People Practices ROI of the 2010 Top Small Company Workplaces

For months I’ve been sharing employee engagement research trends of Winning Workplaces’ 2010 Top Small Company Workplaces award finalists – the 40 organizations out of nearly 500 that applied for our award this year.  Many of those blog posts ended with a reminder to look for the June issue of Inc., which would feature the winners of our award.

Well, now the issue is out, as is Order Generic Cialis Online without Prescription our press release on the 2010 winners!  Actually, most if not all subscribers already have the issue in their hands; it will be available on newsstands starting tomorrow, June 8.

So now that news of the winners is out, I’m excited to provide more value for you here, in the form of both trends when it comes to the payoff of employee engagement that the winners see, and – perhaps even better for your company – specific best practices that you can learn from and adapt to help grow your business.

In that vein, below are ROI metrics for each of the 20 winners.  Click on a company name for more information about the firm on our website.

• A Yard & a Half (landscaper, Waltham, MA): employee development strategies helped reduce the company’s indirect expenses.
• All4, Inc. (air quality consultancy, Kimberton, PA): training and a flat organization structure have helped the company grow its market share in a down economy.
• Alternate Solutions HomeCare (home health care services for the elderly, Kettering, OH): A focus on creating highly individual employee development plans has helped ASH consistently score higher than the average EBITDA of four of the largest publicly owned home healthcare agencies in the country.
• Biomark, Inc. (electronic ID technology supplier, Boise, ID): Fudning growth using internal methods while keeping debt to a minimum has helped Biomark grow while their competitors are shrinking.
• Chroma Technology Corp. (precision optical filter manufacturer, Bellows Falls, VT): The company’s focus on customer service and creating outperforming products has helped it grow revenues in a tough economy.
• Daphne Utilities (water and natural gas service provider to the City of Daphne, AL): A pay for performance system, cross training, and coaching have had a triple bottom line impact on the company.
• Dealer.com (online marketing solutions provider for the automotive industry, Burlington, VT): Employee practices such as job rotaton and internal mentoring have increased customer satisfaction, and have also led to awards like Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500, which have aided recruiting.
• Dixon Schwabl (Advertising and PR services, Victor, NY): A focus on identifying new hires that will best fit their workplace culture and a strategic talent management program has helped the company to earn a profit in a challenging economy.
• Ginger Bay Salon & Spa (salon and day spa, Kirkwood, MO): Leadership’s reliance on employees to revise its service offerings based on declining customer visits helped the firm realize continued revenue growth, and with no layoffs.
• MAYA Design, Inc. (design consultancy, Pittsburgh, PA): Innovative benefits including funding viable, employee-created, complimentary companies has kept productivity high and turnover low.
• NY Jets (NFL member franchise, Florham Park, NJ): Strong benefits and a skills-training program for both business and football managers has increased performance on the fan side (four playoff appearances in 10 years) as well as advertising, merchandising, and other sales.
• Optimax Systems, Inc. (prototype optics manufacturer, Ontario, NY): A strong focus on continuous improvement and other workforce investments helped Optimax to achieve its higest number of bookings ever in 2009.
• Patagonia (technical outdoor clothing and travel gear designer/distributor, Ventura, CA): Though the economy worsened and competition increased in 2009, Patagonia grew revenue thanks partly to people practices including job shadowing, promoting from within, and open-book management.
• PortionPac Chemical Corp (industrial packager/marketer of environmentally sustainable liquid cleaning detergents, Chicago, IL): Practices including executives working on the factory floor and giving workers autonomy helped the company to grow revenue and keep all staff in 2009, while competitors suffered losses and shed jobs.
• Red Door Interactive (Internet/e-business strategy solutions provider, San Diego, CA): An investment in employee development geared toward learning new competencies and practices in emerging technologies helped the firm win related business representing a third of their revenue in 2009.
• Return Path, Inc. (spam-avoidance solutions provider for email senders, New York, NY): Practices including an extensive on-boarding program and learning and team building activities in the workplace have helped Return Path achieve a 70% market share in their sector.
• Tarlton Corp (general contractor and construction management, St. Louis, MO): Extensive training and open-book management helped Tarlton to finish 2009 with a Safety Total Incident Rate below the industry average.
• Tasty Catering (Corporate catering solutions provider, Elk Grove Village, IL): A focus on promoting from within and communicating business performance and activities via weekly, bilingual newsletters were factors in Tasty Catering earning revenues above the industry average in 2009.
• The Sky Factory (factory-direct product manufacturer/distributor, Fairfield, IA): Team building strategies including, most notably, involving all employees in all major decisions contributed to revenue growth in 2008 and 2009, when domestic markets experienced major declines in new construction.
• Van Meter Industrial (wholesale products distributor, Cedar Rapids, IA): Practices such as a program that encourages staff to make small changes in work habits to improve processes as well as incentives including performance bonuses have helped the company consistently rank in the upper quartile performance of financial measurements.

You can learn more about how to build a profitable and productive workplace at the Creating Competitive Cultures (C3) conference that Inc. Magazine is hosting in Denver in October.  Go here for more info on this event.

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