You have probably heard of these employee engagement themed stories by now: Both former JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater and a woman named Jenny are being called workplace heroes on the Internet for the spectacular ways they departed their employers in the face of on-the-job adversity.

They both tapped into the frustration felt by at least 55% of the workforce who are unsatisfied with their current jobs, many of whom no doubt fantasize about doing exactly what these two ex-employees did.  (However, hat tip to executive coach Scott Eblin for noticing that the experience of "Jenny" turned out to be a hoax.)

Yet, there's a lesson in these two stories for employers, as Lauren Moak at the Delaware Employment Law Blog – one of my recommended small business/entrepreneurship blogs – explains fabulously:

While these stories are endlessly entertaining to the on-line community, no employer wants to be on the receiving end of this type of publicity.  So treat your employees well, and minimize the incentive for them to quit with a flourish.

So, how best to use team building to keep employees engaged to avoid one or more high-profile exits?  Here's a selected list of our webinars – featuring CEOs of small businesses that excel at this – to point you in the right direction:

• Engaging Fresh, Young Talent in the Workplace
• Wired to Care: How Companies Prosper When They Create Widespread Empathy
• Fostering Trust Within the Workplace
• Growing Leaders from Within

The business justification for employee engagement focused on their continued, on-the-job learning is easy to understand.  It's a win for employees who increase their skills and become more marketable in their careers; and the company wins because their talent has a greater ability to perform at top levels and to innovate, and it's less of a risk and more of an opportunity to promote from within (saving money on recruiting from outside).

Yet, there are myriad options when it comes to educational employee development strategies.  Where should a small business start?  Maybe a more important question is: Considering each investment in this economy needs to generate several times its amount back in returns, what learning initiatives are most effective for small firms?

Luckily, Winning Workplaces has some real-world answers to these questions to share with you to help you decide how to invest when it comes to this important area of human capital strategies.  Our 2010 Top Small Company Workplaces award application asked applicant companies to give an example of a learning initiative they found to be particularly effective.  Here's how our 20 winners this year responded:

1. A Yard & A Half Landscaping: We spend the equivalent of 1-2 weeks per year offering paid training days for field employees.  Because of the democratic educational setting, by the end of the day, people were helping each other across work crews, and on two occasions, younger employees stepped in to coach crew leaders on machinery that was still unfamiliar to them.
2. All4: For our staff that are in the beginning of their careers and are developing their core consulting and technical skills, we have developed a skills matrix which allows them to know exactly what metrics must be met in order to be promoted to the next position. 
3. Alternative Solutions HomeCare: One interesting program ASH put into place in 2009 was the Dream Manager Program.  Tackling head-on the growing problem of employee disengagement, the program explores the dynamic collaboration that is unleashed when people work together to achieve company objectives and personal dreams.  We had so much positive reaction to this program that we will be continuing it in 2010.
4. Biomark: A couple of years ago we did a several-day team building training.  The effect is that when we employ an idea or theory from this training in our everyday work environment, everyone knows what we are trying to accomplish and is engaged in the process.  This has paid dividends in workplace happiness, turnover, and job performance.
5. Chroma Technology Corp: A few years ago Chroma underwent a full company Lean Manufacturing initiative.  Every employee attended a 2-day workshop and seminar about the fundamentals of Lean Manufacturing.  In addition, 25% of the company was directly involved in two different Lean Mapping and Value Stream courses and projects.  This resulted in $1 million material savings in the first year.
6. Daphne Utilities: We include a large number of our employees in public events involving interaction with our customers.  Here, they work side by side with upper management in events like street festivals and charity fundraisers.  This helps them hear the message being put out from the highest levels, allows top management to get to know each employee a little better, and helps to motivate our workers to take public pride in their work and their company.
7. Dealer.com: We launched uFuel in 2009, a customized online learning management system that was implemented over a 14-month period.  uFuel contains interactive simulations, measures success and knowledge gaps, and creates training programs for areas of improvement.  This learning initiative has been extremely effective at keeping all employees at the leading edge of online marketing best practices and ensuring consistent service for clients.
8. Dixon Schwabl: Our employee development includes an initiative launched by our CEO in 1998 to enhance overall employee communications and allow employees to appreciate each other's differences.  Based on Myers Briggs indicators, it helps frame leadership development, coaching, internal training opportunities, and cross-training.
9. Ginger Bay Salon & Spa: Beginning in 2008 and throughout 2009, we spent significant time with our leadership team opening our books and helping employees understand our financial statements and review our financial performance.  We believe that Open Book Management is likely the main reason that we were able to post results that were not only stronger than our competition, but reflect growth in all areas of our business.
10. MAYA Design: Teaching – many of our employees teach at local universities and we find that allowing this as a paid benefit helps employees learn more about their jobs, how to manage and work with others, and better communication skills.
11. NY Jets: In 2008, the Jets embarked on a first of its kind management development initiative entitled "Take It or Lead It".  Both Business and Football managers partcipated in the sessions.  When this program started, the Jets were in the planning stages of our relocation from Long Island to New Jersey.  HR was able to add in a special section on managing change that prepared mangers for the huge changes employees faced with our relocation.
12. Optimax Systems: The implementation of Job Instruction Training which ensures direction provided from internal trainers is consistent and measurable for effectiveness.  This has allowed us to make sure that people "get it" when instructed on a specific task.
13. Patagonia: Our Employee Development Program temporarily assigns employees to other positions in circumstances where an employee may be out on an extended leave (e.g., maternity leave, an environmental internship, etc.).  Employees participating in this program attain new job skills, have the opportunity to meet more people in the Patagonia community at a new location, and significantly ease the transition back to work for the employee they've replaced.
14. PortionPac Chemical Corp: For 22 years we have held a "Front to Back Day".  Management, office and sales staff spend the day working in the factory.  The "Front" staff gains an appreciation for the skills, talent and physical work that go into making PortionPac, while the factory staff are able to showcase their accomplishments and the attention to detail that goes into making each Pac perfect.  The event fosters communication and suggestions that go back and forth as to how our products can be made better and how the "Front" staff can make life easier for the "Back".
15. Red Door Interactive: We believe that promoting opportunity to change your role at Red Door has prevented talented employees from leaving the company to pursue interests and additional responsibility elsewhere.  Emergent practice areas such as social media and search marketing now comprise over 30% of our total service revenue, and those practice areas are led by people who identified new opportunities and invested in becoming experts by playing to their strengths.
16. Return Path: Most recently our CEO developed and delivered an "Effective Presentations" course.  Content is broken down into small, easily absorbed chunks and reinforced to create a solid foundation that is common for all new hires.  This builds not only a shared vocabulary in our unique business, it builds a shared context.
17. Tarlton Corporation: Our most innovative training program is called Increasing Human Effectives (IHE).  The philosophy behind this training is to help our employees grow personally through this process, which will allow growth professionally.  If they believe in themselves, anything is possible!  Happy employees are productive employees.
18. Tasty Catering: We have 11 advisors/consultants that work with our teams.  Advisors are in the following areas: Banker, Financial, CPA, HR, PR, Marketing, Legal (one for the company and one for the shareholders), IT, Culinary, Dietician and Sales.  The staff benefits by receiving advice from a recognized expert in the field who has larger and smaller clients.
19. The Sky Factory: To further our understanding and experience of the creative process as it applies to our daily work and to the building of the company, we prepared an all-company course with an art historian.  After viewing hundreds of art images and engaging in extensive dialogue it became evident that the process of building a company can (and should) be the same as that of creating a beautiful and lasting work of art.  This notion became practical when a designer aptly observed the skill of a production worker's multiple LED solders.  The fine quality of his work was especially significant because of a recent multi-million dollar fire caused by sloppy work from a competitor's LED system.
20. Van Meter Industrial: One effective learning initiative in our organization is our Foundations training program.  New employees attend this day-and-a-half course near their 90-day milestone anniversary with our company.  Feedback from employees has shown this is fun, interactive, and important training that provides a true insight to our culture, gives the basis for understanding what is important to our company, and sets the tone for who we are and what we represent.

Related: Dive even further into learning activities that will benefit your workplace culture, and your bottom line, by reading our Success Story on ShoreBank.

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

Amy Bermar, Founder and President of our 2007 Top Small Workplace Corporate Ink, a Massachusetts-based PR firm, has a thoughtful new post on her company blog.  It's the first of three posts she's contributing to PR Week's Insider Blog.

In it, she argues that when customers or clients leave, leaders' easiest justifications for this include executive transition, inferior marketing, competitive mergers, and not enough control over sales.  But ultimately, Bermar writes,

The simple answer is that any time a client cuts back – even if they keep you – it's because you're not delivering the kind of results that put that question off-limits.

Why do some (certainly not all) leaders find it hard to go to this reason for customer churn first?  After all, in terms of the effort and energy leaders and managers expend on employee engagement, when it's clear someone is not producing the results needed by the company, the first reaction is often to terminate that person.  (In fact, "firing fast" is a cost-saving best practice of our award-winning small firms.)

So instead of grasping at straws and perhaps wasting more time and money by getting into the minutia of the relationship of a customer or client who's defected, consider your organization's value proposition.

Related: Bermar writes from experience in her post.  We shared in our Success Story on Corporate Ink how frank and honest communications team building helped her firm weather a particularly tough industry downturn a few years ago – and emerge stronger for the experience.

Photo credit: Corporateinklings blog

Based on the trends Winning Workplaces sees from our Top Small Company Workplaces employee engagement research, we have shared success stories of small firms that have become more innovative and grown their sales as a result of making decisions by consensus.  One such firm that has benefitted from this approach is California-based ATA Engineering, which, as we shared in one of our Executive Learning Series webinars, saw revenue growth of 36% from 2005-2007 largely as a result of consensus-based decision making.

But ATA has fewer than 100 employees.  A new article on the Knowledge@Wharton site suggests that the most effective form of decision making in firms that rival the size of Amazon or Facebook – those that tend to have the biggest impact on both consumer and industry trends – is leader-led, with some input on the front end by the most qualified employees on the team.  In these and even midsize organizations, the Wharton School writes, "group-think" can serve only to clog the innovation pipeline.

Is size, in fact, the enemy of consensus decision making?  I would love to read your answer to this question.

Related: For more food for thought here, especially from a workplace team building standpoint, read this post.

Photo credit: An Educationist's Weblog

What business are you really in?  This question pops up time and time again to spur our leadership thinking.  In fact, do as I did today and Google the above question in quotes – you'll come up with over 32,000 results.  That shows its perennial relevance.

Put another way, who are your real customers?  Is it people and organizations in the marketplace that has a need for what you offer?  Or is it a group of stakeholders closer to home?

Winning Workplaces Best Boss Mike Faith, President and CEO of top headsets retailer Headsets.com, coined the phrase "Customer Love," so his real customers must be those who need quality headsets, right?  Not if you ask Mike.  As he shared in a panel session at our 2007 annual conference, what matters most to him is his employees' livelihoods – their ability to continue to put food on their tables, pay their mortgages, educate themselves and their children, and pursue their personal interests.

Customer Love is a means to that end, the real reason he's in business.  If you read our Success Story on Headsets.com, you'll find a lot more of our coverage devoted to workplace team building practices inside his organization than on outward practices that underscore Customer Love.

Other, even much larger companies are making this distinction – and in some cases doing so quite publicly.  Summarizing the London Times' weekend inteview with the CEO of Indian IT firm HCL Technologies, Vineet Nayar, SmartBrief on Leadership frames Nayar as unabashedly calling for other companies to "Put employees before customers."  (A requirement of this, SmartBrief notes, is managers maintaining a laser focus on employee engagement and satisfaction.)

While I don't think there's one right answer to the above questions – CEOs in firms in divergent industries are going to feel differently – I do think it's worth noting that even in these tough times where every new customer is almost worth his or her weight in gold, we continue to hear from leaders in our network that finding and keeping the right people is a top priority, followed closely by a desire to do what they can to keep their communities vibrant and healthy.

To what extent are you in business to serve your employees?  I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.

Image credit: BT Internet Rangers

Have you seen this ad on TV?

According to their website, Think Beyond the Label is a partnership of health and human service and employment agencies that have come together to build a uniform, national infrastructure and approach that connects businesses to qualified candidates with disabilities.  It's an effort of Health & Disability Advocates (HDA), a national nonprofit organization based in our hometown of Chicago.

Think Beyond the Label's site contains success stories that demonstrate how employee development strategies and workplace team building around hiring and retaining workers with disabilities has "evolved the workforce for the better" in a number of businesses.  The site also contains a tool to identify job candidates by state and a section that debunks common employer myths related to disabled workers, as compiled by the Department of Labor.

Related: I have blogged several times on why it makes sense, from a bottom line perspective as well as in terms of building trust in the workplace, to seek out qualified disabled job candidates.  Check out our posts on the topic:

• Taking the 'Dis' Out of Disability When It Comes to Recruiting and Employee Engagement
• More Evidence: The Value of Hiring People with Disabilities
• Cost to Accommodate Workers with Disabilities: Less Than 10 Percent of Average Annual Tuition Reimbursement

Winning Workplaces is not alone in serving as a source of workplace culture best practice information on employee engagement and team building.  In fact, the organization of one of our Best Boss award winners, St. Louis Staffing, echoes many of the best ROI practices we share.

I was reminded of this from an email the Missouri-based professional services firm sent me yesterday.  It pointed me to this column on their website on techniques to become an expert business speaker – something I think even seasoned leaders with decades of C-level experience at one or more companies can improve upon.

This, in turn, prompted me to take a step back and read similar articles that appear on St. Louis Staffing's website homepage.  They also address employee referrals, how HR departments can show their worth (a growing concern in HR circles), and why leaders should take a step back and consider the long-term impact of excessive layoffs.  (We have been a strong advocate, especially, of the latter point.)

So, leaders, the next time you're burning the midnight oil after all your people have left for the day and are looking for practical, road-tested employee retention tips – or even just some good inspiration – pay this website a visit.  (And if you're located anywhere in the Midwest – especially if you're a manufacturer, distributor, or service provider – St. Louis Staffing can also provide direct assistance on the talent front.)

Related: We named their President, Keith Jacob, as a Best Boss in 2006.  Read about what makes his firm a Winning Workplaces in our Success Story on it.

We're getting closer to revealing the winners of Winning Workplaces' 2010 Top Small Company Workplaces award.  Or should I say, our media partner, Inc. Magazine, is getting closer to unveiling them.

I heard this week that Inc. is putting the finishing touches on its June 2010 issue.  It will arrive in subscribers' mailboxes on June 5, and will be on newsstands by June 8.  When it comes to learning about top-notch employee engagement and team building strategies for a more profitable and productive workplace – especially in small to midsize organizations – you will definitely want to look for this informative issue and cover story.

Inc. will go into more depth on this, but I wanted to provide you with some value now and share the top 10 practices used by our 40 finalist companies for 2010 when it comes to structuring and administering performance bonuses.  The data on this was captured in Q4 2009 and Q1 2010 so it's timely and actionable for your organization.

Here's the list:

1. Managers receive 1% of the value of sales they generate and manage.  Non-management employees are eligible for quarterly performance bonuses based on their demonstration of the company's core values.
2. Performance bonuses are a fixed percent of the employees' salary.  Employees also have an additional bonus linked to achieving team goals.  The management team also receives profit sharing, a percentage of the company's profit.
3. Distribution of bonuses on a semi-annual basis.  Bonuses are based on two components: company financial performance and individual performance.  "On-the-spot" bonuses are also randomly distributed to employees for work that goes above and beyond the call of duty.
4. Every employee is eligible for an Employee Performance Standard bonus which pays out at 10% of an employee's annual wage at the "very good" performance ranking and 15% of annual wage for "outstanding" performance based upon measurable criteria.  If the company's profit performance is over budget the employees' percentage is increased by the same % that the company's performance is over budget.
5. Distribution of an annual bonus that represents a minimum of 20% of the company's profits.  Half of this bonus is distributed mechanically, based on tenure with the company.  The other half is distributed by the executive team based on performance.
6. Stock Bonus: Awarded at the discretion of management to selected employees who live the company purpose and core values, drive outstanding success through their leadership or entrepreneurial efforts, and have a commitment to long-term ownership of company stock.
7. Board of Directors determines annual profit sharing and number of stock shares to be issued to each employee.  Amount is the same for each eligible employee with 1+ year of service, regardless of position or salary.
8. Individual pay raises are decided at the lowest level possible (supervisor).  This is done by increasing the total labor budget for a department and allowing the supervisor to distribute this money in any justifiable way to reward prior-year accomplishments.  Detailed feedback and evaluations are regularly prepared so that no aspect of the employee's evaluation or corresponding pay raise is a surprise.
9. For Business Development positions, performance bonuses are treated as sales commissions.  Bonuses are based on contribution, job level and the company's financial results.
10. All full-time employees participate in a quarterly bonus program.  Everyone, from hourly workers to the CEO, works toward the same revenue target.  Bonus payouts begin as soon as 80% of the target is reached.  There is no upper limit to the bonus.  Results are discussed at all-hands meetings that are led by the CEO.

As you would expect, performance bonuses are an extremely popular way for companies to engage employees and encourage them to put forth their best effort: 90%, or 36 of our 40 finalists for 2010, use some kind of performance bonus program.

Related Posts:

• Two Employee Development Strategies from a 2010 Top Small Company Workplaces Applicant Firm
• 18 Benefits for Childless Employees
• Respecting Employees Improves Business Results
• 18 Flexible Work Practices of the 2010 Top Small Company Workplace Award Applicants
• How Our 2010 Small Biz Award Finalists Beat the Competition
• Revenue and Profitability Trends for 30 Industries

Citing several studies which show that, at least in Australia, working men use little if any paternity leave after their child is born, Management Line's Leon Gettler asked today if we even need paternity leave.

When it comes to employee engagement and team building activities to build a more productive workplace, I must offer a counterpoint view and say, Yes.  Here's why:

1. It lowers turnover among male employees, as has been the case at our Success Story firm Tom's of Maine.
2. It empowers employees, increasing their respect for and commitment to the company.  See our Success Story on Stellar Solutions.
3. It helps companies walk the talk of their dedication to the greater community.  Read how this works in our Success Story on Healthwise.

I think the takeaway here is that, while some studies may show that paternity leave is an underused benefit, its inclusion in a company's employee benefits package shows both new and current employees that their employer takes their work/life balance as seriously as they do.  This show (and investment) of good will has a ROI regardless of the practice's actual usage in the form of greater employee trust and commitment, which leads to lower turnover and longer tenures.

This, in turn, helps keep recruiting costs down and the knowledge base intact to maintain high service levels for customers.  And as we know, top-notch service that leaves more customers highly satisfied results in more repeat business and referrals – primary revenue drivers.

Related: Another organization in our network, Top Small Workplace Guerra DeBerry Coody (GDC), has benefited handsomely from its investment in family-friendly workplace practices including paternity leave.  Learn about GDC's ROI from these practices and tips on implementing or tweaking them in your business by accessing this webinar their CEO co-hosted for Winning Workplaces.

Photo credit: PregnancyRights.com

Like anyone, entrepreneurs can lie – to their friends and family, and certainly to their employees.  But Harvard Business Review asked last week, is it in business leaders' best interest to twist or outright ignore the truth when it comes to employee engagement for a most productive workplace?

"I don't have the right answers," Babson College management professor Daniel J. Isenberg writes on the HBR website, "but I do know that entrepreneurial lying (whether we call it marketing or raising capital or negotiating or selling the vision) is more prevalent than we care to admit."

Not only do I think Isenberg is right, but I would argue that the weakened economy over the past few years has been a major contributing factor here.  However, not every entrepreneur is guilty of lying to his or her employees.  Valuing the Winning Workplace building blocks of Trust, Respect & Fairness and Open Communications, on the whole leaders of our award-winning small organizations opt for the truth when presented between that choice and being misleading.

In the majority of these firms, the practice of open-book management (OBM) goes hand in hand with truth telling, since by nature it involves showing employees what the numbers look like (except salaries, in most cases).  OBM helped our Best Boss David Pierce be brutally honest about where his firm, ENA, was and what he needed his people to do to overcome a potentially devastating obstacle shortly after he assumed leadership of it in 2002.  You can read more about how truth telling helped ENA rebound in our Success Story on the company.

But with the right workplace culture in place, any firm – OBM or not – can benefit from a leader who tells his or her people the truth, in both good and especially in tough times.  Our 2007 Top Small Workplace Corporate Ink bears this out.  We explained in our Success Story on the business, which does not use OBM, how Founder and President Amy Bermar was able to see a substantial ROI – nothing less than the survival of her PR firm – after she was truthful with her employees that they either had to let someone go or take a collective pay cut.  The team chose the latter, and it was the right decision because when business improved a short time later, Bermar had her talent in place to tap for new client engagements.

Where do you stand on business leaders lying to their employees?  Do you think a gray area of truth-bending is OK?  And what effect do you think this has on workforce effectiveness?

As I usually do, I enjoyed Becky McCray's latest post today on Small Biz Survival.  She recounts how her parents cut and sold firewood to get through a tough winter for their trucking business.  It was a risk, but turned out to be a great move:

The firewood sales helped to keep our family and the business going through the winter.  The trucking business became a success, the first of many for my parents.

The lesson here, Becky says, is that as entrepreneurs, her parents lived their "whatever it takes" values.  Clearly, some large firms – especially recipients of TARP funds – could learn from this.  Would the Move Your Money movement, for example, be so successful if Citigroup and Bank of America had done "whatever it takes" and cut executive pay, curbed bonuses, and/or let their stock depreciate?  (In other words, do what 99.99% of businesses have to do when things get really tough.)

Like all small firms, Winning Workplaces' honorees haven't had the luxury of a government cushion to keep their cash flow going when push came to shove.  They've had to do whatever it takes to survive.  More often than not, in practice this has meant placing a premium on keeping their employees for when conditions improve.  This has been a much more desirable alternative to layoffs, followed by expensive recruiting to refill roles.

Here are six of our award-winning small businesses and how they did whatever it takes (what we call, sharing the pain) to survive and, ultimately, thrive.  Note the inherent workplace team building and employee engagement in their situations.

How would you rate the "whatever it takes" attitude and action of your business?

Image credit: Canisius College

Want to outperform the stock market in good times and insulate your business from fallout during the bad times?  A new study from the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business says innovation is the key.

What's more, as Newswise writes in summarizing the research, "The superior performance comes without excessive risk."  Learn more about the results of this study by visiting the USC Marshall School website.

This is further evidence of what Winning Workplaces has known for a long time as we've dug into the success factors of small businesses through our Top Small Company Workplaces recognition project.  We continually find that the team building and employee engagement strategies that make our award-winning firms such productive workplaces often leave customers talking about their innovation!

For example, check out this feedback we received on 2008 Top Small Workplace Resource Interactive during our due diligence interview process that's part of our award project:

They’ve got such an incredible workspace, it is open and creative.  People have fun there and they’re so innovative.  They buy stock from their client companies for their associates and make sure everyone in the company has a stake in their clients’ work.  It’s very cutting edge.

If you're looking for practical takeaways from these organizations that can boost your level of innovation, check out these articles on our website:

• SmartPak Success Story
• Editorial: A Little Innovation Goes a Long Way
• Research Summary: Cracking the Code of Effective Innovation
• Editorial: Culture Matters
• Q&A with Rackspace Hosting's Graham Weston
• Summary of our annual conference session Back from the Brink: Sustaining Your Organization Through Innovation

According to a recent study by Network Solutions and the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business, while twice as many small employers (100 or fewer workers) report using social media to meet their business goals now vs. a year ago, the share of those that use it is still only one out of four.

While the biggest reason for why the majority of small business leaders are holding back in embracing this technology is costs, I think a close second is that the marketplace of social media sites and tools is so crowded, and getting more so every day.  So many leaders are understandably asking, How do I start?

Fortunately, Lisa Barone, Co-Founder of social media services provider Outspoken Media, has a new post on Small Business Trends that outlines effective action steps for starting down this path.  These include:

• Create a plan
• Own your name
• Set up your microhouses
• Enable social sharing
• Create rules for engagement
• Engage
• Set up a process to watch the action

Read Lisa's full post to see what's involved under each of these steps.

Getting ROI from Twitter

One of the leading social media sites is Twitter.  If you're not familiar, Twitter is a micro-blogging platform where, as a company, you can communicate directly with your customers and build an engaged fan base among them.  Think of it as another marketing platform.  Many companies have succeeded, leveraging employee engagement, by tasking key people to create their own Twitter accounts and posting (or tweeting) about both company initiatives and customer success stories.

But while tweeting is easy, measuring ROI from it is difficult.  I reached out to Lisa via email to get some insight into how best to do this, and she shared with me a tool called Retweet Rank.  Using this as a jumping-off point, I've put together a list of action steps as part of a strategy to measure how much impact your tweets are having.  Check it out:

1. First, you need to put your company on Twitter if it's not already.  It's free to do; you can get going quickly by visiting Twitter.
2. Next, you need to have a blog feed going.  Follow step 1 in this post to set it up if you don't already have one.
3. Back on Twitter, start tweeting!  Lisa wrote another post on SBT earlier this year on how businesses can best tweet.
4. Once you've been tweeting for a while, it's time to measure how how much they've been shared – or retweeted in Twitter vernacular.  Go to Retweet Rank and enter your Twitter username in the large field at the top of the page.
5. On the search page that appears, don't worry about the info on your retweet rank; just look for the "RSS" link to the right of where it says "Recent retweets."  Click it.
6. Copy the link from the new window that pops up in your browser and paste it as a new subscription in your blog feed reader.  The quick steps to do this are listed here.
7. Now you're going to see a new blog in your blog feed that starts with "RT @[your Twitter name]".  You're done!  Now any time a customer or anyone else shares your tweets (retweets), you'll have a running tally of them in your blog feed.

Related: This post discusses how workplace team building and other people practices factor into more and better dialogues with consumers.

Last week's blog asked you the important question: How is your decision-making style impacting your organization's results?  I asked you to think about your style and how it affects employee engagement, team building, and open communication in the workplace.  As many of you know, these things have a direct impact on your business results.

Last time I reviewed two of the four main decision-making styles: Autocratic and Democratic.  Participative and Consensus are next.

The participative style of decision making is when the leader involves the other members of the organization in the process.  Participative decision making is a way of building engagement making people feel good about their involvement.  This style can foster open communication and positively impact the culture.  This style won't improve the culture of ownership; that is because it still leaves the final decision in the hands of the leader.  How do you think this style would impact YOUR business results?  Do you see both right and wrong situations to engage this style?

The last decision-making style is consensus.  Here the leader gives up complete control of the decision; the full group is totally involved in the decision.  While this style would certainly help build a sense of ownership, I have to tell you that this is my least favorite style.  Not because I have a problem giving up control but, rather, because of the incredible amount of time it takes and secondarily the fact that many people may not have the knowledge or experience to "vote" on the decision.

Having said that, there are situations where a consensus approach makes sense.  The benefits can include building trust in the workplace, team building, increased employee engagement, and a more productive workplace because people feel so much ownership for the decision.

Clearly, no one style is right for all the situations leaders face in the workplace.  Have I gotten you thinking, though?  Are you wondering how your decision-making style is impacting your people?  Your business results?  I'd love to hear some of your stories.

One of the stories that Huell Howser, host of the PBS TV show California's Gold, told at the LA Chamber luncheon I attended this week was a sad one about a former Naval yard in Long Beach.

Howser said that a few years ago, the city had an opportunity to turn the vast space, which apparently had some incredible architecture, into a shelter for the homeless or a place for city programs such as youth sports.  Instead, they leveled it and there's nothing of note there now.

Howser frames this story as a lost opportunity for Long Beach.  The same can be said for small businesses that pass on older facilities that they could "recycle" by renovating them – as opposed to purchasing a new(ish) building.

At least two of Winning Workplaces' honored small firms have gone down this path, and both have reported that the positives of doing so have greatly outweighed the negatives.  Rackspace Hosting is now doing business out of an old mall in San Antonio, TX, that Chairman Graham Weston used to visit regularly as a child; and Erie, PA-based Logistics Plus holds most of the space in an historic former train depot (but owns all of it, leasing some of it out to tenants).

Here's what their recycled facilities look like:

Some of the benefits these companies have seen from their investment include:

• Finding a location that reduces the commutes of most of its workforce.
• Helping to keep communities active and vibrant – Rackspace now has several neighboring businesses, where there were none just a few years ago.
• The HVAC cost savings that come with designing an office environment from scratch.  Even though this was in relation to a new facility, the CEO of our Top Small Workplace NRG Systems, Jan Blittersdorf, described what they did at a session at our 2008 annual conference (listen to her here, starting at 19:45).
• Living your environmental values helps attract like-minded customers as well as employees.
• Speaking of workers, we've seen that leaders who engage employees in setting the blueprint for the renovated space enjoy a nice boost in workplace team building because they feel central to the success of the business.

Have you or do you know a business that's done something like this?  How did the experience help in building employee engagement?

John Murawski's Raleigh News & Observer article on triple bottom line businesses – those that believe they're obligated to People and the Planet as well as turning a Profit – features two Winning Workplaces-affiliated organizations.

Murawski sheds more light on The Redwoods Group, our 2008 Top Small Workplace that insures YMCAs and Jewish Community Centers.  This is in addition to the framework of their employee engagement and workplace team building strategies we provided in our Success Story on them, which includes a video interview with their CEO, Kevin Trapani.

Since The Redwoods Group is a certified B corporation ("The B stands for 'benefit' and requires members to serve a public interest and submit to random audits"), Murawski also delves into the work of B Lab, which has certified 276 businesses nationwide – 13 of which, he writes, are in North Carolina.

Read this educational and inspiring article here.

Related: Both Trapani and B Lab Co-Founder Bart Houlahan are on our judging panel for this year's Top Small Company Workplace award.  Meet the rest of the panel by clicking here.  Our 2010 winners will be featured in Inc. Magazine in June.

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.

Last month in The New York Times, Peter S. Goodman wrote about "the new poor" – a growing segment of the U.S. population slipping out of the middle class due to falling or nonexistent unemployment benefits at the same time that sluggish economic growth is keeping companies from adding jobs for which they could apply.

Goodman warns that this phenomenon may be a factor for years.  Yet, the Hitachi Foundation is following the old life-lemons adage and taking this opportunity to provide assistance to young entrepreneurs whose missions align with helping this very population.

Triple Pundit, a site that writes on the triple bottom line of "people, planet, profit," shared the details of Hitachi's Yoshiyama Award.  It's for entrepreneurs aged 18-29 – the demographic of the Upstarts that Donna Fenn writes about.  Hitachi is offering six winners up to $50,000 over two years to help support their work.

If you know someone in that age range who runs a business aimed at helping America's poor, tell them about it by using the Share button at the bottom of this post.  And tell them to hurry if they want to apply for 2010: the deadline is March 22.

Related: All social entrepreneurs should get in the habit of doing a "social audit."  There's a story in today's Wall Street Journal on this topic which profiles The Redwoods Group, a specialty insurance provider that Winning Workplaces honored in 2008 for their incredible team building and employee engagement best practices.

Every day I hear another story that indicates so many leaders don’t get the strong connection between people and results.  When I first moved into a CEO role, I admit I didn’t always see the connection as clearly as I do now.  I was so focused on results, I neglected to pay as much attention to people.  Now that I have seen the research and gotten to know dozens of extraordinary companies who have great workplaces, I am ramping up my focus on employee engagement. 

Our mission here at Winning Workplaces is to inspire and assist organizations that want to create great workplaces that are better for business, better for people, and better for society.   These organizations have workplace cultures that include open communication, trust, team building, and...fun!  

Given the results of the recent Conference Board study, I’d say Winning Workplaces still has a lot of work to do.  In fact, that is an understatement.  The Conference Board reports that only 45% of employees are satisfied with their jobs.  Moreover, I was astounded to learn that the employees rate the best part of their day as the commute.  Yes, the commute.

As more and more baby boomers retire, I wonder if dissatisfaction will increase.  Why?  The most dissatisfied generation is Generation Y. 

Clearly, this situation says we have not only a lot of dissatisfied employees but, in turn, a productivity level that isn’t nearly where it could or should be. 

So whose fault is this grim situation?  The leader's?  The boss's?  The employee's?  More importantly, what do we do about it?  These will be the topics of future blogs. 

Let me know what you think.

I've followed the In Good Company Workplaces blog for some time and agree with most of what Adelaide Lancaster and Amy Abrams write about there.  Subject matter-wise, they overlap with our main focus of small business, and also delve into issues affecting women entrepreneurs.

However, I disagree somewhat with their latest post from today, which argues that the ingredients of success are unique to each business.  While it's true that such factors as a coveted, not-easily-duplicated widget; interesting coming-to-market story; and charasmatic founder/owner/CEO can build buzz and result in strong sales from highly engaged customers, other factors that contribute heavily to long-term business success can, in fact, be replicated by other organizations.

I was going to build a case for this based on my writing here, which itself is based mainly on the employee engagement research Winning Workplaces does each year through our Top Small Company Workplaces recognition project.  But I found this post from last week by serial entrepreneur Geri Stengel on the Ventureneer site that does this for me.  Citing the key team engagement activities of four of our 2009 Top Small Workplaces, Stengel identifies these employee engagement-themed common success ingredients:

• Soliciting ideas from employees
• Team or family mentality – either way, everyone is included and cared for
• All employees have a financial stake in the company's success
• Shared pain in bad times; shared recovery in better ones
• Employee involvement in management decisions
• Recognition of work/life balance
• Employee training initiatives
• Promotion from within
• Cross-department relationship building; also conscious management of multiple generations
• Flat hierarchies
• Above (industry) average benefits

These common ingredients come together to form a plethora of (also common) business results:

• Lower turnover
• More ideas to help fuel sales and company growth
• Better customer service from a more loyal, dedicated, and creative staff
• "A flexible, trained staff that can respond to crises efficiently" (Are you listening, Toyota?)

Related: Read more about team building strategies of the four Top Small Workplaces that Stengel cites here.