More Lessons from the Best Companies to Work for in America

In this earlier post from Stephanie Gaspary, she discusses the attributes that make up the companies the Great Place to Work® Instituterecently named the 50 Best Small and Medium Companies to Work For in America. All of these companies, the Institute’s researchersfound,have eight specific things they doto create meaningful experiences for their employees, which I’ve listed below, along with concrete examples from some of those medium-sized companies that earned this honor:

1. Motivate - Ultimate Software (ranked #1) CEO Scott Scherr motivates the team with frequent company and department get-togethers, where he highlights various team successes. He’s also known for using sports imagery to communicate his belief that a unified team is a powerful one: All of his employees have a copy of former NBA coach Pat Riley’s book Winner Within: A Life Plan for Team Players, and former MLB pitcher Leiter is an official company spokesperson, often attending employee meetings to share his techniques for handling high-pressure situations.
2. Empower - Rothstein Kass’ (#23) Alumni Program is evidence of its dedication to providing support to employees even after they’ve left the company. Employees have instant access to resources meant to facilitate their career development both during and after their experience at the company. The company’s specially created career-building opportunities for employees and our alumni include networking events, social activities, career guidance, technical training and access to firm publications and other resources.
3. Listen – At Robins & Morton (#17), all employees have a say in their day-to-day and long-term goals and responsibilities. Each employee works with his or her manager to develop a set of jointly agreed upon Performance Standards, reflecting the job responsibilities of their specific assignment, to be reviewed at the end of a given evaluation period.
4. Thank - Advanced Financial Services (#19) shows its employees appreciation during a special breakfast ceremony twice a year, where the company honors those employees celebrating 10-, 15- and 20-year milestones with customized gifts, which in the past have included: a kayak, a high-powered laptop, a flat screen television, and a fantasy day at Fenway Park, a trip to Paradise Island in the Bahamas, and a John Deere lawn tractor.
5. Develop – Hoar Construction, LLC (#8) proved its commitment to its employees’ professional and personal development when it established Hoar University, where instructors are experienced experts from outside the company, and each employee follows a custom job-related curriculum to develop their skills and work smarter. Employees also build personal skills through electives such as stress management, time management,negotiation, public speaking and presentation skills.
6. Care – Meanwhile, Hilcorp Energy Company (#15) encourages a culture of giving by supporting our employees’ charitable efforts by initially funding their giving with $2,500, allowing them the freedom to direct their donations to the organizations they choose, and increasing their giving power by providing on-going matching gifts up to $1,000 per year. We’ve designed this program to promote each individual employee’s ideals.
7. Celebrate - At Triage Consulting Group (#11), no personal milestone goes unrecognized. That includes baby showers, engagement parties, home purchases, anniversaries and athletic feats in addition to birthdays, all of which are recorded in company newsletters. Personal and professional accomplishments are also recognized every year through song and video at the annual company meeting, State of Triage.
8. Share –ACUITY (#2) puts an emphasis on internal communication. Parts of the its “all-out effort to keep every employee informed and up to date,” (as stated in its online brochure) effort include publishing an employee newsletter, an Open Door policy, town hall meetings, lunches with executives and an employee self-service Web site.

Of course, these are just a handful of the things companies – of every size – are doing to give their employees meaningful experiences and make their companies best places to work.

What about you? What are some of the things you’re doing to make your company a best place to work? Feel free to share in the comments section below!

About the Author

Mary Lorenz is a copywriter for CareerBuilder. In addition to creating copy for corporate advertising and marketing campaigns, she researches and writes about employee attraction, engagement and retention. Whenever possible, she makes references to pop culture. Sometimes, those references are even relevant. A New Orleans native, Mary now lives in Chicago, right down the street from the best Thai food place in the city. It’s awesome.

Comments

[mack]

Thanks for sharing such a great examples. very informative article.A person needs to have the right presentation skills for making effective presentation. Presentation should be interesting or else the audience is lost. You need lot of planning and practice. Mind maps are very popular and are effective in making good presentation. For more details refer http://www.bloggingwithchris.com/effective-presentations-presentation-skills/

[Jeff Long]

Thanks for the overview.These are so simple to do, yet so easy to overlook when you are busy. One key too is to have someone who tackles this as their main job responsibility.