Australia's best employers are recognised as such because 80 per cent of employees speak positively about their workplace, rarely think about leaving and strive for good results, according to the findings of a study conducted by human resources consultants Hewitt Associates.

In other companies, only half the employees reported such levels of engagement when responding to last year's Best Employers study of 40,000 employees in 160 organisations. Despite clear evidence that "best employers" have more productive workforces, a "fair number of companies" still fail to make this connection, says Mick Bennett, managing director of Hewitt Associates.

"There are a reasonable number of senior executives in Australia who don't really believe that having the best-motivated people makes a difference," Bennett says. "Rather than investing in people, they say: where can we cut costs?"

So what do the best employers do differently and how easy is it for candidates to identify the good from the bad?

The Hewitt study shows five factors distinguish top employers: leadership commitment to employees, the employment experience they promise and deliver, the connectedness between people and organisational strategy, a high-performance culture where outstanding achievement is important and an alignment between people practices and business objectives.

"All these factors are quite inter-dependent," Bennett says. "The senior executive team is trusted, has a clear vision for the business and the organisation delivers on its promises. [So as an employee] if I give my hardest and I really do perform, I'm appreciated and recognised for that, rather than being in an organisation where it doesn't matter whether I work hard or not and it's not going to make a difference."

He suggests job seekers visit prospective employers' websites to see how responsive they are to employment inquiries. The kind of people they use for their graduate-recruitment program and the sorts of questions they're prepared to answer will also indicate how they treat their employees.

Apply the truth test, he says. "Do you get a sense of authenticity from the organisation, or is it flim-flam?"

Recruitment agency Select Australia has been on the Hewitt Best Employers list for two years. Chief executive Debbie Loveridge says companies that care about their employees have a higher investment in developing staff skills and make a genuine effort to deliver on promises.

The Australian Human Resources Institute has run awards for excellence since 1998, and executive director Jo Mithen says AHRI also looks for alignment between people strategies and business strategies.

While the business should be achieving its goals, staff should be employed and managed in a way that facilitates growth and development, and encourages their greatest efforts. "If the business wants to grow, it's got to use its people to do that," she says. "So you've got to find a way to make sure people are growing with the business."

The Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency looks for policies and practices that have a positive outcome both for women and the business when awarding its Employer of Choice for Women citations.