Incoming search terms for the article:

• total attorneys

Buy cheap Accutane Online medium none; border-left: medium none; margin-left: 5px; border-top: medium none; margin-right: 5px; border-right: medium none” src=”https://cdn2.content.compendiumblog.com/uploads/user/0da1f4b5-6d49-4164-9009-9f4d0114ef86/e5cc468d-0810-41b1-89b0-87b5a2bbfb03/Image/d13f20e87512b8aadb2603a47c8b780e/2011tscw_vs2010.jpg” />A year ago, after Winning Workplaces and Inc. Magazine announced the winners of our 2010 Top Small Company Workplaces award, I began a series of posts sharing data on how the winners, finalists, and other applicants performed on some key business metrics:

• Average employee tenure and turnover
• Estimated annual turnover costs per company (and how the winners and finalists outperformed their fellow award applicants)
• Revenue, proftability, employee tenure, and turnover among all applicants who fund a retirement plan, vs. those that don’t

Now that both organizations have announced the winners and finalists of our 2011 award, I think it’s time to give you some updated stats.  As you’ll see, they continue to support our thesis – and those of many of the other firms out there that study employee engagement and team building within productive workplace cultures – that investing in your workforce pays being dividends over the long term.  That includes an increased ability to anticipate and weather tough economies like the current one.

Employee Tenure and Turnover

As you can see, part of what distinguished the 2011 winners from the finalists was higher average employee tenure and lower turnover.  But to me the real story is how much improvement in these metrics the winners had over the finalists, vs. last year’s winners compared to the finalists.  This is represented in the chart below:

While one might argue that the continuing down economy, and particularly the stagnant job market, is keeping people from leaving who otherwise might jump ship – increasing average tenure while keeping voluntary turnover low as a share of total turnover – our data seem to indicate that something else is going on.  Otherwise the winners’ improvement over the finalists from 2010 to 2011 would be more gradual and not so steep.  I suspect that more leaders of small firms are having frank, "We’re all in it together" conversations with their workers, and at the same time are doing a better job of linking individual to company performance and providing attractive incentives to encourage more top-level work and innovation.

Turnover Costs – Winners and Finalists vs. Other Applicants

Most definitely there is a mixed-results story going on here.  On the one hand, while among our 2010 pool the winners and finalists had about half the turnover of other applicants, in 2011 the winner and finalist turnover was two-thirds the level of other applicants.  That was the driving factor behind the average, annual turnover cost of winners and finalists representing 89% of the cost of other applicants (in 2010, winners and finalists experienced only 40% of the cost of other applicants).  Still…

…as this chart shows, you can also look at it as a testament to the current winners and finalists that they were able to keep turnover at essentially the same low level (considering the variance in industry, geography, marketplaces, et al) as 2010, which allowed them to still have lower turnover costs than other applicants.  This is particularly noteworthy since the 2011 winners and finalists represent a greater share of the total applicant pool (24%) than they did in 2010 (8%).

The Link Between Retirement Plans and Revenue

While there are obviously many, many other factors involved, it’s hard to ignore the business metrics that tend to increase – among all our award applicants, not just winners and finalists – when companies show their long-term commitment to their workforces by investing in their retirement, as I discussed last October.  As the table above shows with the 2011 applicant data added, we continue to see a link between funding these plans and the tendency toward greater revenue and increased likelihood of being profitable.  However…

…take a look at the difference in revenue for companies who funded 401K, 403B, IRAs, or other plans in 2011 vs. those who do not, compared with the same groups in 2010.  (Also note that the ratio of those who fund these plans vs. those who don’t stayed essentially the same both years, 9 to 1.)

Is the difference a fluke?  Or do you think there’s something going on related to benefits and incentives within a framework of progressive staff engagement activities?  I’d love to read your thoughts – on this trend and anything else I’ve shared above – in the comments.

View full post on Winning Workplaces

Incoming search terms for the article:

• employee engagement activities
• what to provide as tenure and turnover data

Incoming search terms for the article:

• box building exercise
• box teamwork exercise
• Making boxes exercise team building

Incoming search terms for the article:

• Chiang mai teambuilding
• digi team building

I bet this is a press release your company would love to be putting out right now: Dealer.com Closes 2010 with Substantial Growth, Increased Research and Development.  (Kudos to you if you have or will soon.)

This 14-year-old, Vermont-based company’s customer base is automotive manufacturers, auto dealers, and media companies – all of which have been especially hard hit by the Great Recession and continuing down economy.  So how exactly did the firm, as their press release yesterday stated, grow revenues 60% over the already impressive $51 million they netted in 2009, the year prior to their entry in our Top Small Company Workplaces award competition (which they won)?

Dealer.com’s response to our 2010 award application question "How have your organization’s people practices contributed to your top line revenue and bottom line profitability?" provides a large part of the answer (not to mention, a template for cross-departmental employee engagement and team building for adoption by your company):

Keeping employee turn-over low significantly contributes to both the revenue and profitability of Dealer.com.  High employee retention in both management and staff member positions helps provide outstanding and consistent service to clients and sense of well being for employees as a team.  Further, client retention rates are at an all time high.  Hiring and promoting from within also contributes to financial strength by decreasing recruiting expenses and creating a faster learning curve for employees who change positions within the organization.

The sales, account management and marketing teams are joined to commit to each other for strategic teamwork on a daily basis.  The marketing team’s number one goal is to generate sales leads for both the retail sales team and for the account management team, mainly through email direct marketing.  Provigil pharmacy In return the account management and retail sales teams spend time gathering email addresses to add to the prospect and customer database.  The marketing team compensation plan has a variable component and is paid out levels that correspond to sales lead generation.

In addition, the account management team is responsible for not just reactive customer service for the customer like the majority of Dealer.com competitors, but to also be proactive Internet marketing consultants to customers.  The account management team’s daily call direction is two out-bound for every one in-bound call.  In other words the account management team is pushing our client base to high levels of performance, versus waiting for the customer to reach out and ask for help.  The team collaborated with the marketing team to help prioritize which of their customers had the largest advertising opportunity and sent them email marketing campaigns with the "advertising estimates" customized for each dealer.

For more insights into Dealer.com’s profitable people practices, sign up for our free IDEAS newsletter – our upcoming February issue will have a profile of success on the business.

Photo credit: Inc. Magazine

View full post on Winning Workplaces

Incoming search terms for the article:

• dealer team building games

Tanveer Naseer has a thought-provoking post on his blog this week in which he emphasizes the importance of celebrating the traditions that define your firm’s workplace culture.  He says company traditions are worthwhile because they:

• Make your organization stand out from the crowd,
• Foster a sense of shared identity, and
• Remind us of past challenges and of how far we’ve come.

In businesses, tradition is commonly thought of as parts, or the whole, of special events that bring employees together and help Provigil pharmacy with building trust in the workplace.  One example is this practice at Rackspace Hosting, a 2006 winner of Winning Workplaces’ annual workplace award.

But it can also serve as a benchmark for how you want your firm to be unique, or at least different than your competition, in your processes and people practices.  This is apparent in the feedback shared by the following four winners of our 2010 Top Small Company Workplaces award:

Award application question: How do you work with employees to help them grow in their jobs?
Response: In 2008, ALL4 made a significant change to our performance review system by eliminating the existing system and replacing it with what we call our Continuous Improvement Program (CIP).  Our old process was a traditional annual performance review and we made salary adjustments based on the results of the review.  We felt that this system was not consistent with our company culture, or our matrix-type organizational structure, and it relied on feedback that was not always current or geared to affecting positive personal growth.  We migrated to the CIP system which we created.  The system involves soliciting more consistent and current feedback from everyone involved with project execution.  At the beginning of each year, all staff take part in a "Create the Year" exercise where each person develops their own annual goals and objectives (aligned with company goals and initiatives, where applicable).  Each employee also identifies their personal "breakthrough" objectives.  Additionally, employees are able to give and receive performance feedback using a web based system.  Staff meet with their group coordinator on a regular basis (at least 1/quarter) to discuss feedback and their progress to date on their goals and objectives that were developed in their "Create the Year" form.  All group coordinators act as "career coaches" and maintain an "open door" policy at all times.

Award application question: Describe the culture of your organization and the key people practices that support that culture.
Response: I can best describe Biomark as a group of individuals that use an organic approach to management.  While there’s reference to a traditional organizational chart which outlines Biomark and its hierarchy, Biomark practices the idea of individual contributions and self management.  It is this that defines our culture.  We’ve found that by empowering and EXPECTING personal input at all levels people become vested.  It IS their ideas and actions that are moving our business decisions forward and albeit they may not always be the right ones, they’re input directly affects the health of the business.  We’ve been fortunate over the last (2) years to become 100% employee owned (ESOP)and this move has solidified the belief in every one of us that it is "our" company and what we do wholly affects it.  We have been and continue to be the best at what we do and our execution both physically as well as financially has proven it.  There are examples of this practice and their positive outcomes that occur frequently.  Production staff have recently taken steps that have both improved quality and output (productivity improvements) of a product we make.  This is not done at the urging of management or supervisors.  This is done because these people care about what we do and want to see their team and the company succeed.  Trust can cost an organization but we believe that oversight can be even more costly.  We prefer to work in an atmosphere of trust.

Award application question: How does the organization encourage employees to participate in important business decisions?
Response: Dealer.com has a flat organizational and management structure, rather than a traditional hierarchical structure.  This format was adopted to facilitate communication among all employees, regardless of title, department or tenure.  All senior executives have an open door policy that encourages any employee to ask questions and share thoughts.  Team leaders also sit with their groups in "pods," instead of being located in separate offices.  This allows for immediate and continuous communication between team members and leadership.  When employees have suggestions, criticisms or new ideas there are numerous communication options.  They can schedule a meeting with a team leader or departmental manager, email their thoughts, or talk to them via the internal chat tool.  Open discussion about the majority of important business decisions is encouraged and taken seriously by management.  Senior management also regularly communicates information, both good and bad, via the company wide "earthlings" (Dealer.com’s nickname for all employees) meetings.  The weekly meetings also showcase the company’s successes, news and development stages of various projects so that all employees can see how their job responsibilities fit into and contribute to the overall organization.  Even more frequently, executives write and send informal emails to all employees to keep everyone up to date regarding new business and company developments.  In addition, president and CEO Mark Bonfigli sent out a company-wide email stating that he wants to get to know all employees better, as Dealer.com has been growing so rapidly.  He offered to take all new employees out to lunch on an individual basis.  The feedback from employees is that it has been wonderful to get to know the president and CEO on a personal level.  Mark encourages everyone to express their opinions and share new ideas about how Dealer.com could be an even better company and workplace.

Award application question: How does your organization develop employees for leadership roles?
Response: We think that Open Book Management challenges employees to be responsible for the outcomes that they control in our organization.  Those that are in leadership positions at Ginger Bay Salon are asked to consider all the sources of information they have (appointment books, vacation schedules, previous results) to predict future revenues.  These are tasks that are traditionally executed by very few people in small business, let alone front-line leaders.  Because the information is shared across the entire team, all of our employees are in a better position to lead should the opportunity arise.  While we use this system to help run our business, we can’t help but believe that Open Book Management also helps build our employees’ resumes.  Ginger Bay may not be the last stop in some of our employees’ careers, so helping our team understand our business puts them in a better position for the future.  Our sincere hope is that none of our employees are ever in a situation where they are at the mercy of a small business owner and unaware of what they need to do to help build value in a business.

Does your small business do things that buck tradition when it comes to your staff engagement activities?  If so you may be a contender for our 2011 Top Small Company Workplaces award.  Learn more here.

View full post on Winning Workplaces

Incoming search terms for the article:

• team building activities workplace culture

Lots of the business blogs I follow have spent part of this last week of 2010 sharing with their readers the posts that most resonated with them.  I’d like to do the same today in terms of what you found most useful this year that we’ve published on staff engagement activities to create a more productive workplace culture.

Below are your 10 most popular posts.  In addition to those of you who found us from a search on Google, Bing, Chrome, etc. (59% of readers), I’d like to thank the remaining 41% of you who arrived here directly, or based on a referral from another website.  We are grateful to all of our readers, as we think there’s much more to be done to get the word out that great workplaces are "better for people and better for business," as we say in our tagline.

1. Top 10 Workplace Trends for 2010
2. 10 Best Practices: Offering Vacation Days
3. All Employee Recognition Roads Lead to Greater Company Productivity
4. 20 Proven Workplace Team Building Strategies
5. 10 Small Business People to Follow on Twitter
6. Team Building Improves Hospital’s Productivity
7. Toyota Leads Again, Buy cheap Accutane Online This Time in Team Building During Down Times (written prior to their brake recall mess this year)
8. Three Benefits of Virtual Team Building
9. Two Inspiring Stories of Team Building
10. Top 10 Performance Bonus Practices of Our 2010 Small Business Award Finalists

Happy New Year!  Here’s to a safe, healthy, and productive 2011!

View full post on Winning Workplaces

When it comes to our 2010 conference we just held with our Top Small Company Workplaces award media partner, Inc. Magazine, the incredible takeaways presented on employee engagement and investing in your workplace for best bottom line results were apparent in my previous posts on Twitter insights shared from it, and speaker Donna Fenn’s reporting from it in two business resources.

Today I’d like to add more from this event to the mix – some of the great photos taken by David Topping.  Enjoy:

Speakers Mike Faith of Headsets.com (left) and Small Giants author and Inc. Editor Bo Burlingham with an event staffer

One of the activities attendees enjoyed during breaks was bowling on the Wii

CitiStorage Founder and speaker Norm Brodsky (left) chats with attendees

Best-selling author Marcus Buckingham explains the difference between great managing and great leading

Attendees like what they hear

B Lab Founder Bart Houlahan shows how little things can lead to a big impact on the bottom line

Feld Entertainment (Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey) Provigil pharmacy CEO Kenneth Feld reveals how he turned a $70 million-a-year "castoff" circus into a $750 million production company with 2,000 employees

An attendee asks the speaker a question during the Q&A portion of a session

Jane Berentson, Editor of Inc. (left), and Winning Workplaces Chairman Ken Lehman (right) with Lauren Dixon of 2010 Top Small Company Workplace award winner Dixon Schwabl

The Winning Workplaces team with Alejandro Mendoza of 2010 award winner Optimax Systems (center)

Stay tuned to our blog for nuggets on effective management and employee leadership development from some of the conference sessions…

View full post on Winning Workplaces

Today – rather than, as earlier reported, August 31 – is the early bird deadline to register for our Leadership Conference in Denver on October 27-29, in partnership with Inc. Magazine.  Through today, you can attend Buy Accutane this event at a $300 savings.

I’ve written before about what you can expect to gain by joining us in Denver in October – namely, management and employee leadership development tips to save money and grow revenue, provided by leaders of both small and large businesses that have continued to do well in this tough economy.

To give you a better sense of what you can expect to learn from the incredible speakers we’ve booked for this event, visit the links below to articles on our website, and this blog, covering them:

• Small But Great (Norm Brodsky, CitiStorage; Bo Burlingham, Small Giants Community)
• Inc. Magazine’s Takeaways from Covering Our 2010 Small Business Award Finalists (Leigh Buchanan, Inc. Magazine)
• Listening to Employee Needs (Mike Faith, Headsets.com)
• How Generation Y Entrepreneurs Are Changing the World (Donna Fenn, BNET and SBTV.com)
• Focused on the Future (Jeffrey Hollender, Seventh Generation)
• Succession as a Values Test (Paul Silvis, Restek)
• Employee Development ROI: 80 Percent of Revenues from Return Business or Referrals (Larry O’Toole, Gentle Giant Moving)
• Best Bosses Under Four Types Defined by Bob Rosner (Bob Rosner, The Boss’s Survival Guide)
• Five CEOs Who Eschew Offices to Work Alongside Employees, and Why (Tom Walter, Tasty Catering)
• People Practices Fuel Three Stages of Revenue Growth at King Arthur Flour (Steve Voigt, King Arthur Flour)

And let’s not forget another benefit we always hear from attendees of our conferences, which can often be just as valuable as education on achieving productive workplace cultures – the potential to grow your Rolodex with the contact information of speakers and attendees alike!

Click here to register today for the Inc. Leadership Conference, and save $300 on registration.

Image credit: The Crosshairs Trader Blog

View full post on Winning Workplaces