The scores have been tallied and the results are in.
Over the next three days, ZDNet Australia will unveil Australia's top employers of tech talent.
In July, we asked readers to nominate Australia's best IT employer for 2004. The votes rolled in from all over the country and by August, ten companies were shortlisted based on the number of votes each received, given their size.
However, it didn't end there. To really identify the IT workplaces of choice, we required each company to survey a number of its IT staff. The results came directly back to ZDNet Australia to ensure privacy and confidentiality.
What did the winners have in common? Big or small, those companies that consistently polled the best were those that provided high levels of flexibility to staff, especially when it came to balancing work and family issues.
The survey looked at everything from the sorts of career paths and professional development opportunities companies provided, to each organisation's work practices, and management techniques.
Getting a surprise nomination was fine, but allowing their employees to respond to a survey they had neither designed nor vetted was too risky for some. EDS said it was happy for its employees to participate, but weren't about to hand out any of the surveys on our behalf.
Other companies such as IBM, Alcatel and Acer embraced the challenge enthusiastically, and their willingness to participate spoke volumes about the extent to which they support their employees.
The surveys covered three broad categories; career and development, atmosphere and communication, and technical environment. Finally the employees were asked how happy they were overall, and asked to provide some comments about their employers. Each of these areas were given a similar weight in the results.
And while previous winners have included some of Australia's largest IT companies, the strong performance of smaller companies this year showed that you don't have to be working with a big brand name to achieve job satisfaction.
ZDNet Australia would like to thank all employees and employers who participated in this year's Best IT Employer Award. The winners are as follows:
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Third runner-up This company is one of the top storage vendors in the world. |
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First runner-up Two companies tie for this spot. |
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Winner The grand prize winner is .... |
ZDNet Australia's Best IT Employer Award is supported by the Australian Computer Society and SEEK IT. Entry conditions can be found here.
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