After careful consideration, Winning Workplaces has concluded that it will not be carrying out the 2012 Top Small Company Workplaces competition with Inc. Magazine.  In 2010 and 2011 we collaborated with Inc. on this recognition project honoring small and midsize organizations that use exemplary employee engagement and team building strategies to create more productive workplace cultures.

We are taking a step back and retrenching over the next few months while we work to redefine our major activities that will lead us to sustainability for the next decade.

If you have any questions, please contact either Nuala Novak or Ken Lehman at info@winningworkplaces.org or via phone at 847-328-9798.  Thank you.

If your company needs or wants to do a better job of investing in your workplace to attract the best young talent, the 2011 Cisco Connected World Technology Report that the networking and communications giant released today is required reading.

An important global study of over 2,800 respondents who are college students as well as professionals in their 20s, Cisco found that the "new workplace currency" -- that by the way matters as much as or even more than salary -- includes:

• Open work environments,
• Accommodates and encourages social media usage,
• Communications and mobile device freedom, and
• Remote work options that both fit their lifestyle and foster innovation.

In light of this new research, I thought it would be helpful to pull together employee engagement strategies we've previously shared here that align with the "new workplace currency" productive workplace practice areas above that Cisco's report highlights.  So here goes:

• Open environments: Five CEOs Who Eschew Offices to Work Alongside Employees, and Why
• Social media in the workplace: Businesses Need to Apply Lessons from Alcohol Prohibition to Social Media Usage
• Device freedom: 4 Tips for Securing Your Mobile Workforce from Kroll Fraud Solutions
• Remote work arrangements: 10 Best Practices: Transitioning to Work at Home

Under these four areas, what best practices or lessons learned would you add?

Christopher Wallace is Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Amsterdam Printing, a leading provider of personalized promotional pens and other personalized items such as imprinted apparel and mugs and customized calendars. In the following guest post, he details how you can show appreciation as part of your employee engagement best practices to strengthen your workplace culture and improve business results.

Think back to the worst job you've ever had. Whether it involved greasy food, dirty hands, or unclogging sewage, chances are, you didn't feel worthwhile. There's a common denominator when it comes to feeling unsatisfied with your job, and it has everything to do with morale.

Even the grossest, seemingly unpleasant jobs can be alright when you feel appreciated for doing them.

Gratitude starts at the top. If you're the owner, manager, or supervisor, it's important to let your employees know when they've excelled at their job. A culture of 'thank you' will take a company much farther than one where employees harbor quiet resentment and distrust. If you're looking for genuine ways to thank your employees, consider these suggestions:

1. Give Them Something They Really Want

   Gifts don't have to be just for the holidays, and sometimes a thoughtful item can be more effective from a management standpoint than even a small bonus on a paycheck. Do you have a salesperson who is always excited about the office March Madness basketball pool? The next time he closes a deal, get him a pair of tickets to his team's next home game. Is everyone always raving about one employee's homemade lunches in the break room? Surprise your foodie employee with a gift card to that buzzed-about new restaurant.

   Gifts can be more than just a generic, obligatory thank you. Personalize your gratitude. Which brings us to tip two:

2. Get to Know Your Employees

   Years ago, on my second or third day of a new job, the company owner appeared at my desk and handed me two tickets to a new night club's grand opening. He said he'd be there and hoped I could come. Of course I made the effort, enjoying an open bar and free dinner, not to mention getting to know my new boss in a comfortable atmosphere.

   In the three years that I worked there, we also went fishing together and played golf. When the company took a downturn and a large chunk of the staff, including myself, had to be laid off, I knew it was an agonizing decision for him. Although we weren't 'friends' like I am with my college buddies, we understood each other and I knew he cared about helping me find a new job.

   It's important to know the people you work with. If you don't even know an employee's name, how can they believe it when you say 'thank you?' Learn the basics. Ask about their family and their hobbies. When a person knows you care about them, they'll work harder because they know you appreciate it.

3. Have Contests, but Don't Discriminate

   An employee of the month program can be a great motivator, but chances are, one or two 'teacher's pets' will end up always being the stand-outs. Have a 'once a year' policy for the winners if you go this route.

   For sales teams, goals and rewards are a great way to motivate. If your entire staff has a motivator beyond their usual commission to sell the most product in a period of time, you'll undoubtedly see higher sales figures than you would without the additional incentive.

4. Take Them Out On the Town

   Food is a universal currency. It's amazing how a treat in the break room can change your employees' day. Donuts and muffins are the easy go-to items in the morning, but consider being a little more thoughtful. Did a new BBQ restaurant just open down the street? Surprise everyone on Friday with a catered lunch. Did you have a particularly strong quarter? After-work happy hour (with the boss picking up the tab) is a huge morale booster, and it brings your staff closer together.

5. Set the Mood

   We can't get every employee a corner office with wall-to-wall windows, but a few small items can improve the aura of any workplace. First on the priority list? Plants. The simple presence of our living green counterparts seems to sooth the soul, especially in otherwise sterile, fluorescent-lit environments. If space allows, create a break room with comfortable seating and space to congregate. Finally, consider letting employees be casual in their dress. If clients don't come by the office, letting them know it's okay to take their shoes off at their desk can add to comfort levels. Casual Friday is always a plus. Taking any sort of initiative to increase worker comfort shows that you're thinking about their best interest and grateful for their hard work.

Everyone wants to feel appreciated, and a good business leader will recognize the value of happy employees. Let your staff know you're thankful for all they do, and the rewards will come back tenfold.

Related: To see these tips and others in use at an Ohio-based communications firm, click here.

Did you catch this rare bit of good news about the economy this week?  Reuters reported that based on increased consumer spending, U.S. gross domestic product grew at a 2.5% annual rate in the third quarter, up from a 1.3% in the second quarter.

If a strong or even stronger fourth quarter follows, will companies dip into their historic profits to hire in a manner that will be meaningful in terms of making a dent in the high unemployment rate in early 2012?  That's anyone's guess at this point, but what is known is that eventually -- as the recovery comes or continues to happen, depending on your perspective -- recruiting efforts will need to pick back up.

And, as leadership educator, executive coach, and speaker John Baldoni argues in his new column on BNET this week, companies need to cope presently with a workforce that, in large part, is and has been doing more with less.

He cites a new People Metrics report in making the case that employee engagement best practices matter because they enable workers to feel positive about their organization (the fact that their firm is still in business being a contributing factor in their engagement level).

What's more, as hiring picks up in tandem with an improving economy, it may make an even bigger impact on your current workforce.  Baldoni notes that in this scenario, employees know that their options have expanded, so the extent to which their employer's people practices make them feel integral to the team and chart a tangible path for their growth and development within the organization become "a critical factor in whether an employee stays or leaves."

As Winning Workplaces advised in an editorial on our website in July 2009 -- ironically at the same time that many economists later said we were out of the "Great Recession" -- businesses would do well for their long-term prospects if they purposefully shared the rewards of recovery with their workers as both an acknowledgement of their taking the hard journey with leadership, and as a means of encouraging continued commitment and camaraderie to maintain a productive workplace culture.

Next Step: Whether you are in a hiring mode now or waiting to do so based on how your sales forecast plays out and how the economy as a whole continues to perform, this guest post on our blog provides great tips to motivate your workers, including many that are cost effective.

Much of the high-level discussion about education in the U.S. lately has centered on whether or not the government (and ultimately taxpayers) should invest in hiring construction workers to fix our crumbling schools in many states.

This discussion has merit, of course, but maybe it is a big opportunity talk about not just what schools will look like after this kind of action, but how they will better serve students.  Specifically, I'm thinking of how educators as well as parents, companies, and the media can all make it more hip for kids to learn and use math and science.

The problem is that, as a major study of an increasing number of industrialized countries shows every three years, U.S. students rank poorly in math and science as well as reading.  But the opportunity is great: this new Seven Days article, titled "Seeking Geeks," provides a Vermont-focused peek at an increasing nationwide need for companies: qualified technical workers.

To the extent that companies can hire these workers among a pool of increasingly educated Americans, everyone benefits.  Companies may be more confident overall to hire, and more Americans working means both more disposable income to spend in our economy and a reduced drain on federal and state unemployment benefit funds.

Looking at the specific company need of technical workers, I did a quick review of the small firms we have profiled that are in the high tech/software/systems sector (organizations which, since 2003, have won our award focused on the payoff of employee engagement and workplace team building).  Of the 19 firms in this sector for which we've shared their successful people practices, 14 are still operating independently, four have been acquired, and one went out of business.  Of the 14 independent operators, 12 are currently hiring -- many for at least one technical role.

This, of course, doesn't even take into account the large number of our small workplace award winners in other sectors that are currently hiring for tech and other roles, several of which I tweeted about this week.

The government and the media periodically remind us of the importance of encouraging kids to learn their ABCs and 123s ("The More You Know," anyone?).  Because it is to their benefit as well as society's, I think more non-media companies should get in the game of making these reminders front and center.  After all, while there is talk that globalization and other factors have perhaps led some jobs away from the U.S. for good, the jobs I mentioned above are here -- and need filling -- now.

Image credit: Learning Technologies

Some of our past posts have stressed that it's a good idea for you to improve employee engagement and other people practices in your organization by adding a formal social media policy.  Reasons for taking this step include enhancing your ability to engage both existing and potential customers as well as promoting better cross-generational communication among your workforce and avoiding employee litigation.

But what does a comprehensive and effective social media policy look like?  Dr. Sarah Elaine Eaton of Eaton International Consulting shed a lot of light on this last week in a post for Social Media Today.  Based on her review of over 150 such policies for a wide range of firms, including both for- and not-for-profits, she shared 16 dimensions in a "lessons learned" context.

What I find especially noteworthy about a number of Eaton's policy considerations is how they align with the building blocks of a Winning Workplace.  For instance:

• "Encourage honesty and transparency" and "Respect others" promote Trust, Respect and Fairness
• "Encourage a conversational tone" and "Seek permission and ask for help" promote Open Communications and Learning and Development
• "Discourage disputes" promotes Teamwork and Involvement
• "Time allocation" promotes Work/Life Balance

As our research and that of others who study highly productive workplace cultures show, to the extent that companies can reinforce great-workplace characteristics in their policies and procedures, they tend to enjoy better business results as they inform, enrich, and empower their people.  Eaton's social media policy framework is one example of this phenomenon in action.

Related: We recently shared this video by social media marketing expert Laura Roeder on our Facebook page, in which she argues that you will best engage existing and potential customers (and convert that engagement to sales) by turning to current employees.  This approach, of course, hinges on having in place a useful social media policy.

The following is a guest post by Drake MacDonald.  Drake's brief experience in construction introduced him to the field's many shortcomings.  As an online writer and editor, he works to promote construction management education in the hopes of improving industry standards of communication and organization.

In the construction business, it is crucial for supervisors and employees to have a symbiotic relationship in order to build a healthy work culture.  However, in order to create such an environment, each construction management company must consider what can be done to develop a supportive workplace, how to inspire trust and leadership within the team, and how barriers that may inhibit productive transactions can be removed.  While this process sounds complicated, in actuality it is fairly easy to implement.  Simply utilizing the following ideas will allow you to establish a work environment that is not only healthy, but efficient and productive at every level.

The first step in creating a healthy work culture is for both employees and supervisors to be open to hearing and utilizing the ideas of any member of the construction team.  To ensure that all ideas are being heard, construction owners can encourage workers and supervisors to submit their ideas formally to the construction office.  Company owners should also encourage employees to share their ideas with their supervisors and other team members.

Secondly, although purpose is important to construction, it is also important that supervisors and employees utilize a process approach to managing each construction site.  When construction management is focused on process, team members are much more likely to meet the expected standards and complete each stage of construction with success.  Furthermore, the process approach allows construction work to be completed with greater efficiency and quality.

Thirdly, it is important that team members on the construction site have peer support and trust during the building process.  This can be facilitated by following through with all work orders and process standards.  Likewise, all members of the construction team should learn to cooperate and collaborate with each other on a day-to-day basis.  This means that each team member needs to be accountable for their work and must treat other members of the team with respect.  However, even with the most agreeable team, it’s inevitable that issues will arise that interfere with the construction process.  When such an instance occurs, it is crucial that the issue is addressed promptly with the entire team.

Ultimately if you incorporate collaborative behaviors, open communication, and a process approach into your construction company, you can easily build a healthy and profitable workplace culture.  Remember that construction teams can also focus on creating healthy work environments by utilizing economically green tools and materials that benefit the industry, workers, and clients.  With such a culture, construction safety is inevitable.  Furthermore, when you utilize these techniques, you can be confident that your team is giving their best.

Related: For even more employee engagement and team building strategies aimed at increasing job satisfaction and overall performance within the construction sector, click here.

I tweeted last week that, as the chief marketer for Winning Workplaces, I got tremendous value from the 2011 Nonprofit Social Network Benchmark Report.  The free report, sponsored by the Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN), Common Knowledge, and Blackbaud, examines both commercial social networks (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.) and customized (or house) social networks used by more than 11,000 professionals in nonprofit organizations of all sizes.

This report matters because, as it finds, while over 90% of nonprofits are present on at least one commercial social network -- because increasingly that's where their audience is, and social networks have incredible brand awareness and community-building potential -- close to 50% have no budget to run them, and 60% dedicate no more than one-fourth of a full-time employee to generating revenue through them.  For both marketing directors and chief executives looking for maximum ROI, this report offers over 30 pages of fresh, applicable data.

For example, running my own comparison of our social networking results against the survey sample -- which includes by nonprofit vertical as well as size -- in addition to revenue and ROI targets I got rich data on:

• Platform adoption, including new and emerging ones
• Budget
• Staffing
• Promotional strategies
• Membership and growth by site

One of my key takeaways from the report is that investing in your workplace to allocate at least two staff members to social network management and fundraising can really pay off.  (A related quote: "If you manage to dedicate the budget and staff to the task even a small charity can raise $100,000 or more on Facebook.")  This tells me the intersection of employee engagement, technology, and customer service will likely get a lot more scrutiny and become less "squishy" in the next few years.

Related: Looking for more fodder to improve your people practices and processes when it comes to your promotional efforts?  Earlier this year NTEN co-authored another nonprofit benchmarking report focused primarily on email marketing.  If you want to see how your message volume, click throughs, unsubscribe rates, and other metrics compare to their survey sample of 40, mostly "name" organizations, click here.

Talk about fulfilling a need!  Check out this from Newswise yesterday:

In Kentucky -- which ranks 49th among all states in Gallup's national index of well-being, has the 2nd highest prevalence of heart attacks in the country and the 5th highest prevalence of diabetes -- innovative solutions have become a business imperative.

A new research report, "Creating Healthy Organizations: Promising Practices in Kentucky," released today by the University of Kentucky's Institute for Workplace Innovation (iwin), hopes to provide organizations in Kentucky and beyond with new ways to improve employee health and well-being while also improving the bottom line.

While the report focuses on health and wellness related people practices in midsize and larger companies -- and not the smaller firms that Winning Workplaces hones in on -- its conclusion is the same as what we and others in the employee engagement research space have been saying: organizations provide a win for their bottom line by implementing these practices and achieving greater productivity while typically reducing their long-term health care costs, as well as a win for their workers because they become better physically able to tackle all their commitments outside of work.

This report, with its publisher and subject matter both based in Kentucky, immediately made me think of our 2008 Top Small Workplace award winner The Paducah Bank & Trust Company, based in the Kentucky city of the same name.  When the bank won our award, many of its competitors had lost 20-40% of their stock value due to the mortgage bubble beginning to burst.  Yet, Paducah Bank's stock value increased by 8.2% in 2007, and in 2008 earnings were up 24%.  The bank achieved this competitive advantage in part through benefits such as its employee wellness/fitness program, which includes the following components:

• Reduction in health club fees
• Financial incentive for visiting the gym
• Smoking cessation kits
• Flu shots
• On-site health screenings

Although Kentucky and other states are facing moderate to severe health care crises among their populations, I love that these types of intra-company, employee-centered initiatives have the power to turn those trends around while making American companies more competitive in the long run.

Related Articles:

• On this blog: Nine Organizational Activities for Wellness Coordinators and Their ROI
• On our website: Wellness Initiatives Are a Hip Way to Engage Employees, Save in Long-term Health Care Costs

A new employee turnover cost calculator provided by the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) and the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) currently has 28 "likes" on Facebook.  I'm writing this to spread the word about it so it gets a lot more, as it looks to provide high value to many businesses, especially small ones.

The calculator looks like a tax return, and it's pretty slick in terms of walking you through variables to plug in based on whether you want to determine turnover cost for salaried or hourly workers.  The form tells you both the cost per employee, and the total cost.

The introductory verbiage at the top of the form sets the stage for why you should take time out of your busy day to use this calculator to determine your costs (or to get a second opinion if you already track this internally): investing in your workplace in things like paid sick days (as CEPR mentions) among other benefits, as well as in employee leadership development initiatives pays for your business because often the cost of turnover is more than the cost of retention brought about by these and other people practices.

I'd love to read your thoughts about the CLASP-CEPR turnover calculator in the comments.  Do the totals come close to what you've seen in practice?

Related:

• Nick Churchill covered CLASP in an article on our website on the push for paid sick leave, and
• I mentioned CEPR in this post on California's paid family leave program.

• 12 Tips for Making Your Telework Arrangement Succeed
• Confessions of an Undercover Working Mom
• The ABCs of Workplace Flexibility

• They do a wide array of things ranging from leadership and supervision, to performance management and employee development, to compensation and benefits to maximize staff retention.
• To both retain as well as attract top quality talent, they also embrace flexible work arrangements and recognition programs in a big way.
• Notably, they rank ahead of 14% of the world's richest countries in paid annual leave (with the big benefits to companies being workers who are far less likely to be burned out, and thus are more productive and less prone to leaving).

• From 42 U.S. states and territories.
• Represent more than 27 industries.
• Range in age from 3 to 99 years old – 50% are 10 years old or younger.
• Have 4 to 443 employees – 73% have 100 or fewer employees.
• They're also small when it comes to annual revenue: in 2010 they ranged from $200,000 to $404 million – though 96% of them had revenue under $100 million.
• This point I think is especially important when considering Lowrey's claim that the bulk of small businesses aren't growing: our 2011 award applicants increased headcounts 22% from 2009 to 2010, going from 74 to 90 employees on average.

• An Innovative, Cost-Effective Advertising Strategy (Bonus: It Builds Goodwill)
• There's Strength in (Offbeat) Numbers

1. One of our 50 winners, TRX (health industry, based in California, 132 employees), shared with us in their award application that, to use people practices to improve organizational performance, they sent their Director of Education to several, week-long athletic training mentorships to learn best practices in running athletic education courses.  At these workshops she gained a better understanding of running an incubated business, management and team development, and industry standard benchmarks.  As a result of this investment TRX's Education business has thrived, especially internationally.
2. I also found a noteworthy account from one of our applicants, Starmount Life Insurance Company (insurance industry, based in Louisiana, 176 employees), that they submitted in answer to our question on employee leadership development training for new and existing managers and supervisors.  Starmount says a key priority is at their Team Leader level, the first level supervisory role in their organization.  Not only are they typically new to a leadership role, but they may encounter challenges shifting from a peer to supervisory relationship.  Team Leaders participate in a "Management Incubator" program which utilizes competency-based leadership assessments, experiential learning, leadership coaching, and development planning.  This program appears to have had a big impact on Starmount's success post Katrina and Rita: their relocation-related initial turnover quickly stabilized, in 2009 they broke ground on a new headquarters in Baton Rouge, and in 2010 they launched two new major product lines.

A key building block of a Winning Workplace is people practices supporting a focus on Teamwork & Involvement (more about the other 5 building blocks we believe in, and have seen in practice among the great small firms we've studied and recognized, here).

This involves team building strategies, of course, but it also relates to the extent that an organization acts as a means to empower its employees to improve the communities in which they live, and supports them during crises.  Our recent Success Story on Van Meter Industrial, a 2010 winner of our Top Small Company Workplace award, addressed this in detail related to the historic flood that hit its headquarters city – Cedar Rapids, Iowa – in 2008.

We've just weathered an even larger-scale natural disaster – Hurricane Irene, which devastated many East Coast states this past weekend.  True to form, many of the small businesses we've honored with both of our awards are offering assistance to individuals and businesses that were affected by it.  Here's a snapshot of what they're doing:

1-800-GOT-JUNK? (2005 Best Boss - Brian Scudamore)
As their business is based on junk removal, they're doing what they do best and clearing out flooded basements and storm debris.  Their call center and website have been slammed, and their northeastern U.S. franchise partners tell them that their schedules are packed.  Luckily, they work directly with insurance companies, so it takes some stress out of the process of mopping up after such a destructive storm.

Bersin & Associates (2011 Top Small Company Workplace)
Since many of their employees work remotely from the East Coast – they're based in California – they've helped them out in several ways: 1. Paying for one employee's monthly rent increase while they move into a new neighborhood 2. IT staff is helping people get their computers back up and running 3. Offered to help each employee financially with power outage issues.

Dealer.com (2010 Top Small Company Workplace)
This Burlington, Vermont-based firm shared on their Facebook page (which as over 2,200 fans) that much of Southern and Central Vermont has been hit hard and is in desperate need of help.  They also shared a link to a blog that's been set up to help Vermonters assist their fellow citizens.

Dyn Inc. (2011 Top Small Company Workplace)
Tom Daly, President and CTO of this Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) company, provided a checklist on their blog to help ensure that company data centers are prepared for major weather events.  They then shared this on their Facebook page, which has over 4,700 fans.

Firespring (2011 Top Small Company Workplace)
Following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Firespring, a comprehensive marketing solutions provider, instituted a policy allowing any client to essentially "freeze" their account and suspend payments until they were able to get back to business as usual.  Yet, by their own admission, they failed to recognize that many clients were utilizing their online file transfer and job submission utilities that automatically purged old data.  Since many of their clients went without power for several months, they lost valuable data when Firespring's system did its job.  When Hurricane Irene hit last week, it affected hundreds of their clients.  For the past several days, they have been closely analyzing data to ensure that all of them are still able to access their files and are actively engaged using their other web tools.  They were prepared this time.  Their support staff is also reaching out to clients to see if there is anything else they can do to help them.

Northeast Delta Dental (2005 Best Boss - Tom Raffio)
This dental insurance provider has invited employees and their families without electricity to use their facilities, and they are prepared to initiate fundraisers through their Helping Hands program as they learn about employees whose homes were damaged.  They have also activated their ListServ capabilities for their board members, resulting in an exchange of offers to help one another within the tri-states, which has proven immeasurable for their colleagues in Vermont who experienced extremely high flood waters and washed out roadways eliminating access to even basic services.

One Call Now (2011 Top Small Company Workplace)
This Ohio-based enterprise, which delivers automated phone messages to improve communication between and among organizations, has emailed their customers in the states affected by the hurricane. They offered them free upgrades to their existing service, ranging from free texting for 30 days free weather alerts until November 1, when hurricane season is over.  In addition, organizations who coordinate relief for the affected areas can get free call credits added to their accounts to help with their work.

Seventh Generation (2006 Best Boss - Jeffrey Hollender)
The marketer of environmentally responsible household products is donating some of them to make 1200 green cleaning kits for hurricane victims.  They've partnered with the Vermont Foodbank to build and deliver the kits to communities most in need. And they shared news of this on their Facebook page, which has over 260,000 fans.

Next Step: Review the above examples – is there anything you can do or adapt from them to provide better value to your employees, customers, or local communities/states?  (Or get set to do for a future disaster affecting your area?)  And how can employee engagement be a catalyst, or improved, through these efforts?