Turbulent times have often brought forth great leaders — and based on the findings of this year’s Sunday Times 100 Best Small Companies to Work For survey, it appears the current global economic crisis is no different.

The biggest annual gains in employee ratings across our survey all relate to company leadership and the pivotal role played by middle managers. The unique and comprehensive Best Companies survey is a barometer of workplace opinion, based this year on the responses of 34,295 employees across 565 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) entering the contest, up from 513 companies last year.

The 66 statements put to employees to score from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree” on a seven-point scale are designed to examine the key components of a happy, engaged and successful workplace. All 100 companies making this list can be said to be delivering on this front in spades, whatever the external pressures. Although people are worried about the economic climate, they have faith in their firms to lead them through it.

Working for a small company remains the place to be. In every question across all eight workplace factors, SMEs score better than their mid-sized and large counterparts. And Christians Against Poverty, the Bradford-based debt counselling charity, remains the top small company to work for overall, the third year running that our SME list has been headed by a charity.

The eight workplace factors by which companies are judged are:

— Leadership: how employees feel about the head of the company and senior managers.

— My Manager: people’s feelings towards their immediate boss and their day-to-day managers.

— My Team: people’s feelings about their immediate colleagues.

— My Company: feelings about the company people work for as opposed to the people they work with.

— Wellbeing: how staff feel about stress, pressure and the balance between their home and work life.

— Fair Deal: how happy the workforce is with pay and benefits.

— Personal Growth: whether staff feel challenged by their job, their skills are being used, and if there is scope for advancement.

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