Meet UAE’s 25 best workplaces

Global research, training and consultancy firm, Great Place to Work has revealed its eighth annual list of ‘Best Workplaces’ in the UAE, recognising the country’s top employers with outstanding workplace cultures.

Furniture retailer THE One was named as the winner, climbing from fourth place on last year’s list to the top this year. Great Place to Work also named THE One founder & CEO, Thomas Lundgren ‘Leader of the Year for 2017-2018’ for his efforts in keeping THE One among the top five Best Workplaces list for seven consecutive years and for achieving the highest trust scores from direct reports amongst all leaders in the programme.

Runner-up on this year’s Best Workplaces list was DHL, which moved down one spot from last year, followed by Omnicom Media Group, which also moved down one spot to take third place. In fourth place was fashion retailer Splash, while Hyatt came in fifth climbing seven places from last year’s list.

Ranking from sixth to 10th place on the list were Weber Shandwick, Hilton, Hilti, Cisco and FedEx, respectively. Rounding out the final 15 positions on the list were Philips, ICONIC, WSP, Apparel, Leminar Air Conditioning Company, Danube, UAE Exchange, Smith & Nephew, Danone, Leminar Air Conditioning Industries, PizzaExpress, NMC Healthcare, Redington, Delta Partners and Centrepoint.

In addition to its awards for overall workplace excellence, Great Place to Work gave special recognition to Dubai Airport Freezone Authority (DAFZA) for its outstanding workplace culture, various happiness programmes and efforts in taking care of its employees at all times. DAFZA has become the first Dubai Government Authority to be recognised by the global firm.

“Despite a challenging year and noticeable changes in market trends towards digitalisation of work activities, organisations still managed to keep the human element and made sure to enrich employee relationships with high levels of trust. There is a lot of thoughtful energy that goes into building a great workplace culture. Every organisation that made it onto the list should be proud of themselves considering the high level of participation we had this year and the number of new companies entering the list,” says Maha Zaatari, managing director of Great Place to Work in the UAE.