Where workers don’t just show up but get to be their best
Reporter
An aesthetics clinic software service, an engineering company and a communications group may not appear to have much in common. But they’re together bound by one thing: a genuine care for organisational culture. Tossing aside buzzwords and putting people, not PR, at the forefront of their culture strategy makes them the gold standard.
These companies have been recognised by Bendelta as some of the best places in Australasia to work, applauded for their excellent organisational culture and leadership.
Paola Molino, head of people and culture at TAL, says culture needs to be authentic. Louise Kennerley
Bendelta uses the “BEING at work” framework to measure a company’s success, which utilises five dimensions to create a data-driven picture of what makes a good place to work: Belonging, Energising, Integrating, Nurturing and Generating.
The data comes from the policies and practices of the organisation and the employee experience as determined by a survey.
TAL, a life insurance company, won in the “Belonging” category, recognising an organisation that “creates a culture of inclusion, empathy and connection where every person feels valued and safe to contribute”.
TAL has a robust diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) strategy and expanded leave options, including wellbeing leave, which a third of employees made use of in the last year
Bendelta 'BEING' Special Awards
All employees have access to LinkedIn Learning, allowing them to upskill in a flexible and tailored way. This has been particularly useful in the age of AI, allowing employees to feel more confident in their abilities.
Paola Molino, head of people and culture at TAL, says that for them, culture is all about listening to people. She described their culture as caring, relationship focused and purpose aligned.
“[Culture] doesn’t need to be a fancy initiative. It is simple. It needs to be authentic,” she says.
TAL regularly seeks structured feedback by sending out a survey to employees bi-monthly.
“That tells us the experience of our people, where the opportunities are, and importantly, we can then respond very quickly,” Molino says.
“We’re very keen to share the stories from our people, as opposed to corporate scripting and those things.”
Read more: BOSS Best Places to Work 2026
She also spoke about the robust nature of TAL’s DEI program, which has existed for a long time.
“Where we have focused on is leveraging the diversity of thought ... for all of our people to feel that they can contribute in different ways, and we know that that creates stronger collaboration across the organisation and ensures that we have better outcomes for our customers.”
Fresh Clinics, a cosmetic and aesthetic clinic software company, won the “Energising” category, meaning they “build a vibrant, mentally healthy workplace that sustains motivation, wellbeing and performance”.
Chief people officer Ally Atkins at Fresh Clinics’ office in Surry Hills, Sydney: “We’re adults, and we reward impact and outcomes.” Louise Kennerley
Fresh Clinics offers an unlimited global employee assistance program, four wellbeing days and a fully flexible agreement, with no expectation of in-office attendance. “Work Your Way” is its declaration of radical trust, allowing employees to work whatever hours suit them. It also runs monthly “brunch and learns” to improve employee development and foster a sense of camaraderie.
Ally Atkins, chief people officer at Fresh Clinics, says “culture, for us, is ultimately the bedrock of everything we do. It’s how we show up for one another, and ultimately, how we show up for our members.”
For Fresh Clinics, actions speak louder than words. Atkins talks about “glitter moments”, a moment in the day when you do something small that makes people feel like they matter.
“Culture is not just something that you’ll see on the walls. It’s not like we have these posters of our values. It’s actually the company’s operating system.”
She also spoke to the importance of everyone being on board with culture strategy, rather than it being a top-down approach.
“Everyone’s responsible for it, and we have a hard expectation that you don’t have to be a cultural fit, because everyone’s diverse and different; you have to be additive to that culture, and if you’re not additive to it, then we have to have a conversation.”
Fresh Clinics’ focus on flexibility also shines through in the way it measures success.
“We’re adults, and we reward impact and outcomes. We don’t reward time on a desk,” Atkins says. It’s about what you produce, not how long it took you to produce it.”
Aurecon, a design, engineering and advisory company, took home the “Integrating” win, recognising its promotion of “flexibility and autonomy, helping employees align work with personal values and life rhythms”.
Incoming Aurecon chief executive Louise Adams says the country is now in the “age of the engineer”. Louise Kennerley
The Aurecon Way is the company’s framework for culture and ways of working. Its strongest message is “choosing optimism”, empowering employees to counter negativity by embracing an optimistic mindset.
Louise Adams is passionate about optimism, and when she came into the CEO role last year, disseminating culture in a style people understood was important to her.
“If we could bring real honesty and plain language into [our optimism-focused culture strategy], then it would be more likely that people were coming in for the right reasons and staying with us for the right reasons,” she says.
Optimism can be as simple as reflecting on positive things that happened at the end of each day, she says. It’s about training your brain to consider the good, not just the bad.
Adams says it “worked really hard on making sure that it wasn’t fancy marketing speak, but really easy to understand, and we’ve had a lot of feedback from our own people about how refreshing that is”.
She emphasises the importance of honesty, making sure employees understand the expectations on them, and not promising things Aurecon can’t deliver.
“We weren’t saying it’s all going to be easy and happy. We are actually saying what we do is hard work, what you think about may often be really difficult and complex,” she says.
Publicis Groupe ANZ CEO, Michael Rebelo.
Publicis Groupe, a communications company, won the “Nurturing” category, recognising the way they “support continuous growth and mastery through meaningful development and self-determination”. Publicis was an important driver initiating the Psychosocial Safety Code of Conduct, launched by the Media Federation of Australia, which provides practical guidance to reduce psychosocial risks.
Additionally, its Carers Collective employee resource group assists parents and carers, particularly through the empowered parents program which offers coaching sessions to help employees before and after parental leave.
The winner of the “Generating” category was Judo Bank, which also won bronze in its industry category of banking, financial services and superannuation.
