In the nominations phase of Winning Workplaces' Top Small Workplaces recognition project in collaboration with The Wall Street Journal, there is perhaps no better indicator of why people take the initiative to send in a nomination than their essay.

Now, I type "essay" here and I'm sure you're thinking that we require some long diatribe.  This isn't a college application (no fee is involved, for one thing).  In these essays we're looking for something short – no longer than two or three sentences – attesting to why the organization being nominated stands out in its employee engagement best practices and team building initiatives.

We've got a little more than two months to go in the nominations phase – the deadline is January 30, 2009 – and we've already gotten some great essays.  Check out two below.  (For privacy, I've removed the company name and any other revealing wording.)

Nominee from the advertising industry, based in Massachusetts:

[The company principal] has worked hard to create an environment that cultivates creativity and personal development while delivering an exceptional product to the firm's clients.  With an emphasis on culture and rewards for excellent work, he has attracted and retained top talent while maintaining a first rate client base.  His employees work very hard but are rewarded with happy clients, financial success, a great reputation, industry awards and recognition, repeat business, referrals and a motivated and happy staff.  Work should be fun and in short, [the company's] employees have alot of fun while providing a superior product to their clients.  If [the company] would hire me, I would work there in a second!

Nominee from the hospitality industry, based in Colorado:

For over fifty years, the ... family has provided countless jobs for individuals in our city – individuals like me.  They quietly go about the difficult business of restaurants and food service, teaching people such as me customer service, accounting, payroll, inventory turnover, human resources and what our market system really means.  Those of us who have worked for the [family] and the [company] have an appreciation for independent business people, the effect of taxation and governmental policies on the "small" business operation.  While "community and business leaders" talk, the ... family works and, in so doing, have helped provide for the livelihoods of many of the rest of us.  They never ask for recognition but I appreciate the opportunity to nominate them as a 2009 Top Small Workplace.  Thank you.

The themes to take away from these two nomination essays are overall stakeholder satisfaction (the first one above was written by one of the firm's advisors) and providing an economic base for the greater community – two trends that incidentally helped make up the 9 themes that we identified among the 2008 Top Small Workplaces.

Your essay doesn't have to mimic these in terms of the 9 themes from the 2008 winners.  It just has to show why, in short, the workplace of the enterprise you're nominating rocks.

Consider taking a few minutes to nominate your organization or another you think has employee engagement, workplace team building, and other people practices down pat as means to achieve greater productivity and profitability, as a 2009 Top Small Workplace.  I look forward to reading your essay!