Authors: Apostolos Dasilas

Title: How do the best workplaces affect firm performance? Evidence from Greece

Abstract

The current study is the first attempt to investigate how the working environment of companies affects the financial performance of Greek companies that take part in the ‘Great Place to Work’ competition from 2003 to 2018. In particular, using a gamut of financial ratios and employing equality testing, we examine the financial performance of large (>250 employees), medium (50-250 employees) and small (20-49 employees) companies that have been excelled in the ‘Great Place to Work’ competition in Greece for the first time of the history. The ‘Great Place to Work’ competition considers employee feedback and recognizes companies who have built high-trust and high-performance company cultures as leading workplaces around the globe. The results show that companies recognized as best workplaces experience a statistically significant improvement in profitability over the next 3 years since their excellence in the competition. Profitability improvement is more evident for small and medium enterprises compared to large ones. On the contrary, liquidity and capital structure ratios are not significantly altered in the window of 3 years. Finally, companies that had been ranked higher in the next competitions experience further financial improvement. Keywords: Working environment, financial performance, great place to work, best workplaces.