Winning Workplaces

The first of 9 themes that we identified from this year's Top Small Workplaces is that these companies tend to take the long view of their business, which is to say their efforts in building something that will last for a long time shapes their culture as well as their strategy execution.

With many of our current and former honorees continuing to rack up awards for their stellar employee engagement best practices and workplace team building initiatives, I guess you could say, "If the mission ain't broke, don't fix it."

We noticed the following news items in the last couple weeks attesting to the continuing strong financial performance and innovative employee engagement and development of these Winning Workplaces-recognized small organizations:

• Lundberg Family Farms (2008 Top Small Workplace) received the EPA's Green Power Leadership Award for making one of the largest renewable energy commitments by any farming business in the country.  According to The Sacramento Bee, besides purchasing or generating enough kilowatt hours of green power each year to supply more than 100% of its energy needs (enough electricity to power over 500 American homes in a year), the agency recognized Lundberg for its "employee appreciation efforts, employee compensation, executive accessibility and employee tenure."
• Gentle Giant Moving Company (2007 Top Small Workplace), Vitale, Caturano and Company (2006 Best Boss - Richard Caturano), and Communispace Corporation (2005 Best Boss - Diane Hessan) were all recognized November 11 as three of the 100 Top Places to Work in Massachusetts by The Boston Globe.  In a statement, the Globe's publisher, Steve Ainsley, said, "It's clear that (the winning firms) value their employees and make it a priority to create a positive workplace."
• Jeffrey Hollender (2006 Best Boss), President and "Chief Inspired Protagonist" of Seventh Generation, was named 2008 Social Entrepreneur CEO of the Year by Corporate Responsibility Officer (CRO) magazine.  "It's a tremendous honor," Hollender said in a press release.  "But it's one that should be shared by everyone here at Seventh Generation.  We've only been able to achieve all that we've accomplished as a business because there are dozens of extraordinarily dedicated people who come to the office every day and do everything they can to make a positive difference in both our company and our world."
• Finally, also on November 11 the Society of Financial Service Professionals, in partnership with George Mason University, announced that High Performance Technologies, Inc. (2006 Best Boss - Tim Keenan) had won their 2008 National Capital Business Ethics Award.  A big deal for the company, which had been in the running for this award since 2004, a press release notes that HPTi's ethics program stood out because it "ties its core values into essential business practices like performance reviews, promotions, interviews, and client satisfaction.  Employees are encouraged to display the core values and hold their coworkers accountable."

Did you spot the award-winning keywords here?  They include:

• employee appreciation
• access to leadership
• respect and camaraderie
• individual and company value alignment
• employee empowerment
• risk taking

You might think about how these cultural touchstones play a role in your employee engagement activities.  If you keep at it long enough, someone is bound to notice and recognize your efforts, too.

Speaking of recognition, we're entering the last two months of our nomination phase for Top Small Workplaces 2009.  Click here to nominate your small firm or another you think has a fantastic workplace by January 30, 2009.