Winning Workplaces

Looking for more evidence that supports the payoff of employee engagement? San Francisco's CBS 5 TV station uncovered some last week, interviewing David Hayes, CEO of Skyline Construction Inc., after the company was named a 2009 Top Small Workplace in The Wall Street Journal.

Even in the hot sector of LEED-certified commercial construction, Skyline has faced its share of industry-related setbacks. Like many of its peers, it recently needed to layoff staff.

Where it shone for our Top Small Worplaces judges this year, though, was in how it reacted. Fully employee owned, their 47 workers shared the pain, agreeing to pay cuts to prevent more layoffs. When conditions improved, Skyline's leadership restored wages.

Watch the CBS 5 segment on Skyline by clicking the image below:

I love Hayes' assessment that, rather than being something "touchy-feely," his firm's employee engagement activity just "sounds like good business." He backs this up by mentioning post-slump top and bottom line growth of 400%, much of it spurred by "lots of repeat client business."

Learn more about Skyline Construction here.