Place to Work Australia research team, accounts for 1/3 of the total score.

The 2020 study was conducted between September 2019 and June 2020. The results represent 39,156 Australian-based employees from 124 companies.