Good Team Building

There are so many areas of business where industry can be a barrier to entry: access to credit or a loan, recruiting, partnerships.  Yet, industry is NOT a limiting factor when it comes to implementing progressive people practices that drive a productive workplace.

In other words, no leader of a company, small or large, should ever answer the question "How well do you engage employees?" with "Our industry isn't conducive to that."

For proof, check out the 16 distinct industries in which our 39 Top Small Company Workplace award finalists for 2010 are operating:

1. Advertising
2. Architecture/design
3. Business-to-business trade
4. Chemicals/pharmaceuticals/biotechnology
5. Computer systems and related services
6. Construction/Engineering
7. Consulting
8. Health and wellness services
9. Industrial Goods Manufacturing
10. Internet services/data processing and other information services
11. Natural Resources
12. Personal services
13. PR/Marketing
14. Retail Trade
15. Software
16. Travel/hospitality

The bottom line?  Chemicals is about as different from Travel as industries come, but even seemingly disparate firms are united by the common bond of stellar human capital strategies.  And guess what?  These strategies create another bond: steady sales growth and a clear path to achieving or maintaining profitability.

For more on our 2010 small biz award finalists, check out these posts:

• Patagonia Making a Triple Bottom Line Focus More Public
• How Our 2010 Small Biz Award Finalists Beat the Competition
• Map - The 2010 Top Small Company Workplace Award Finalists

Did you see Adam Bryant's interview with Container Store CEO Kip Tindell in Friday's New York Times?  Early on Bryant asked Tindell about his most important leadership lessons to create a thriving and productive workplace culture.  Here's what Tindell said:

The way we create a place where people do want to come to work is primarily through two key points.  One of our foundation principles is that leadership and communication are the same thing.  Communication is leadership.  So we believe in just relentlessly trying to communicate everything to every single employee at all times, and we’re very open.  We share everything.  We believe in complete transparency.  There’s never a reason, we believe, to keep the information from an employee, except for individual salaries.

There's a lot to absorb in the leader's answer when it comes to communications team building.  But it boils down to creating a culture of ownership and accountability that is based on mutual trust – workers' trust in the leadership to engage them and provide a nice place to work, and leaders' and managers' trust that a payoff of employee engagement is increased commitment, including offering more ideas to improve processes and ultimately customer satisfaction (and sales).

It is this foundation of trust that has allowed the Container Store to reach true midsize status, with over 4,000 employees, while expanding from 38 locations when I blogged about them in 2007 to 48 today (yes, during this recession).

Related: One of our most popular posts is this one that's also about transparency.

Winning Workplaces feels almost like a parent when it comes to Seventh Generation, the company of our Best Boss Jeffrey Hollender.

Hollender's environmentally responsible household products business had annual sales of less than $50 million when we honored him in 2006, at a time when SG's progressive people practices were not widely known; by June 2009, when he named his successor as CEO, that figure had grown to more than $1 billion.  SG recently started airing national TV spots, showing that they're definitely here to stay.

And that's a good thing when it comes to not only green consumerism but sustainable business practices.  Hollender has waxed on the latter topic for some time on his Inspired Protagonist blog.  Now's he's bringing his leading-edge thoughts to the masses through his new book The Responsibility Revolution: How the Next Generation of Businesses Will Win.

I just received an advance copy of the book and am looking forward to digging into it.  You can read the first chapter of it for FREE by visiting Hollender's website.

Related: The forward in The Responsibility Revolution is by Peter Senge, a highly respected author in the area of how to improve employee engagement and workplace team building.  We referenced Senge in the Executive Summary of our 2007 Top Small Workplaces Data Report – see page 5 of this pdf.

What is it about spring and a focus on women entrepreneurship?  Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining – I think discussing business leadership by the gender that is most dominant in our country, most employed as adults, and, according to BusinessWeek, does more with less venture capital is a good thing.

Last April I blogged about the "flurry of press on the topic of women in business," and a similar flurry seems to be going on now.  In addition to the BusinessWeek article I mentioned above, this has been a hot topic of Reuters, USA Today, and even the U.S. State Department.

Among this press is a call by In Good Company Workplaces – a workspace, networking, and training provider led by two women – for female entrepreneurs to share their workplace culture stories and tips.  Adelaide Lancaster and Amy Abrams are gathering this feedback for a new book they're working on.

In Good Company has gathered a few comments so far on their blog.  You can add yours by clicking here.

It will be interesting to read their book when it's out and hopefully see more real-world evidence of the payoff of employee engagement.

Related: This report by The Center for Women's Leadership, archived on our website, finds that entrepreneurial activity is highest among women who are also employed in a wage job.

We've had our short survey on the increasingly popular "Move Your Money" movement up for almost a month.  But as of this Friday, we need to close it so we can write our April IDEAS newsletter article on the results (subscribe to IDEAS here; it's free).

If you haven't taken the survey yet, please do so today:

Take the survey

As a thank-you for your participation, check out this new post on the Small Business CEO blog on what to look for when searching for a new bank to suit your business needs.  Note that in a highly transparent workplace culture, employee engagement can help you make your final decision.

If you have any comments on Move Your Money you'd like to share with your fellow readers, please do so below.

This week, once again, my e-mail inbox contained the disappointing results of a Gallup study that indicated that the Work Environment Index dropped to a new low in February. 

The Work Environment Index measures job satisfaction, the ability to use one's strengths at work, trust, and openness in the workplace, and how one's supervisor treats him or her.  The Work Environment score was 51.6 in February 2008; 48.7 in February 2009; and is now at 48.0 in February 2010. 

Why are these results so concerning?  Among other things, these scores say two things:

1. Quality of life is negatively impacted, and
2. Workforce effectiveness and workplace productivity aren't nearly where they could be. 

As a leader, do you want to make sure that these numbers don't apply to you?  Do you want a productive workplace with highly engaged employees and a culture of ownership?  If so, consider these actions: 

1. Take a hard look at your organization's culture.  What's the level of employee engagement?  Do your managers know how to manage and lead?  Do you sense a positive energetic organization or one that reflects fear and/or boredom? 
2. If you think there is an opportunity for improvement, get serious about it.  Start with doing an employee survey to better understand where you are doing things right and where you could improve.  If you are going to be serious about improving your workplace culture, don't guess.  Get the facts – directly from your team.
3. Once you have the facts, do something about them.  This is where the work gets hard.  Changing a culture, which means changing the way people behave, isn't easy.  Get outside help if you have to.  Be clear about your "end goal"; if you do this work successfully, what will your workplace culture look like in a couple years?  Develop a plan to get from where you are today to your end goal.  What are the key steps?  How will you measure your success?  How will you engage employees along the way?  How will you build trust, a foundational component of a great workplace? 

The workplace studies are yielding consistent results: there is a growing problem with job satisfaction and, in turn, productivity.  As a leader, do you want to be part of the solution or part of the problem?

If you were among the over 41 million people who watched the 82nd Academy Awards telecast last Sunday, you might have seen one of our 2010 Top Small Company Workplaces award finalists: outdoor clothing designer/distributor/retailer Patagonia.

During the program American Express ran an ad for their Members Project, a new partnership with social action network Takepart.com.  Here's the commercial if you missed it:

The ad features Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard, who according to their application for our award – and the company's own press materials – is still actively involved in the business he established almost 40 years ago.

This post on Patagonia's employee and customer blog explains the set piece in the ad, the Matilija Dam, and why removing it would be good for the planet and people (which, along with profit, make up the three pillars of the growing triple bottom line business movement).

Patagonia's work maintaining a strong triple bottom line is readily apparent.  On their website homepage, a vast Environmentalism section is given equal weight to revenue-friendlier sections such as Clothing & Gear and Product Information.

This perfect weave (pardon the pun) of company mission and like-minded employees and customers has kept business strong, even in a down economy.  I can't get into specifics, because our Top Small Company Workplaces media partner Inc. Magazine will share those with you in its June issue should Patagonia be named a winner for 2010.  But trust me that they're doing very well on the key business metrics you're concerned about in your own organization.

Watch for the June issue of Inc. on newsstands to read about this year's winning firms and their workplace culture improvement and team engagement activities, which you can adapt for your company.  You can also subscribe to Inc. and get the issue as soon as it comes out.

Close to 1 in 5 readers of this blog is from California – a greater share than from our home state of Illinois.  And of those, most hail from where I've called home since last July: SoCal.

I speak now to you folks – and others if you want to fly or drive in: You can connect with me on March 23 by registering for this LA Chamber event on green entrepreneurship.  "Going Green for California," part of Occidental Petroleum's Power Hour Series, features Huell Howser, host of California's Gold on PBS.

According to the LA Chamber, this session will highlight "what innovative and creative Californians are doing to solve environmental challenges."  The registration fee is only $20.  Learn more and register to attend here.

If you can make it, I look forward to seeing you there.  I'll have business cards in hand – though not too many for environmental reasons – and I'd love to hear about what you do and answer any questions you may have about our work to equip small organizations with proven people practices.

Related: This week Taiga Company (a fellow user of our bloging platform, Compendium) shared 6 reasons why going green is a payoff of employee engagement, and makes for a more winning workplace.

Photo credit: Huell Howser Productions

[I]f the current recession turns out to be very long and deep and a business finds it must take further action, the fact that sharing the pain was tried first makes the next steps more palatable for all stakeholders involved, especially employees.  For one thing, those who stay after one or more round of layoffs will be better equipped to mitigate the dreaded "survivor syndrome."

Our Founder and Chairman, Ken Lehman, gave this advice a little over a year ago in a Winning Workplaces editorial titled "Share the Pain."  Since then I've blogged when I've found others concerned with how to improve employee engagement endorse this same strategy.

Last week a major player, Fortune magazine, came out in support of sharing the pain – specifically, going above and beyond to provide the softest landing possible for those you've laid off.

In their article HR outsourcing provider CEO Burton Goldfield recounts how one of his clients invested only $5,000 for two, half-day-long workshops for a good portion of his workforce that he was forced to let go within the last 14 months.  The ROI on that money would seem to be well above 100%:

• 10 (60%) of the 17 participating employees had found new jobs just a few weeks after attending the company-sponsored workshops – helping to, as Goldfield says, "put food on the table for those who once slaved on your payroll."  This reflects our view that Winning Workplaces are better for employees and the greater society.
• This practice was also better for the business: Goldfield says his client told him that many of the remaining employees told the CFO how impressed they were that a company that small would take a step like that.  Guess what?  That's going to make it much more likely that they won't bail – even if the economy takes a bigger dip and more team sacrifices need to be made.  This means the CEO's investment of $5,000 can be worth many multiples in terms of the costs saved if they needed to recruit to replace less committed workers who would leave.  (The cost to replace an employee has been found to range from 50% to 150% of his/her salary.)

Have you needed to engage employees in sharing the pain in your firm during this recession?  If so, how did it help them and your business?

Time is money, and in a down economy you might as well double whatever you think your – and especially your stakeholders' – time is worth.

So I really appreciated freelance copywriter Denise McGill's 5 time-saving tips for small business owners that appear on Small Biz Survival.  These run the gamut from things you're likely already doing if you place a premium on communications team building (put your full contact info in all email signatures – automate this and you're done), to less-used but no less powerful tactics like deleting or archiving outdated electronic materials on your computer.

In the spirit of saving you time, I'll keep this post short and conclude by sharing two more related tips:

1. File under startups, legal considerations: employees = payroll service (thanks to Paula at Workplace Fairness).
2. File under work/life balance: outsource your more tedious household responsibilities.

Do you engage employees in discussions of saving everyone time and, thus, your company money?

Our tagline at Winning Workplaces is "better for people, better for business."  Lately we've taken to tacking on "better for society" to this, reflecting the focus of some of the double and even triple bottom line businesses we've honored over the years for their demonstration of the payoff of employee engagement practices.

A new blog post by small business new marketing guru Chris Brogan re-reminded me of this focus, in a small but powerful way.  In outlining his expectations for himself and his readers he might meet at the 2010 South By Southwest festival that starts tomorrow, Brogan made his case for limiting the distribution of business cards:

Unless you want to do business with me, don’t give me a business card.  We both know how to reach each other, so unless one of us asks for one, let’s not hand them out.  ...

Save a card.  Save the planet.  Rewire the way humans do business.

I think this is a great tip for individuals, and applied en masse it has the potential to help all three stakeholders I mentioned above:

• Employees – less materials to worry about in sales presentations, networking events, etc.  (As an aside, you can use technology – smart phones, laptops, PDAs – to store a contact's info if you really want it and are sans biz cards.)
• Businesses – printing fewer cards because employees hand out less of them can slim down your marketing budget.  On a larger scale, more money to play with can spur more effective strategy work to meet customer demands, which can mean more (wait for it) jobs!
• Society – fewer demands on printers means more trees!  And that's good for everyone because they absorb more of the CO2 caused by global warming and produce more oxygen.

My question for you: How do you engage employees to innovate how you communicate with customers and other stakeholders to cut costs while still achieving your goals?

Photo credit: ChrisBrogan.com

Yesterday after the Associated Press reported on the results of a San Diego State University study finding that Generation Y (or Millennials) highly value compensation and vacation time, some in the blogosphere asked if, especially in this economic environment, Gen Y needs a wake-up call.

I don't think so – and I'm not saying that because I'm a card-carrying Millennial.  As someone interested in progressive people practices for a more productive workplace, I look at these two sticking points as the carrot at the end of a very lucrative stick for businesses.

Here are my top 5 reasons why I think Gen Y is entitled to its job wants:

1. It's now the most dominant generation in the workforce.  When you rise to that position and make decisions that benefit companies in both front-line and managerial roles, you get to call the shots when it comes to "skin in the game."
2. As Donna Fenn reports from a number of sources in her book Upstarts!, not only are record numbers of Millennials enrolling in entrepreneurship/MBA programs, but a greater share of those students than ever before are coming in with a business already in tow.  IMO, if these young people invest the ridiculous amount of time it takes to create and nurture a thriving business – and help our economy in the process through taxes and job creation – they deserve these two rewards.
3. As Penelope Trunk pointed out in a blog post I cited last year, Gen Y more readily embraces a proven leadership approach known as "fast failure."  Since our employee engagement research shows this can greatly improve innovation and thus productivity and customer satisfaction, again, I think Millennials deserve some just rewards for significantly scaling up a company's revenue and giving them a greater shot at achieving or maintaining profitability.
4. As organizational development guru David Lee argued on ERE.net last month, Gen Y doesn't beat around the bush on satisfaction – if they're not, you won't see them because they'll have left.  The cost-effective flip side of this for businesses is that they're much less likely than other generations to be "what the Gallup Organization calls ROAD Warriors — Retired on Active Duty."
5. Finally, as The CEO of YOU author Marsha Petrie Sue wrote in the California Chronicle, "Gen Y won't retire – they will reinvent."  Aren't greater pay and more time off fair tradeoffs for more productive ideas coming back from breaks and a longer work life spent helping companies improve their sales and bottom line?

Do you agree or disagree with my assessment?  Why?

Yesterday I blogged about our announcement of our finalist organizations for the 2010 Top Small Company Workplace award, showing where these businesses are located across the U.S.

You may be wondering, OK, so what made these 39 firms stand out among the almost 500 that applied?

Our finalists stand out when it comes to their use of effective, progressive employee engagement best practices to drive improved business outcomes.

The two tables below spell this out in detail.  Here are some key best practices/benefits where the finalists stood head and shoulders above all applicants, on average...

...which helped them produce the following outcomes:

Metric/Outcome	2010 TSCW Applicants	2010 TSCW Finalists	Finalist Improvement
Percent profitable in 2009	91%	95%	4%
Average years in business	16 years	28 years	75%
Average employee turnover	19%	8%	138%
Average % open positions filled from within in 2009	22%	28%	27%
Average employee tenure	4 years	7 years	75%

So, yet another employee engagement research sample that shows the payoff of winning workplace engagement strategies.

Help a blogger out: Have you seen any new workplace research showing that better people practices bring better business results?  Let me know by commenting below.

The comments are coming in fast and furiously to Wally Bock's latest post on his Three Star Leadership Blog.  That's not surprising given his topic: first-line managers.

Bock cites a blog post by Tom Peters in which he goes so far as to call these managers a "peerless strategic opportunity" for innovation and growth.  Expanding Peters' case, Bock explicitly links nurturing these integral staff to more desirable outcomes in engagement, turnover, and, yes, profitability.

In addition to Bock's "boss's bottom line" that employee leadership development helps a company grow even as its key players do, he provides value in these three qualities to look for in first-line managers to assess their longer-term leadership potential:

• They talk to others about behavior and performance,
• They make decisions, and
• They enjoy helping others succeed.

I hope more leaders read the advice of Peters, Bock, and other respected authorities who are pointing to this pivotal cog in the machine of small business – and business in general – as one that can easily be improved, for the benefit of their bottom line, and ultimately everyone through the job growth more thriving enterprises create.

Related: We wrote an editorial a few years ago on the importance of new manager training to more robust (and productive) employee engagement and people practices, and it still holds up today.  Read it here.

Today Winning Workplaces announces the 39 finalists for our 2010 Top Small Company Workplace award, in partnership with Inc. Magazine.

We started our search in November 2009 for small and midsized organizations (750 or fewer employees) that engage employees and create a great workplace culture and, in turn, deliver improved business results.  Almost 500 firms completed our online application by the deadline in late January.

Our staff then pared these down to the 39 finalists that appear in the interactive map below.  Click on a marker to access a finalist's website, as well as to see when they were founded and their size and industry:

The next steps in the 2010 selection process include:

• Later this month our final panel of judges will choose this year's winners.
• These winners will be announced in the June 2010 issue of Inc. Magazine.
• The winners will be honored at Inc.'s conference in Denver on Oct. 27-29 (more info on this event coming soon).

If you know anyone interested in human capital strategies for a more productive workplace, I encourage you to share this post with them by using the button below.  Thanks!

Our former Top Small Workplaces judge Peter Cappelli, from the Wharton School's Center for Human Resources, was cited in a CNN article last week on lessons for U.S. bosses from their counterparts in India.

Cappelli provides a lot of good takeaways in the piece, based on his recent study of leaders and HR departments from close to 100 of India's biggest companies, but I think my favorite is:

A lot of U.S. companies in particular will say, 'We're not going to meet our quarterly numbers, so we've got to adjust everything in the pipeline to make sure we do.' That's a costly thing for the long term.

This falls under the Indian leadership lesson of taking the long view of growth and profitability – with average growth at a manageable 18% in 2009, it's a lesson our Top Small Workplaces share.  This strikes me as quite interesting, given that Cappelli's employee engagement research sample is the largest firms in India.

Other Indian leadership traits Cappelli advises American CEOs to embrace – which our Top Small Workplaces are already hip to – include:

• Have a social purpose
• Invest in employees through human capital strategies
• Trust your employees to tackle your biggest problems
• Act as "chief culture officer"

Related: We interviewed Cappelli when he came to our offices in 2008 to help determine that year's Top Small Workplace winners.  In the video below he shares some additional thoughts about a company can create a more productive workplace (click here if you can't see the video in your blog feed):

Today Winning Workplaces is formally announcing our partnership with a new, Chicago-based startup called Tix4Cause.

The brainchild of consumer products industry veteran Kevin Nemetz, Tix4Cause is the realization of Kevin's very cool idea: benefit charities of people's choosing with the up to 60% of season tickets that go unused, while at the same time getting those tickets to folks at fair market prices and providing ticket donors with a tax deduction.

Why is Winning Workplaces joining other charities on Tix4Cause's roster such as Heritage YMCA Group and Ronald McDonald House Charities of Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana?  Because we're a nonprofit and our mission to equip small and midsize businesses with proven, practical, and affordable team building and employee engagement activities is as needed as ever, as our president explained on her blog last week.

So let's connect the dots here:

• Your donation and/or purchase of event tickets through Tix4Cause...
• Helps support our fundraising efforts, which go toward...
• Three primary initiatives designed to help small organizations create a more productive workplace: our consulting and training services, our Top Small Company Workplaces recognition project, and our free employee engagement best practices information for company leaders and employees.

Here's our affiliate link to register (free) on Tix4Cause, after which you can donate your unwanted or unused tickets to our cause and purchase tickets for ours or other causes.  Thank you in advance for any help you can offer!

In my last post I mentioned the employee satisfaction level (45%) recently reported by The Conference Board and concluded by asking "whose fault is this anyway?"

When I've asked similar questions, I get a range of answers.  Some are adamant that it is the leader's fault.  Some say the employee should switch jobs if they are so dissatisfied.  Others can't come up with an answer.

Here's the answer: It is the leader's fault and the employee's fault.  In organizations with an effective workplace culture, all parties have a sense of ownership. 

In creating a culture of ownership and in turn a productive workplace, we often write about what leaders should do.  I'm going to look at the flip side of the coin and point out what leaders shouldn't do if they want to contribute to a culture of trust, employee engagement, or team building.

1. As your organization's leader, DON'T be so intensely focused on results that you forget people are your most important means of getting to those results.  A quick story: Years ago, during the first six months of becoming a CEO, I learned this the hard way.   I overused the phrase "I expect" and the majority of my interactions with my team were about what they were doing to deliver the numbers.  Thank goodness a combination of my own experience, an executive coach, and feedback from a couple people on my team helped me realize that the intense focus on results was backfiring.  Clearly, a productive workforce requires building engaged employees. 
2. DON'T ask for input and then ignore it.  This approach squashes open communication in the workplace.  This approach says "I don't care about your ideas or expertise."  Without communication and caring, building trust is unlikely. Guess what?  Poor communication + minimal trust = less than optimal results.
3. DON'T decide that you are going to launch an initiative (large or small) to improve employee engagement unless you plan to follow through.  Not surprisingly, this reinforces a perception that you as the leader really don't care about employees and you can't be counted upon to do what you say you will do.  And that goes back to one of my beginning points: In a great workplace, the culture of ownership contributes to results. 

This list of "don'ts" is endless.  Have you been on the receiving end of a don't?  As a leader, have you learned a valuable lesson from a don't?  Those of us at Winning Workplaces would love to hear your story.

We've long argued, in part based on our own employee engagement research, that empowering workers to make on-the-spot decisions and to contribute to the strategic direction of an organization provides benefits for employees (increases their job satisfaction) and for companies (typically greater customer satisfaction because issues are resolved sooner and at a lower level; as well as increased employee loyalty and drive).

Here are two new sources that support this argument, for your reading and learning pleasure:

1. A review of multiple studies by The Cochrane Collaboration found that giving employees control over their work schedule improves their stress levels, quality of sleep, mental health, and alertness.  (HR Morning)
2. "HR Bartender" Sharlyn Lauby defines 7 types of power in a workplace culture and uses these traits as the basis for an exercise to help you pinpoint how you influence action from others.  (Human Capital League)

Related: Need more proof of the impact of this leadership practice?  Read this firsthand account by an employee of a 2008 Top Small Workplace (identified as a finalist in the post based on the timing of that year's winners announcement) on how it's changed his impression of a productive workplace.

I'm all for outsourcing when it makes sense for a business leader.  In fact, this week I retweeted Adam Toren's suggestion that busy executives can save time by outsourcing some of their more tedious household responsibilities.

But I think that if employee engagement or the workplace culture could suffer, then don't do it.  Building trust in the workplace, IMO, should always be the top item on any CEO's to-do list.

So therefore I can't endorse Douglas R. Palmer's pitch on the Small Business CEO blog to outsource your finance department.  I have two thoughts here as to why (in addition to the line in the sand I laid out above):

• First, while Palmer's list of the pros of doing this does make business sense, one associated risk is the loss or accidental distribution of sensitive information.  Even if you've thoroughly researched your options and chosen a winning partner, that can still happen.  Would you take that chance with your company's balance sheet and salary info?
• Second and more importantly from a productivity standpoint, keeping this function in-house is one more piece of the intellectual capital pie that can benefit from leadership, if not team, involvement.  One of the themes of our Top Small Workplaces over the years has been their ability to anticipate marketplace changes, which especially helps them navigate tough times like these, in large part because their leaders engage employees by sharing financial information with them and teach them what it means, which spurs actionable ideas on creating efficiencies and optimizing revenue sources.  If they outsourced their financial component, this outcome would be difficult if not impossible to achieve.

Where do you stand here?