Over the past three years since its entry into the contest, Bravissimo, the lingerie and clothing retailer for big-busted women, has grown not only in size but as a good company to work for.

The Leamington Spa-based firm which specialises in bras and swimwear in cup sizes D to K has used the detailed results of the Best Companies surveys to improve employee engagement and keep people motivated to give their best every day.

Bravissimo, which employs more than 650 people, has been on a learning curve. After storming into 19th place in its debut year it fell back to 99th position in 2008, but has now recovered to 26th this year after tackling issues highlighted by the Best Companies’ Workplace Insight Tool (WIT), which gives a detailed analysis of the correlation between employee engagement and areas that could be targeted for change.

“We have improved this year in all eight factors, which is really good for us,” say human resources director, Laura Meneaud. “We have worked quite hard at doing that.”

WIT gives year-on-year comparisons for the eight factors which the 66-point survey covers, from how workers feel about leadership and their colleagues to pay and benefits and the approach to corporate social responsibility.

The feedback has enabled Bravissimo to benchmark itself against other companies in the top 100 as well as against other businesses in its sector and find out what staff think.

Anonymous results for all questions are available by length of service, salary band and department so a company such as Bravissimo, which sells online, by mail order and in its 20 shops, can find out what issues are specific to different areas of the business. In fact, complaints by warehouse staff about pay resulted in higher than average wage increases in September.

“WIT is really powerful,” Meneaud says. “You can tell how people feel.”

It was through WIT that the firm discovered that staff felt senior managers were doing more telling than listening and that important information wasn’t being shared. As a result, directors and other managers undertook a development programme and the senior team increased its visibility. Every shop is now visited three times a year by a director.

It’s paying dividends. Leadership scores are up by 3% while scores for My Manager have gone up by 5%.

As a result of last year’s survey, the firm has set up an environmental group, a committee to organise social functions and a charity group. Other benefits have also been added.

“We have had a huge focus on engagement over the past year, listening to what our employees are telling us and then taking action as a direct result,” adds Meneaud, who says the process is part of the continual quest for improvement and not just about winning a place on the list.

Another business to reap the benefits of using WIT is Sytner Group, the prestige car dealer, ranked sixth overall in this year’s list of the 20 Best Big Companies to Work For. It finishes top, however, for positive views from employees about their company, fifth for their opinion of managers and second for Wellbeing.

With 5,000-plus staff and more than 100 dealerships around the UK, it’s important to know where the issues are, says Geoffrey Page-Morris, group operations director. A breakdown of the results for 2007, when Sytner was smaller and in the mid list, revealed that team members were not as engaged as managers. “It was an eye-opener,” admits Page-Morris.

“Each year I sit down and go through WIT. I am pleased when I get the good figures and I focus on things we do not do particularly well on,” he says. The fact that customer satisfaction rose by 25% last year is good news for the company, he adds.

“WIT is about communicating more. If we have totally satisfied, happy and engaged employees that will rub off on customers. If customers are happy they will buy more cars and more services.”

That very real commercial motivation is reason enough for many companies to buy into WIT. “If the car industry has shrunk, we want a bigger slice of the cake,” says Page-Morris. “If we have got happy employees, I know we will get a bit more of that cake.”

It is clear that even though quoted organisations in the three Best Companies lists suffered alongside everyone else as recession hit, their share price remains considerably stronger than other FTSE-100 companies.

“When this has finished and the market picks up, if we have the best team we will be able to grow faster than anyone else,” says Page-Morris.

Like Sytner and Bravissimo have done, making strategic use of WIT could help put your company in pole position when the lights go green.

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