Roula Amire
Roula Amire is the content director of Great Place to Work®. Roula has 20 years of experience as a journalist and leading company culture and corporate communications content. She has written extensively about employee engagement, well-being, purpose, and other aspects of workplace culture. Her expertise in storytelling, content strategy, writing and editing help elevate the mission of Great Place to Work.
Most recent articles
Podcast Edward Jones’ Suzan McDaniel on Creating Social Connections in a Hybrid World
Hybrid work offers employees flexibility, but it requires intentional effort to maintain in-person connections. It requires care, intentionality, and lots of communication, which is the approach Edward Jones took. Suzan McDaniel, CHRO, shared how...
Podcast Penn Mutual's Liz Heitner on Effective Performance Management
According to Gallup, only 2% of CHROs strongly agree that their performance management system inspires employees. In this episode of Better from Great Place To Work, we delve into the intricacies of performance reviews and goal setting with Liz...
Podcast CarMax’s Diane Cafritz on Empowering Hourly Workers
"Recognition is such a powerful way to make people feel valued." Hourly workers often miss out on meaningful work, mental health support, and training opportunities compared to salaried employees at typical workplaces. At CarMax, where most employees...
Podcast Dow's Alveda Williams on How Employee Resource Groups Drive Business Success
"ERGs are fully empowered. There are things happening around the world through our ERGs that I, as the chief inclusion officer, did not dictate, and did not play a part in." Alveda Williams, chief inclusion officer at Dow, talked about the enormous...
Blog How the Best Workplaces for Women Go Beyond Fair Pay to Narrow the Gender Gap
Building a great experience for women at work requires more than fair pay and promotions. They’re essential, but only part of the solution. The focus on pay equity has grown in recent years, with more companies announcing programs to close the...
Podcast PwC's Kim Jones on Improving Workplace Trust
"Leaders forget that you can't just tell people what they should do, you also have to model it yourself. There's a little bit of, 'Do as I say, and not what I do.' It's so important to model that behavior, and show that you believe in it." Kim Jones,...
Blog Employee Well-Being Dips to Pre-Pandemic Levels; Black, Female, and Young Employees Suffer Most
Well-being in the U.S. has steadily declined since 2020, with certain groups disproportionately affected, according to a new report from Johns Hopkins University and Great Place To Work. Employee well-being took center stage during the pandemic as...
Blog Does Culture Drive Business Performance? Yes. Here’s Proof.
Great Place To Work research highlights the undeniable connection between positive workplace culture and improved productivity, retention, innovation, agility, well-being, and customer service. You might intuitively know that company culture affects...
Podcast Ellen McGirt on Supporting Caregivers at Work
“You want to be able to know that you're plugging into a workplace ecosystem that is prepared to support you in at least talking through the human side of caregiving.” This episode of Better features journalist, speaker, and podcast host Ellen McGirt....
Blog Equity of Opportunity Fuels Business Success at the Best Workplaces
Across all industries, leaders who create equitable workplaces — where employees have equal opportunities for growth, recognition, and time with leaders — experience higher levels of productivity, agility, and retention. Equity at work goes beyond fair...
Blog The Best Workplaces for Millennials Will Thrive in AI World, Thanks To Employee Trust
We can all guess what’s keeping executives up at night. Nearly every executive believes it’s “urgent” to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) in their business, so much so that it’s the biggest issue on their minds today, surpassing the economy and...
Podcast American Express’ Monique Herena on Embracing Change at Work
“Embracing change is not a nice to do, it's a must do from a growth perspective.” Monique Herena, chief colleague experience officer at American Express, reminds us how and why change and discomfort can be so powerful in the workplace on this episode...
Podcast Amy Edmondson on How Failing Well Can Help Companies Thrive
“If you don't like taking a risk, you are taking a risk. You're taking the risk of stagnation, or the risk that your company or team will seize to be relevant over time … We need to continue to help people shift their mindsets from, 'I got this' to, 'I...
Podcast Camden’s Ric Campo & Keith Oden on Building a Culture of Care
"Caring and culture improves your bottom line, and we can prove it and we have proven it many, many times." On this episode of the Better podcast, we delve into how and why Ric Campo and Keith Oden, CEO and president, respectively, of Camden Property...
Podcast Accenture's Yolanda Friend on How to Create Inclusive Workplaces
“We know how important it is to look beyond the numbers. To really understand what representation, what inclusion, what belonging really means to our people. And that's where active listening is really important to understand the employee experience....
Podcast Synchrony’s Michael Matthews on Vulnerability in Leadership
“It’s expected for us as leaders to be able to deal with and support and engage with our employees and our teams being vulnerable, because the culture that we work in now—that's more accepted.” Michael Matthews, chief diversity and corporate...
Podcast Cadence’s Tina Jones on the Power of Inclusion Groups & Top HR Skills
“Being comfortable with numbers, analytics, and data is becoming more and more important to being an HR leader. You have to speak from a place of data to be credible and to have influence.” On this episode of the Better podcast, Tina Jones, senior...
Podcast Cisco’s Kelly Jones on Making Hybrid Work Successful
“People need flexibility and choice. It's crucial to employee engagement, particularly during times of change, which we're all kind of living in all the time.” On this episode of the Better podcast, Kelly Jones, chief people officer at Cisco, shares...
Blog The Great Transformation Is as 'Close to a Blueprint For the Future of Work as Anything We've Seen'
Great Place To Work’s bold, three-year initiative unlocks new ways to hire, promote, and retain employees to build more resilient, innovative, and productive workplaces. By Roula Amire The only constant in the workplace has been unprecedented...
Blog Want a Better Workplace Experience? Switch Companies, Not Industries
The 2023 Best Workplaces™ by industry offer a more equitable and meaningful experience for their people no matter what industry they’re in. Would you leave your job and switch industries if that meant you’d finally look forward to going to...
Podcast Stanford’s BJ Fogg on Behavior Change and How to Listen Better at Work
On this episode of the Better podcast, Dr. BJ Fogg, founder and director of Stanford's Behavior Design Lab, and author of The New York Times bestseller, “Tiny Habits,” talks about how to change behavior in the workplace. He applies his behavior model...
Blog Fun Drives High Levels of Well-being at the Best Workplaces for Millennials
The state of employee well-being hasn’t been particularly rosy the past few years, and it continues to worsen, particularly among young professionals who report high levels of workplace stress and burn out. Fortunately, the power of great cultures...
Podcast BetterUp's Alexi Robichaux on the Power of Special Recognition at Work
“Recognition is the most powerful driver of discretionary energy and effort.” On this episode of the Better podcast, Alexi Robichaux, co-founder and CEO of BetterUp, talks about the power of inner work, the most powerful way to recognize your people,...
Blog High-trust Cultures at the Best Workplaces in Chicago, Texas, New York, and Bay Area Fuel Productivity and Agility
Trust that management will lay people off only as a last resort pays off in remarkable ways. It’s hard to give your all at work when you’re worried that you’re next on the chopping block. Stress and fear around layoffs has had a negative...
Podcast Deloitte's Jen Fisher on Workplace Burnout, Mental Health, and Loneliness
“If you employ human beings, you have to care for their well-being. It's not a nice to have, it’s not a good to have, it's nonnegotiable. It is a baseline requirement for today's workforce.” On this episode of the Better podcast, Jen Fisher, chief...
Blog Is ChatGPT the Answer to a More Equitable Workplace?
A look at how generative artificial intelligence (AI) affects recruitment, talent development, and other HR duties. ChatGPT is inescapable, developing rapidly, and gaining steam as its impact on how we do our jobs unfolds in real time. The...
Podcast Tim Richmond & Michael C. Bush on Leadership Blind Spots
On this episode of the Better podcast, we hear Tim Richmond, EVP, Chief Human Resources Officer at AbbVie, and Michael C. Bush, CEO of Great Place To Work®, talk about blind spots many leaders have around culture and engaging employees. They...
Podcast Vinita Clements on the Importance of Belonging at Work
“We no longer can be concerned only with work experience. We have to be concerned with the life experience of our associates.” On this episode of the Better podcast, Vinita Clements, EVP, CHRO of Nationwide, talks about the importance of...
Podcast Laura Fuentes on the Power of a Fully Human Experience at Work
“People are looking for a human experience at work. They don't want life to fit into a good job. They want work to fit into a good life.” On this episode of the Better podcast, Laura Fuentes, executive vice president and chief human resource officer at...
Podcast Rick Jackson on How to Engage Frontline Workers
“I’m a huge proponent of work-life balance. We shouldn't have to be constantly switched on all day. It's not appropriate.” You’d be hard pressed to find a company that’s more international than DHL Express, No. 1 on the World’s Best Workplaces™ list...