What do $25 billion social shopping service Groupon and Rabbit have in common?   We’re both in the list of the world’s most democratic workplaces!

Out today, the annual list is compiled by WorldBlu, which audits companies based on ten different criteria.   52 organisations made the cut to win the most democratic accolade - from the U.S., Canada, Mexico, the UK, India, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Malaysia.  

We’re still pretty new, being just over a year old, so we’re obviously over the moon that we’re on a global league table of participatory companies   And we’re in good company!

As well as Groupon other names include online retailer Zappos, US video streaming service Hulu, the DIY enthusiast’s friend WD40 and India’s HCL, a $5 billion technology company

Congratulations also to Nixon McInnes, another UK social media agency, which is on the list for the third year running.  

Rabbit and Nixon McInnes are the only two UK agencies to make list, and two of the three UK companies on there (the third is management consultancy Future Considerations).

What does being democratic mean in practice?   No, it doesn’t mean a free for all, we run an operationally tight ship and the names on the list show that being commercially successful and being democratic go hand in hand.  

But what it does mean is that a series of principles such as transparency, dignity, fairness and accountability are built into the way we work.   For Rabbit, this is enshrined in a charter (The Rabbit Manners).    

In the charter we follow principles such as collective hiring (everyone has a say who comes on board) and a joint decision on working with clients (anyone can say no, which is then brought up for discussion).

Work is where many of us spend the majority of our waking lives.   We’ve consciously taken the view that if people feel part  of what is going on, clients benefit.  

More to the point though, adults work here and they should be treated as such.    Quite simply its the right thing for us to do.

Finally, being on the list of most democratic organisations keeps us on our toes.  Rather than just another certificate or sign above the door (or website), this will force us to constantly evaluate what we do, how we involve everyone here and how we can improve. 

It’s an on-going twelve month programme that hopefully will see us here again in 2012!