Although we consider ourselves extremely vocal when it comes to promoting the link between staff engagement activities and long-term company growth, Winning Workplaces is by no means the only organization shouting this from the soapbox.  Just last week, SJF Institute (with whom we’ve previously collaborated to produce content to help you improve your people practices) released a massive, 155-page report exploring this link in stunning detail.

While this report, Employees Matter: Maximizing Company Value Through Workforce Engagement, would be noteworthy in any case, we appreciate that over a third of the 24 companies profiled are Winning Workplaces honorees.  They include:

• Advanced Circuits
• Dancing Deer Baking Company
• Graniterock
• Namaste Solar
• New Belgium Brewing
• PrintingForLess.com
• Red Door Interactive
• SmartPak
• The Redwoods Group

Before delving into the full report, I recommend checking out page 3 of SJF’s 4-page Executive Summary of the report.  There you’ll find a breakdown of 10, Winning Workplaces-approved worker engagement strategies which fall under the areas of HR practices, culture formation, and broad-based involvement and ownership.

We congratulate SJF Institute for undertaking the research, writing, and production to make available this valuable report.

What are your takeaways from the report, or other thoughts on it?  Let us know in the comments.

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In April I mentioned that one of our small workplace honorees, Headsets.com CEO Mike Faith, would be speaking at our 2011 Leadership Conference with Inc. Magazine.  I’m getting ready to pack my bags for this jam-packed, three-day event, which will be held next week in Dallas, Texas.  Go here for more info.

I took a look at the updated agenda and I was happy to see that three of the just-announced winners of Winning Workplaces’ 2011 Top Small Company Workplaces award will be joining Mike’s panel for the session which – naturally – will address what it takes to be a small business that has an ultra productive workplace culture Provigil pharmacy of ownership and accountability.  Here are Mike’s co-panelists:

• Heather Leanne Nangle, Co-owner, Director of Marketing, Communications & Social Responsibility, Namaste Solar
• Mark Sammons, Ownership Thinking Coach, n-Link Corporation
• Tania Binder, Vice President of Global Sales, TRX

According to the conference program, these four experts on impactful people practices will help their fellow small businesses in attendance:

1. Ensure their companies are places where the best and brightest are clamoring to get hired,
2. Get their employees to buy in on a deep emotional level, and
3. Learn what they need to change in order to make a real commitment to grow and develop their talent.

Now I’m even more excited for the conference.  If you haven’t yet registered and you can make it to Dallas next week, go here to join me.  I’d love to meet you and learn what you do to attract, retain, and excite your workforce as a means for growing your business.  (Who knows, your story could appear here.)

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I am continually amazed by the huge increase in workplace team building, camaraderie, productivity, and ultimately profits that business leaders can enjoy Cheap Cialis by doing small, workplace culture-specific things for their employees. 

In an industry with historically among the highest turnover rates – hospitality – Winning Workplaces has reported on several restaurants that have grown competitive advantage largely by following this approach.  These include Emmett’s Tavern & Brewing Co. in Illinois and Union Square Hospitality Group in New York.

Without a doubt, Zingerman’s Community of Businesses in Michigan fits this bill (pun not intended even though we’re talking about restaurants).  From when we wrote our Profile of Success on the collective enterprise back in 2003, to 2010, CEO Ari Weinzweig managed to grow his seven Ann Arbor-based businesses 185%.  (Paula Gardner details their milestones and notes their revenue last year of $37 million on AnnArbor.com.)

As we covered here on our blog, Inc. Magazine included some of the employee engagement best practices Weinzweig uses as part of its recommended "ultimate business tune-up" tips list in an early 2009 issue.  As is the case with the other above-mentioned firms, at the end of the day practices like these are effective not just because they show leadership respects employees’ commitment, but because they’re inclusive and indicative of a well-thought-out, strategic company vision.

As it happens, Weinzweig will be speaking on how creating a vision of the company you want makes good business sense as part of our Leadership Conference with Inc. in Dallas, Texas, June 15-17, 2011.  Attendees will find value in learning about, and adapting for their organizations, his step-by-step guide to imagining – and then creating – success.

Go here to see the current and evolving agenda for this event.  Register at the early bird rate through May 6.

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When taking a group on one of these expeditions, one needs to ask what specific goals need to be achieved within the group. They may revolve around communication problems or problems with personality clashes. These can be resolved in a variety of ways dictated by the exercises they do.

Trust issues between members of a group may cause major problems and these can be difficult to solve. This is what makes this type of activity so appealing. You may find ways in which to solve these issues and have the group interact better on a daily basis and this is will benefit everyone.

Certain games may inspire trust among group members and these are the ones that you may be focusing on when it comes to these exercises. These games may range from catching and falling exercises to role playing games but the focus is the same between all of them.

You may want to contact a company that specializes in this field and inquire about their programs. They may be able to give you a range of information relating to what they offer. Once you have this information you can book for what may be a great experience.

This may be a great way to inspire trust, communication and bonding within any group. If you are having difficulty in your home or workplace then you may want to consider contacting one of these companies. They may be able to help you achieve these goals and help your group grow closer and interact better with each other.

When organising team building cheshire it is important to book things like meeting rooms Chester.

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Last March I shared a trend Winning Workplaces noticed when we reviewed a question we asked of our 2009 and 2010 Top Small Company Workplaces award applicants: Is the company founder Buy cheap online Provigil still active?  In both years we found that small businesses with active founders had noticeably higher 3-year revenue growth than those whose founders were not active.

With our 2011 application cycle having recently wrapped up, I updated last year’s table with this year’s growth percentages for each group:

The trend continues…but that’s not all.  As the chart below shows, the growth disparity between companies with active founders and those without them is widening.  While the gap from our 2009 to 2010 award applicants grew 33%, it nearly doubled from 2010 to 2011:

Not that you have to have an active founder to attain strong growth and profitability.  Still, if your founder is actively involved in your business, our data show that you may have a great opportunity to make better use of this person in terms of aligning employees and people practices with your mission and marketplace impact.

Related: Our website has lots of case studies on how small-company founders have used a variety of innovative staff engagement activities to take their organizations to the next level.  Check them out.

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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.

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It’s been a while since I’ve written a counterpoint to someone else’s thesis when it comes to anything touching leadership or employee development strategies.  I think my last one was this post in July arguing that imagination is not dead but alive and well.

Here I go again today.  Dharmesh Shah has a new guest post on his OnStartups blog by IDR Solutions CEO Mark Stephens.  In it, Stephens shares 7 reasons why you should work for a big company.  I actually agree with several of them, such as getting exposed to lots of clever people.  Yet, since Winning Workplaces is all about highlighting and maximizing performance in small firms, I thought it would be a worthwhile exercise to take and explore the other tack – 7 reasons to work for a small business:

1. You also learn a lot.  With their flat hierarchies and greater tendency for the executive team to be "on the floor" with all other levels of employees, in great small firms learning is central.
2. You can excel as a big fish in a smaller pond.  Stephens notes that you can become part of a large community, and that’s true – I’m not sure about his qualifier of "can," implying "optional"; if you’re hired at a big company, you are part of a big community whether you like it or not.  In the employee interviews we do for the due diligence phase of our annual small workplace award, the theme of low- and mid-level employees getting to work on big projects, earlier in their career than they might at a larger firm, pops up again and again.
3. Many small companies also have lots of perks.  I am always amazed by the number of companies in our network with fewer than 500 employees that either have an on-site gym, or give vouchers for local gym membership as part of their health and wellness benefits.  They also excel when it comes to paid time off and workplace flexibility – perks that I’ve seen rank higher for employees as the economy has impacted companies’ ability to keep pay and bonuses at pre-Great Recession levels.
4. You largely eschew office politics.  Again because of their flat organizational structure – not to mention the tendency of great small firms to heavily structure their hiring process for best results in bringing on people for workplace culture fit as well as raw talent, as we shared in detail in our people practices email this week – politics is much less of an issue.  This is a big advantage over large firms when you consider the implications of undue stress on worker productivity.
5. You have less time to reflect.  I read Stephens’ use of "reflect" as "sit idle at times", and that doesn’t appeal to me.  Nor do I think it appeals to most workers today, who are seeking tasks they Buy cheap Cialis Online can mark as completed for both their next performance review – to have measurable results to point to for promotions and salary increases, or to have ammo to stave off pay cuts in tougher times – and their resume to help their career long term.
6. More interaction with the community at lower levels in the organization.  Community-facing interactions are powerful for both promotions in the same company, and moves to new ones.  Small firms in our network including Phelps County Bank and Daphne Utilities excel at aligning community-facing objectives with their larger strategy, and giving low- and mid-level employees the opportunity to step up to tackle them, and gain experience on par with middle and senior managers.  It’s a win-win for everyone.
7. Greater voice when the chips are down.  If you’re a low- to mid-level worker in a big company, and the CEO says tough times have forced the firm to make some uncomfortable choices, what are the chances that you and your colleagues could have a frank discussion with the CEO that might change the definition of what those "uncomfortable choices" are?  If you work for a small firm, there’s a much greater chance that you’ll have a stake in the next steps – and the longer-term outcomes, which could mean the difference between staying on payroll or lining up for unemployment.  For reference among our honorees, see Corporate Ink and Bailard Inc.

What’s your reaction to this list?

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Last week I shared five management acronyms used by great workplaces that I thought should be on you radar screen.  One of our readers who enjoyed this post was Debbie Regnone.  Debbie is President of Resort Sports, Inc., a Florida company that creates custom events to "build camaraderie and team spirit."

She wrote us an email in response to our post in which she shared two more helpful management acronyms for a more productive workplace.  Here’s what she said:

 Here is one Cheap Cialis more that I would guess you have heard of, but worth re-posting:

TEAM

T – Together
E – Each
A – Accomplishes
M – More

Nothing could say it better!  In management, work teams, employee engagement, community service and our homes…if we could all just remember to apply this concept FLOW (Fearless Leaps of Worth – I just made that up!) would be exhibited as individuals stepped outside their comfort zones, in like-minded groups, to meet goals and complete tasks AS ONE rather than BY ONE.

Our thanks to Debbie for her permission to share her thoughts here for the benefit of all our readers.

Related: One of our most popular posts is this one on 20 proven workplace team building strategies.  You can go to this page on Debbie’s Resort Sports site for even more team oriented ideas, most of which will get your people out of doors.

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Winning Workplaces is excited to announce that our online application for our 2011 Top Small Company Workplaces award, with our partner Inc. Magazine, is now open.

Go here to apply; the link also contains information to learn a lot more about the award, including 2011 eligibility requirements, frequently asked questions, testimonials from 2010 applicants about the value of the process, the award timeline, and time-saving tips once you are in the application.

You can also get a sense of the prize for 2011 – we’ve got a link to this year’s issue of Inc. that featured the 2010 winners of this award.  The prize for 2011 is the same: winners will be featured in the magazine, on their website, and in a press release that’s distributed nationally next June.  They will get further coverage in radio and TV spots about the recognition – the publicity value of which, this year, totaled more than $20,000.

That’s the carrot at the end of the stick, but why "pick up the stick" in the first place?  In other words, why this award, and why now?

It helps fulfill our mission to shine a light on small yet high-performing organizations with productive workplace cultures – environments where team building and employee engagement best practices drive bottom-line results.  In our current economy especially, the extent to which these firms (which are the vast majority of all employers, according to the SBA) can use better people practices to improve results, helps everyone: employee, company, and communities and the overall economy!

Visit our application site today to see if your company qualifies to compete for the 2011 Top Small Company Workplaces award and coverage in Inc. Magazine.

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