Today marks a pivotal moment for UKG: We have acquired Great Place to Work Institute.
Why is this pivotal? Because it marks the moment where UKG moves from being an organization with our own culture at the center of our brand identity, to one that’s focused on helping other organizations build great cultures and great workplaces for their people.
Why is UKG joining forces with Great Place to Work?
We’ve long partnered with Great Place to Work® as a trusted advisor. That partnership is a key reason we’ve been able to enhance our own people programs, policies, and practices while developing a culture where all individuals feel valued, respected, and a great sense of belonging — and now we can help our customers do the same.
Adding Great Place to Work to our family further shows UKG’s commitment to differentiating ourselves on an experience that goes beyond software. UKG technology facilitates “what” needs to be done to become a great place to work, but many organizations need help with “how” to become a great place to work. By combining the expertise of Great Place to Work with our HCM and workforce management solutions, we intend to raise the bar on how HCM providers can help organizations and their people thrive.
Our purpose is people. We’ve seen firsthand that, when companies focus on caring for their people, they will see more engaged employees that yield positive long-term results. Great Place to Work is in business to make that notion a reality for companies, and people, all around the world.
Now we will do it together.
What does this acquisition mean for UKG customers?
In short: The Great Place to Work team will assist greatly in making the UKG suite more actionable, so we can build better workplaces for all together.
UKG will offer Great Place to Work tools to our HCM customers, with the goal of integrating additional insights and benchmarking into our solutions — backed by the credibility of Great Place to Work’s global research and methodology — for easier access and actionable recommendations to make meaningful changes that improve the employee experience for all.
UKG customers will also have access to Great Place to Work assessments, along with hundreds of benchmarks that will allow organizations to understand the strengths and opportunities for improvement within their own workforce, as compared with their peers of similar size, industry, and geography. Additionally, we plan to embed elements of Great Place to Work insights into UKG HCM solutions to help our customers improve organizational health, elevate the life-work journey, and give an even greater voice to the employee.
What does this acquisition mean for Great Place to Work customers?
For Great Place to Work customers, it’s business as usual. Great Place to Work will continue to operate as a standalone company within the UKG organization, led by Michael C. Bush as CEO. Along with its global affiliates, Great Place to Work will continue its mission of helping organizations of all sizes and industries across the world create For All™ cultures.
Great Place to Work has helped build For All cultures for 10,000 companies worldwide. Michael believes joining the UKG family will dramatically accelerate this vision, with aspirations to do the same for 100,000 companies.
Great Place to Work will also continue publishing its workplace rankings in partnership with Fortune, PEOPLE magazine, and other leading publications around the world, such as The Globe and Mail in Canada and The Economic Times in India.
Lastly, the annual Great Place to Work For All™ Summit will remain a seminal event, offering opportunities for leaders to convene and share best practices for putting people first. We look forward to seeing everyone back together in Orlando in October 2022 for the next summit.
Will UKG still be on Best Workplaces™ lists from Great Place to Work?
We’ve long been proud of our Great Place to Work accolades, including UKG making history by debuting at #6 on Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For® list, making the 2021 Fortune Best Workplaces for Millennials and Best Workplaces in Technology lists, and, coincidentally just today, ranking #11 on the PEOPLE Companies That Care™ list. (All of UKG’s 2021 U.S. list rankings were derived from our Great Place to Work Certification™ from October 2020, well before discussions began about the acquisition, for what it’s worth.)
Going forward, we won’t be on these lists. We can’t own the company and apply for the awards. That’s not fair! That said, not being on the lists certainly won’t stop us from continuing to focus on building our intentional, inspiring culture. We will never stop focusing there. We’ll also continue to apply for other awards that recognize our culture as well as UKG products, customer support, and our people.
Above all, we’re ecstatic about what this news means for the future of UKG, Great Place to Work, and, most importantly, our collective customers and their people.
What does the future hold for UKG and Great Place to Work?
You don’t become the world’s leading authority on workplace culture without first being a great place to work yourself. Well-deserved congratulations are in order for Michael and the entire Great Place to Work global team for their tireless commitment to developing great workplaces. They know firsthand what it takes to build a winning culture, backed by more than 30 years of expertise, coaching, research, insights, benchmarking data, and indisputable proof that caring for your employees every day isn’t just better for people, it’s better for business.
Together, we also know that meaningful work has a tremendously positive impact on the world and society overall.
“Our purpose is people” is a promise we live, breathe, and aim to deliver on every day. Today’s acquisition is a wholehearted investment in people: our 13,000 U Krewers, Great Place to Work and its people, our more than 50,000 customers, and millions upon millions of people worldwide.
Let me be one of the first to officially welcome Great Place to Work to the UKG family. We are so happy you are here, and we know we have unlimited potential together. Our future has never been brighter, and we can’t wait to help companies across the globe create the very Best Workplaces For All people.
Onward!
