Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), a Maharatna CPSE and India’s largest public sector steelmaker has earned the coveted ‘Top Employer’ Certification from the Top Employers Institute. The certification was awarded on 24th August 2026 and is valid up to December 2027.
The achievement assumes added significance as SAIL also holds its third consecutive ‘Great Place To Work’ certification, awarded by the Great Place to Work Institute for the period up to February 2027. With both certifications held concurrently, SAIL joins the select group of CPSEs that have secured two of the world’s most rigorous and independently validated workplace credentials at the same time.
The Top Employer Certification is based on a rigorous, fact-based assessment of an organization’s people practices. The HR Best Practices Survey evaluates practices across six key HR domains and 20 strategic topics, covering the entire employee lifecycle. Each submission undergoes independent validation by qualified HR auditors to ensure accuracy, credibility and consistency. The assessment is further strengthened through global benchmarking against nearly 2,500 certified employers across 131 countries.
The certification reflects SAIL’s sustained and progressive HR initiatives over the years, encompassing workplace flexibility, Performance Management, self-paced learning, succession planning and leadership development, organisational culture, employee engagement and wellbeing as well as collaborations with industry leaders and premier institutes for continuous benchmarking.
The two certifications offer complementary perspectives on an organization’s workplace practices. Great Place To Work is centered on the Trust Index©, a confidential employee survey that captures employees’ perceptions of leadership credibility, fairness and pride in their workplace, reflecting how organisational culture is experienced in practice.
Top Employer Certification, on the other hand, assesses the strength and maturity of an organization’s HR practices, including whether its people processes are formally established, consistently implemented and aligned with global benchmarks.
In essence, one reflects how employees experience the workplace, while the other assesses the strength of the HR systems and practices that underpin that experience.
For an organisation with more than 47,000 employees across integrated steel plants and units in India, holding both credentials concurrently represents a significant recognition of both its employee experience and the robustness of its HR systems and practices. For a Maharatna CPSE of SAIL’s scale and legacy, this recognition reinforces its position as an employer of choice, backed by independent external validation.
