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Pushing Back on Two Comments on NY Jets’ 2010 Top Small Company Workplace Award

Team Building Activity Tips — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 05:33:24 +0000

Some of the most (and most vociferous) comments I’ve seen related to the announcement of our 2010 Top Small Company Workplaces last week in the June issue of Inc. Magazine – firms whose human capital strategies contribute to their revenue growth and profitability – appear in response to this post by Manish Mehta on The Jets Stream blog, on NYDailyNews.com.

There are 87 comments to Mehta’s post on the NY Jets as of this writing. Here’s what Bob from garfield had to say:

Evidently, no one at Inc. is a Jet season ticket holder. If Inc. really wants to see how the Jets PSL sales staff do their job, they should view the movie “THE BOILER ROOM”

I’ve seen that movie and the Jets’ sales environment is about as far from what’s depicated in it as can be. For one thing, the salesmen (I don’t recall seeing any women in the workplace in the film) were given zero autonomy in their work. In contrast, here’s how the Jets answered the question in our award application, How does the organization encourage employees to participate in important business decisions?

The Jets culture, which is very employee centric and collaborative, enables the senior management of football and business to encourage all employees to share ideas and contribute even in important business decisions. There are number of ways that we foster this participation. The most important way is actually in the design of our new facility. Before we moved to NJ, we had two offices in NYC and Long Island. The distance between the offices made communication and collaboration challenging. In the layout of our new building, open workspaces and open door policies reign supreme. The results have been phenomenal. Managers and employees from different departments can work in small or large groups to develop creative ideas and solutions to important business issues. A great example of an idea generated from this workspace collaboration is the "Opportunity Knocks" sales campaign for our season tickets and seat licenses. With such a well known brand, the Jets needed to let the public know of the rare opportunity available to buy season tickets in our new stadium. Opportunity Knocks was the result. In the football world, our General Manager encourages his staff from pro personnel assistants to the Assistant General Manager to be actively involved in player decisions. The scouts, as they are called, study players from college and other professional teams to develop suggestions and recommendations on who should be drafted on Draft Day or who should be signed as a free agent. There have been many times that an employee will feel passionately about a player that they feel is worthy of the Jets uniform and the decision will be made to go after that player even if the GM is lukewarm on that particular player. On both sides of our business and both sides of the ball, we would not be able to be as successful a football team if the employees were not encouraged to voice their opinions, share their creative ideas or be enabled to think "outside the box".

Further down in the comments to Mehta’s post, greenjohnny wrote:

Sounds nice, should look good on a belt buckle but who really cares. It’s [sic] pretty good that they can make all their employees take two weeks off without pay and still get an award for best place to work for.

This relates to the Jets’ answer to another, topical question in our application, Over the last year, what kind of impact has the economy had on your business? Please briefly explain how your company has responded? Here’s how the NFL franchise responded:

Football is not immune from the economic downturn and recession that has gripped the entire country. Our local revenue comes primarily from ticket sales and sponsorships. Our fans (customers) have been affected by layoffs, salary freezes and reductions in work hours. Our sponsors have seen a dramatic decrease in budgets for spending on advertising. Consequently, the Jets have been affected by a slowdown in revenue generated by ticket sales and sponsorship deals. Over the course of 2009, we were challenged to find ways to decrease spending and cut costs. Since our employees are the key to our success, this exercise needed to be done with layoffs as an extreme last measure. Many teams around the NFL in the early part of 2009 were laying off their employees to save money. … We froze salaries for the year. Since we still needed to find extra savings, we made a crucial decision to furlough business employees for 2 weeks versus eliminating positions. The furloughs were scheduled for the slowest time in our year at the end of June and beginning of July. Employees had to choose 2 out of 4 weeks to take their furlough. The response from employees was positive. They were extremely grateful that they didn’t have to say goodbye to a friend. Our senior management participated as well, which made the program very credible. It was tough for our employees to lose 2 weeks of pay, but overall the furlough program worked successfully.

In short, the Jets took a page from several of our previous honorees faced with tough decisions and chose to share the pain rather than lay anyone off. The fact that senior leadership participated speaks volumes and, as you can see, helped maintain their productive workplace culture of ownership and high employee engagement.

I should mention that as part of our employee engagement research for our award, we conducted interviews with staff from different levels within the Jets’ organization, and everything they told us about their employee practices, including what’s excerpted above, checks out. Especially for their industry, they are truly a Winning Workplace.

Related: For more on the Jets’ new workplace environment, including some great pictures, check out this feature from the June Inc. Magazine.

Photo credit: Nikolas Koenig/Inc.

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People Practices ROI of the 2010 Top Small Company Workplaces

Team Building Activity Tips — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 21:27:10 +0000

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 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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Benchmark Your Company Against Our Typical 2010 Small Biz Award Applicant

Team Building Activity Tips — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 05:26:30 +0000

"Am I already a Winning Workplace?"

This is one of the most common questions we get, and it really makes sense given the economy and, by extension, companies’ ability to invest in their workplace. They understandably don’t want to spend any more than is absolutely necessary here.

One way to answer to this question is to benchmark themselves against applicants of our Top Small Company Workplace award with Inc. Magazine. The process I’ve outlined below will allow you to do this:

Click on the title of this post to ensure you’re just looking at this post by itself, and not with the rest of our blog feed.
Click here to print this post.
On the page that prints out, complete the "Your Firm" column below for each metric/practice of a productive workplace.
Once this is done you will get a rough* picture of how your people practices are contributing to your bottom line success.

Metrics

Organizational

Metric/Practice2010 TSCW Applicants Your Firm Average CEO Tenure11 years Average years in business16 years Average growth rate, 2007-2009 42% Average employee turnover 19% Average % open positions filled from within in 200922% Average employee tenure4 years

Medical and Other Benefits

Metric/Practice2010 TSCW Applicants Your Firm Avg percentage of employee premium paid73% Avg percentage of premium paid for dependant38% Average 401 K Match by employer20.6% Average paid time off26 days/year Average tuition reimbursement per employee$2550

*This represents only a limited view of how well your organization is doing when it comes to the payoff of employee engagement. There are many more factors than those shown here that go into creating a Winning Workplace. For a more detailed picture, please contact us.

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The Typical 2010 Top Small Company Workplace Award Applicant Company

Team Building Activity Tips — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 09:27:27 +0000

Yesterday and today I’ve been doing some serious number crunching to find trends in the employee engagement research Winning Workplaces does through our annual Top Small Company Workplaces recognition project – in this case, for the 2010 applicant pool that finished applying last month.

As a result, I can now tell you what a typical 2010 applicant firm looks like:

Privately held
S Corp
$0-10 million revenue in 2009
21-50 employees
In the Consulting industry
In California
In business for between 6 and 20 years (6-10 and 11-20 years, the largest segments in a range of years, have an equal number of applicants)

Benefits include:

Medical insurance – company pays 73% of an employee’s premium
401(k) retirement plan
Paid time off/vacation/holidays/personal time – for a one-year or longer-term employee, 24 days in a PTO plan

Stay tuned for more information soon on applicants’ top human capital strategies, which you can adapt for your organization. (Do you follow our blog? Add it to your feed reader today.)

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Nationally Recognised Corporate Events Company Relocates To Wollongong CBD

Team Building Activity Tips — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 23:40:24 +0000

Nationally Recognised Corporate Events Company Relocates To Wollongong CBD
From the beginning of February 2010 XL Events will be basing its National Head Office within the Wollongong CBD after relocating from the Gold Coast Qld. The office will manage team building events and staff which are held and located nationally from its new location.

Company Team Building: How to Choose the Right Team Building Event for your Company

Team Building Activity Tips — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 17:17:55 +0000

So the manager comes to you and says, “We need a company team building events for the annual meeting of the door. Can you some options for us?” Sounds easy, right? Until you look “team building event” in Google and 116,000,000 results. You’ll find everything from treasure hunts to cooking classes in the race car driving to the fighter pilots to classroom programs. And, of course, not everyone is counting on you to find a program that sucks. No pressure. There are some basic things about team building, it is necessary to understand the options that are appropriate for your group. Note that most of those programs business development team knows that teaching is not aware of sharing not part of the information I have about you. However, if you keep this information in mind, if you have a team event of the company, that every time a winner. First, it is necessary to find out what results you expect from this event. There are two types of teamwork, and is very easy, which is confusing, but understanding this fundamental principle of the most important key to select the right program. The most common form of team building program is the “shared experience” type of program. The main result of this type of team event is a fun experience, which builds camaraderie among participants. The second type of program is a “code switch” type of program. This is what some call the traditional team-building training programs and events in general, where information and skills development is crucial. Team very few organizations are experts in the construction of the two types of programs, but a good general rule is to be noted is that companies change the behavior of the programs tend to specialize, also pretty good experience programs common. However, companies tend to specialize in programs for shared experience, not so good dipped to deliver effective training programs. Again, this is a general rule, but can help determine if the team-building company that is being contracted to do a stellar job. Share the experience of Team Building Program shared experience of the team events must be added the more appropriate as a form of recreation, entertainment or other event planned. For example, if your group is having a convention or annual meeting and find a way to add some excitement and fun at the event, a kind shared experience of team building program is beautiful. They also function as a reward for his team to fulfill a goal or as an icebreaker for new equipment. Many companies use these types of events for interns or new members into an established group of welcome. In fact, virtually any type of fun activity is a common experience can provide, but the largest group is much more challenging it can be to get a consistent result. For example, if you have eight people in a team, you can just two fours and play golf together or go bowling. If, however, a group of 20 people playing golf together, it becomes more of a small group of combined experience in comparison with a team-building event, so you need an experienced facilitator, an event that encourages all stakeholders and have fun during the event for delivery. If you have 100 people or 1,000 people in his group, the complexity of the shared experience has soared. In this case, you should want to do your research carefully, because a miscarriage of justice or a moment’s lack of experience by the team owners could make your event shameful. Changing behavior change ProgramsBehavior team building programs are somewhat different. These events, sometimes called class schedules to work best in situations where the objectives of other outcomes such as the specific challenges of development in a team or group based on finding ways to improve efficiency and productivity. For example, if a group only gone through a merger, and the two cultures merged, or when a new target was set that is required to make changes in the organization or any other situation where we want to be something that our team differently than they would in the past. To change the behavior of team building programs require an experienced facilitator, because the ultimate goal of the event is actually build teamwork, communicate effectively, or efficiently work together. This type of behavior does not always manifest themselves when they leave their group or to each other in a competition of games against each other. Instead, you’re a team building company who want to specialize in assessing the causes of problems within the organization who can provide information and training and exercises to the participants want to work better together. One of the great myths about behavior change programs or style team building programs of the classrooms is that they are as entertaining as the case of shared experience. The reality is that people who do a very good learning program usually feel more a sense of accomplishment and the feeling that time is worth it. The key is to ensure that the contracting company to deliver its program is interactive and fun it is to deliver its program and that content is to appropriate the results you want. If these two things are true, then you will receive rave reviews from his team after the program. The big mistake, ensuring that your event BombsUnderstanding the two different types of construction equipment, this is what you want the most cautious. . . If you’ve seen a group that challenges the computer and run an event of shared experience to try to fix it, you probably do worse. For example, if you are sects within his group, which is an antagonist of other sects within their group to force and compete with each other, a team with other groups, guess what? Is likely to go back. However, if the experience of the camaraderie of a program of exchange of experience and still get the building team skills developed in a class program, I have good news. You can do both. What is a behavioral change program in the morning, and then use a more common experience of the afternoon, as a laboratory to use new skills in a controlled environment. Then you get the best of both worlds!

Staneart Doug is president and CEO of the Institute’s building the team organization President. He created a philanthropic team building, when he created the world famous Build-A-Bike (R), team event, with more than 120,000 people in training programs for construction equipment in the past two decades.

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Company Picnic – The Meth Minute 39

Team Building Activity Tips — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 05:16:51 +0000

It’s summer and the show is almost over, so we decided to throw a company picnic for all the Meth Minute 39 characters. It was meant to be a fun team building exercise, but, well… these are some really odd people who don’t really get along that well. You might say they are operating on…

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LAST WEEK to Apply for 2010 Top Small Company Workplaces

Team Building Activity Tips — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 13:32:47 +0000

I am looking at the countdown clock on our application website for 2010 Top Small Company Workplaces and currently small firms have 5 days, 11 hours, and 59 minutes to submit their application for contention this year (by midnight in your North American time zone).

The prize is worth the effort, which typically has taken applicants a day or two – and only a few hours if they’ve gathered the required information before applying online by first reviewing our sample application on our website.

Winners of the 2010 award will be featured in the June issue of Inc. Magazine, providing them with priceless exposure and allowing them to show pride for the innovative employee engagement and team building strategies that have helped them maintain high productivity and profitability in a tough economy.

As I’ve discussed in these three posts, there is also considerable value for ALL applicants through the process of applying – especially now as companies take a fresh look at the effectiveness of their people practices to make 2010 a year of strong growth.

Don’t miss out on this small business award opportunity. Apply today!

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Real estate company helps family find new Darien Home

Team Building Activity Tips — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 19:19:39 +0000

Real estate company helps family find new Darien Home
A family looking to move into a new house in Darien turned to New Canaan-based Karp Associates for help looking for a new home.

Majesco Entertainment Company Reports Fourth Quarter and Year-End Fiscal 2009 Financial Results

Team Building Activity Tips — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 21:34:30 +0000

Majesco Entertainment Company Reports Fourth Quarter and Year-End Fiscal 2009 Financial Results
EDISON, N.J., Jan.