Winning Workplaces

It's another clear sign that our apparently deepening recession, among other challenges, are having an impact on the success of small businesses.

We just completed our preliminary analysis of the applicant pool (N=329) for this year's Top Small Workplaces, a recognition project we run in partnership with The Wall Street Journal. In comparing some key metrics to our applicants over the previous two years we've operated this program, we found that average revenue growth is trending poorly. As the table below shows, it has dropped from 42% growth in 2007 (for the years 2004-06) to 28% growth in 2009 (for the years 2006-08).

One other interesting finding is that this year's applicants are slightly "younger" (fewer average years in business) than those over the previous two years:

Other metrics have held pretty steady, statistically:

Average Revenue - Most Recent FY

Average Number of Employees

Average Turnover - Most Recent Year

It's a credit to these firms that they've done consistently as well as they have when it comes to managing their turnover while keeping revenue in their most recent fiscal year steady – especially considering cost increases in the benefits area. I chalk it up to better-than-average team building (especially manager team building) that helps keep employees engaged, and thus more productive and profitable for the company.

Speaking of benefits, it appears that many of this year's applicants absorb the increasingly unmanageable cost of health care primarily so they can hold onto existing talent and remain competitive when it comes to recruiting new employees. The table below shows that almost 100% of this year's applicants offer health insurance – in fact, we saw only two that did not. Further, they generously cover 80% of employees' premiums, on average, and 42% of their dependents.

For more information on the 2009 applicant pool and how they're doing when it comes to these and other workplace metrics, subscribe to our free newsletter, IDEAS. We'll have a feature article on this in our April issue, out next week.

Even more on the 2009 Top Small Workplaces:

Winners will be named in The Wall Street Journal on September 28, 2009.
They will also be recognized at our conference later that week, "The ROI of a Great Workplace." Details on this here.