Yesterday in an email to our subscribers, and recently on this blog, I urged readers to register by August 31 for Inc.'s October 27-29 Leadership Conference in Denver so they can attend at the early bird rate, which is $300 less than the conference rate.

Well, three things have changed:

1. Inc. has a new website for their event (same dates and city/venue, though),
2. The conference has been retitled/rebranded as a Leadership Conference (it had been called "Creating Competitive Cultures [C3]"), and
3. Best of all if you have not yet registered, you can still get in at the early bird rate through next Friday, September 10.

Visit the new website for this event and mark your calendar.  With Inc.'s promise to turn you into a "smarter, more proactive and responsive business leader," you will be better equipped to improve employee engagement for a more profitable and productive workplace culture.

Last week I enjoyed a week off with my family in Canada, specifically Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.  But before I had even left the states, I was reminded of an important lesson when it comes to hiring for fit as well as employee engagement and workplace team building.

My wife and I flew from LAX to Newark Liberty International Airport before connecting on a flight from there to Halifax.  Between our arrival and second departure gate was a small, '50s-style diner.  Not having much time and knowing there'd be at least a snack on our second-leg flight, we sat down there to split a plate of fries.  We wanted to keep ourselves hydrated, so we each opted for free glasses of water instead of sodas (you'll see why this is important in a second).

When we arrived the place was maybe a third full – not too busy for the one waiter to serve us, as I can say with authority from my high school days as a waiter.  Yet it was immediately apparent that he preferred to favor tables with more people who were ordering more items.  That's understandable because, in theory, that's where the bigger tips were.

What he shouldn't have assumed, though, is that we would leave a proportionally smaller tip.  It so happened that we had bills and no change so, proportionally, had he done an even passable job, he would have gotten a very nice tip for his time involved.  But he initially ignored us, literally rolled his eyes when we asked for a plate of fries and two waters, didn't check on us once he delivered our order, and, worst of all when it comes to waiting etiquette, took our check and tip before we had left!

On our way out, when my wife shared that his tip could have been a lot higher if he had treated us better, the waiter said lazily, "Well, you only ordered fries."  Since when does amount spent dictate the service level received!?  (This is an equation that doesn't factor into the business models of our Top Small Company Workplaces, BTW.)

If you run a company, especially in the hospitality industry, you might be thinking that this experience reflects more on the individual employee and doesn't impact the business as much.  Not necessarily; on our return visit to the same airport en route from Halifax to Los Angeles, we noticed the same waiter in the same restaurant – steering clear of both and getting our food on elsewhere in the terminal.  A different customer-employee experience could have meant repeat business for that diner.

The takeaway?  When you have a more or less stable, captive audience such as in an airport or mall, people practices including hiring for fit and using employee development strategies to deliver excellent service can make a huge difference on your bottom line.

Related: In this webinar recording on our website, two of our award-winning small business CEOs share proven tips for creating a fantastic customer service culture.

Photo credit: Maurice Prather

Given this blog's focus on how employee retention tips and other people practices lead to a more productive workplace culture – and how leadership strategies such as succession planning reduce dependency of the business on key people if they leave or are otherwise taken out of the equation – a reader might conclude that decisions made in the C-suite matter less now than they once did.

This conclusion would be wrong, however, argues Tyler Leverty, assistant professor of finance in the University of Iowa's Tippie College of Business.  According to this Newswise article, which references Leverty's paper "Dupes or Incompetents: An Examination of Management’s Impact on Firm Distress," some CEOs significantly improve a firm’s performance, while others hurt it.

Writes Newswise,

[Leverty] found ... good CEOs can remove their firms from regulatory scrutiny 8 to 16 percent faster than a poor manager.  And in insurance companies that are going out of business, a more talented CEO can get a better return on the firm’s assets by up to 10 cents on the dollar.

The takeaway is that events and other learning opportunities that deliver a good ROI for leaders are worth the investment – even in tough times.  This is why Winning Workplaces is excited to partner with Inc. Magazine to host the Creating Competitive Cultures (C3) Conference in Denver on October 27-29, 2010.  As Inc. says on their C3 website, CEOs and other attendees can expect to learn "the newest leadership strategies for developing the best possible company culture, one that results in a loyal, motivated, inspired, and focused team."

Click here to learn more about this event.  You'll want to register by tomorrow, August 31, to get the early bird rate, a $300 savings.

Since I wrote this "line in the sand" post back in March arguing that you should abandon a strategy of hiring for skills in favor of hiring instead for attitude and fit (for a more harmonious and productive workplace culture), I've written several more citing outside sources – as opposed to our own employee engagement research – that help make this case.

But perhaps Brett Owens, CEO of software startup Chrometa, makes the most compelling case for getting the "right people on the bus" in the first place; his post on the Small Business CEO blog pits this as a choice for leaders as opposed to using effective employee leadership development strategies to get the most from the people already on your team.

Creating a hypothetical example from his own experience, Owens says the "coached up" productivity gains of current staff members might make them, at most, 50% more productive than a baseline performer.  Yet, a new hire who's a better workplace fit might be three times – 300% – more productive than the baseline employee.  Thus, he concludes that getting the best from your current staff is

important - but when we do the math, we small business owners know it’s not nearly as important as getting the very best people in the first place.

Related: Leaders, do you have any bad workplace experiences that have resulted from not hiring the right people?  Share them, and your solutions to this issue for the benefit of your fellow readers, here.

SmartBrief on Leadership was one of the sources I noticed that touched upon what appears to be a relatively new employee engagement approach: allowing workers to take unlimited paid vacations.  Recently they linked to this NPR article on the trend.

But then last week they raised the topic again; linking to this article by Chris Grams, SmartBrief wrote:

An increasing number of companies are taking a relaxed approach to worker management, letting staff decide for themselves when they take vacations and how they spend their time at work.

The emphasis on the word "relaxed" above is mine.  It's only one word, but in my opinion in terms of leaders taking something away from their summary, it's an important one.  "Relaxed" can imply "quick and easy."  In fact, getting your workplace culture and productivity to a place in which your organization can truly succeed with a "no policy" vacation policy requires a lot of time and, especially, buy in and long-term commitment from leadership.

I think of the pinnacle of an unlimited vacation policy as the visible part of an iceberg – there's a whole lot more going on under the surface than what's apparent:

What's your take on this trend, and on the team building progress and other people practices work that needs to happen before it's feasible to jump on it?

On August 4 I told you about our new feature for email subscribers, a weekly people practices email geared toward improving your company's bottom line.  Tom Walter, CEO of our 2010 Top Small Company Workplace Tasty Catering, commented on that post saying it's a great idea.

This week he shared specifics with me on exactly why he thinks business leaders should sign up for this free email (emphasis mine):

The Weekly Bottom Line-Improving People Practice email should benefit all business leaders.  The world has become commoditized.  The true marketplace differentiator is human capital.  I enjoy learning the Best Practices other companies use with their most valuable asset - their people.

An engaged workforce is typically harmonious, productive and profitable.  These Best Practices eliminate the need to manage.  We have replaced management with effective leaders armed with Best Practices, and the difference has been remarkable.

While Winning Workplaces surely plays only a small part in Tasty Catering's success, you can't argue that they're not doing a lot of things right in their staff engagement that comprises their highly productive workplace culture: As we shared in the company's award profile, in a very tough year broadly and certainly in their industry (2009), their employee leadership development and other strategies helped them earn above-average revenues.

Register now to start getting our weekly, bottom line-improving people practices email FREE in your inbox.

Hat tip to Burt Klein at PortionPac Chemical Corporation – one of our 2010 Top Small Company Workplace award winners – for sharing this post on the Letters of Note blog.

The post is a compilation of memos from the last years of the now-defunct, Texas-based Tiger Oil Company.  The memos, which appear to be real, show a CEO who was far more concerned with finding faults in employees than focusing on what they do well – the latter being a more effective approach to creating a productive workplace culture, to which many of our award winners and finalists can attest.

While we're on the topic of bad bosses, I wanted to point you to a new feature on our blog.  As a service to your fellow readers, if you are facing a bad workplace experience we invite you to share it and, most importantly, what you would do about it if you were king or queen for the day.

Learn more about our call to action regarding bad workplace experiences and solutions here.  Those who share their stories and insights receive a FREE white paper on great people practices that produce a payoff of employee engagement on the bottom line!

On her blog last week, Harvard Business School's Rosabeth Moss Kanter identified setting clear expectations about everything as one of four things groups want that leaders can't provide.  She writes,

No matter how much leaders try to define expectations, lay out the nature of likely events, or describe the steps that the group will be going through, it's not enough.

My question is, while it may not be enough to fully satisfy groups of employees for ideal workforce effectiveness – is it enough to move the business forward in a meaningful way (even if that means not sliding backward in a recession)?

The workplace team building and employee engagement experiences of 8 small businesses that applied for our Top Small Company Workplaces award this year – including 2 winners – show that building clear employee expectations from leaders into the strategy contributes to organizational success.  Consider that the companies I'll tell you a bit more about below:

• Have been in business an average of 13 years,
• Grew revenue more than $5 million on average from 2008 to 2009,
• Went from 50% being profitable in 2008 to 75% being profitable in 2009, and
• Decreased average turnover by close to 3% from 2008 to 2009.

Specifically, here's who the firms are and how they maintain their success, in part, by being intentional about setting clear expectations:

Awarepoint - Real-time awareness technologies to monitor equipment and people - San Diego, CA
"Awarepoint helps managers get the best out of our staff.  The in-depth performance review helps managers and employees have better conversations, set clear expectations and build useful development plans.  This method also helps our leaders learn to identify poor performance so that it can be dealt with quickly, while developing the solid performers and building the business."

Enhanced Recovery Corporation - Financial Services - Jacksonville, FL
"The Owners, VPs, Directors, Department Heads, and Operations Management Team are all committed to the continued success of all ERC employees.  From Peer to Peer feedback to our Open Door Policy, employees of ERC always have clear expectations and development opportunities.  All departments at ERC are committed to ensuring constant development of employees at all levels within the organization."

FMYI - Software - Portland, OR
"We have done a lot more than what's expected of a small company such as providing medical benefits from day one with only a couple of employees even though it wasn't required by Oregon law.  We also want to be more authentic and fully integrated with our sustainability commitment.  We will sustain employee culture through ongoing sustainability discussions (via Northwest Earth Institute courses), clear expectations written into job descriptions and reviews about our doer/helper culture."

NouvEON - Consulting - Charlotte, NC
"NouvEON's Talent Management and People Care Division has several platforms that allow us to set goals, dialogue throughout the year, establish clear expectations, and perform 360 reviews, as well as measure and track potential.  We map Performance AND Potential and communicate to our employees where we see strengths and gaps.  It is through open communication and candid conversation that we help individuals grow in their jobs."

NY Jets (Winner) - Professional football team - Florham Park, NJ
"When our current management development initiative started, the Jets were in the planning stages of our relocation from Long Island to NJ.  HR was able to add in a special section on managing change that prepared mangers for the huge changes employees faced with our relocation.  The training sessions consisted of 6 modules: The Role of the Manager, Setting Clear Expectations, Feedback Skills, Delegation and Motivation, Handling Performance Issues, and Managing Change. The initiative proved to be highly successful for all managers; the learnings from the trainings are still used by the managers today."

Portico Systems Inc. - Software - Blue Bell, PA
"People succeed when they care share their ideas, build their skills, collaborate with others, and move into the realm of confidence that comes with mastery.  The masters become mentors and guide others with wisdom and a desire to enable others with positive reinforcement.  This is the environment that Portico is cultivating as we grow the organization and the people who are working to succeed.  Employees are provided with clear expectations, direction and feedback from supervisors, and opportunities and monetary and non-monetary ways incentives to succeed."

Red Door Interactive (Winner) - Advertising - San Diego, CA
"Our culture has been one of open dialogue, learning and progression since the company was formed eight years ago.  The family and team oriented environment at Red Door Interactive fosters open communication, leadership, clear expectations and teamwork.  A visit to Red Door Interactive will clearly display the open environment since the office is completely devoid of doors; even the CEO. Internal committees encourage feedback and collaboration to maintain our culture and engagement."

Sierra w/o Wires - Computer systems and related services - Pittsburgh, PA
"Regular and real communication is essential to establishing any corporate culture, community and collaboration.  In our organization this type of communication ranges involving employees in the project planning and estimating, to regular team and one-on-one update meetings, and also establishing clear expectations for each employee on what needs to be done, when."

How clear are the expectations in your organization?  Do your people practices help or hinder this?

When it comes to staff engagement activities for a more productive workplace culture, how important are newly promoted managers?

VERY (so important, I put the answer to my question in its own paragraph).

In fact, the CEO of one of the most successful small businesses we've honored for their bottom line-enhancing people practices – Andrew Field of Montana-based PrintingForLess.com – told us a few years ago that he doesn't blink at spending half of his time mentoring and modeling tasks with his new managers.  He sees their success as that important to his business' ability to satisfy existing customers and attract new ones, as well as improve internal processes.

If you're reading this, you likely understand and value this connection.  With that in mind, here are three resources to help you make the most of the new managers in your organization:

1. Dan Rockwell's post on succeeding when you’re new - 8 hints for new supervisors on his Leadership Freak blog
2. Our editorial on the importance of new manager training
3. Wally Bock's guest article for us on 10 steps to improve your bosses' performance

Are there any good books or other resources you have turned to and would recommend to other business leaders?  Please share your picks in the comments.

When the six building blocks of a Winning Workplace are in place and supported by a company's leadership, the results are magical.  I spelled out some of these results in this post, and even more are summarized from leading research studies here on our website.

These results are possible when a workplace culture is not based on fear.  Scott Eblin has a new post on his Next Level Blog for executives that describes, in almost scary detail, seven factors that can come together to create a "perfect storm" of fear that can cripple the camaraderie and productivity in your organization.

Of course, Eblin's post is an exercise in what to avoid when you work to better engage employees and execute effective team building strategies.  For the opposite perspective – tips to get and keep fear out of your workplace – see this Ask An Expert column on our website.

How have you worked to keep fear from becoming a cancer in your business?

Last July, when Amazon.com was on the verge of acquiring Zappos.com, I questioned if the move would lead to the demise of the unique – and uniquely powerful in terms of buzz and sales – productive workplace culture Tony Hsieh built within his retail business.

A year later, I'm happy to note that just the opposite seems to be true.  Hsieh has remained in place as CEO and, more importantly from an employee engagement perspective, he's become even more visible as a "chief culture officer": I was one of many bloggers and reporters to pick up on his New York Times Q&A in January in which he shared the benefits of attracting and retaining offbeat workers.  Last month, Hsieh went even further in sharing his workplace culture beliefs, practices, and successes with the release of his book Delivering Happiness.

Through it all, Zappos continues to wow customers with its incredible service, helping to maintain sales in a tough economy.  What's more, the company serves as a beacon of hope to job seekers and a vital source of tax revenues in hard hit Las Vegas.

Honest Tea, a finalist for our 2010 Top Small Company Workplaces award, appears to be following in Zappos' footsteps.

After seeing this post last week on the Triple Pundit blog, which spells out the dilemma for the 12-year-old, Maryland-based organic tea bottler – staying true to its "no high-fructose corn syrup" label, and thus its customer base, with a Coca-Cola minority stake that's set to become more significant next year – I decided to dig into Honest Tea's application for our award for clues to their next moves.

Here's how they answered our question on their key long-term strategic goals for the organization and the workplace (my emphasis is in bold):

A critical strategic goal is to maintain our mission-driven, entrepreneurial culture as we grow alongside the world's largest beverage company, and to mentor other mission-driven companies.  We will continue our tradition of including all employees on crew drives, a vital way of instilling the Honest Tea culture.  Rapid expansion in 2010 will demand participation from everyone in the company.  Crew drives enable employees from every department to experience selling and marketing our beverages and directly invests them in our business fundamentals.  Another key goal is to maintain and build our position as a leading, innovative organic beverage company.  In 2010 we introduce Honest Kombucha, a unique, sparkling tea beverage based on live, organic cultures.  Even as we grow nationally, we are determined to sustain our role as a leader in the local community.  Honest Tea is a founding sponsor of a local environmental non-profit, Bethesda Green, supporting a healthy economy and sustainable living.  The company's visibility in the community is a source of pride for our employees and a key part of our identity.  Finally, the company's commitment to transparency, the accessibility of our President and TeaEO and the rest of the management team, are important ways in which Honest Tea will continue to be steeped in its entrepreneurial, mission-driven culture.

Like Zappos, Honest Tea is placing a premium on maintaining its human capital strategies and core values that have contributed to its massive success while it negotiates with a much larger company that has a sizable interest in it.

Related: For more on how Honest Tea's employee development strategies led it to become an industry leader, read our award profile on the firm.

I enjoyed this post by Susan Fronk on the America's Best Business Practices blog.  In it she argues that the one thing that can most positively impact your small business – over and above measures to grow revenue, cut costs, and deliver excellent customer service – is finding and keeping great employees.

She provides more value later in her article by sharing three ways small businesses can build a more productive workplace culture by attracting and retaining great employees:

• Do a good job of recruiting and hiring,
• Create a great working environment, and
• Build relationships with your employees and foster relationships among employees.

I thought I would expand upon Fronk's informative post by sharing with you some specific ways that Winning Workplaces' 2010 Top Small Company Workplace award winners find and keep great employees:

1. Hire slow.  It's not uncommon for job candidates to go through as many as 8 interviews before a hiring decision is made.
2. Hire for cultural fit.  This includes not just when a position is open, but generally when someone looks like a good fit for the organization; a number of firms prefer to keep their feelers out and plug someone in when they come across that person.
3. Grab top talent from competing firms.  Top talent is top talent, and our winning small companies are unabashed about leveraging a bad economy that has forced competing firms to shed staff to their advantage.
4. Systematize the orientation/onboarding process.  Many companies do a good job during the middle period of an employee's tenure, but few are exceptional at the beginning, a critical time for new hires.  Our Top Small Company Workplaces really excel here by doing things like mentoring and scheduling meetings with the CEO to ramp up the new employee's understanding of and commitment to the organization.
5. Managers have frequent contact with their subordinates.  For many small companies, managers only interact one on one with employees, to review performance and also their top concerns/hurdles, every three months.  Our award-winning firms typically do this every two weeks to a month.  This helps better engage employees for greater commitment, and also helps firms react to emerging issues sooner.
6. Invest in employee leadership development.  The Top Small Company Workplaces share a belief that they are best served when their top talent stays to fill and create roles of increasing responsibility, and they have seen results from their action on it including process improvement, product innovation, and better customer service – not to mention mid- and top-level employees who stay longer, keeping recruiting and training costs down.  As far as their specific leadership development strategies, see this post.
7. Give employees a voice in the decision making.  Lots of companies have an open door policy, but this no longer cuts it if you want to foster two-way communication that results in greater employee engagement and productivity.  Our award winners give their employees a voice by holding daily huddles and frequent (at least once a month) all-hands meetings.  In addition, many of them open up their books and explain the company finances so people gain a crystal clear understanding of how their role affects the top and bottom line.
8. Do employee recognition.  I've blogged before about how recognizing your staff can be meaningful and still inexpensive.  Often times a simple, face-to-face thank you or small gift personalized to the employee can make a powerful impact.
9. Be generous in providing time off.  More employers need to come to the realization that being flexible around employees' personal and family obligations makes for a more committed and productive worker.  Paid time off should be a primary consideration, but if that's not in the budget, being flexible – especially for unanticipated obligations – through measures like cross training will help immensely with retention.
10. Empower workers down to the lowest levels to make good spot decisions.  This involves a lot of trust from leaders and some additional training, but when it works it makes a dramatic impact on business results.  Just think how much happier you've been when you've called a vendor and you didn't need to be transferred up the phone/responsibility chain to have your issue resolved.  The same sense of satisfaction can mean the difference in whether your customers or clients come back to you and refer you to others.

Is there a measure you think should be in this list?  If so, I welcome your comment on it below.

Did you know that in late October, Denver will be a mecca for workplace team building and employee engagement practices that improve both business results and job satisfaction? 

It's true – that's when Winning Workplaces will join with our Top Small Company Workplaces award media partner, Inc. Magazine, to host Creating Competitive Cultures (C3): New Leadership Strategies for Building Great Companies.  The event will be held Oct. 27-29 at the Denver Marriott City Center.

If you're looking for reasons to save the date, you need look no further than at the current speaker roster.  It includes some impressive entrepreneurs, including several from companies we have honored with our workplace award over the past 8 years:

1. Jill Blashack Strahan, CEO of Tastefully Simple
2. Mike Faith, founder of Headsets.com
3. Kenneth Feld, CEO of Feld Entertainment (Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey)
4. Donna Fenn, Inc. contributing editor and author of Upstarts
5. Leigh Buchanan, Inc. editor-at-large
6. Bo Burlingham, Inc. editor-at-large
7. Norm Brodsky, Inc. columnist and founder of CitiStorage
8. Ted Freeman, principal at Praxis Consulting Group
9. Jeffrey A. Hollender, Chief Inspired Protagonist, co-founder, and Executive Chairperson of Seventh Generation
10. Bart Houlahan, founder of B Lab
11. Selina Lo, founder of Ruckus Wireless
12. Paul Silvis, founder of Restek
13. Larry O'Toole, founder of Gentle Giant
14. Bob Rosner, author of The Boss's Survival Guide
15. Paul Spiegelman, founder of Beryl
16. Gail Sussman Miller
17. Tom Walter, CEO of Tasty Catering
18. Steve Voigt, President and CEO of King Arthur Flour

To learn more about this event or to register, visit the C3 website.  Through August 31, you can save $300 by registering at the early bird rate.

If you have 90 minutes to spare, I have something that's a great use of your time when it comes to expanding your understanding of the payoff of employee engagement and workplace team building activities.

Below is a video of our President's presentation last month at an Entrepreneurial Roundtable hosted by the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

If you can't see the video in your RSS reader, click here.

The presentation kicks off with our own Gaye van den Hombergh explaining why companies should care about creating great workplaces (starting at 7:30) and the qualities we see as critical to Winning Workplaces, along with some of the people practices used by winners of our 2010 Top Small Company Workplaces award, which were featured in the June issue of Inc. Magazine (starting at 29:00).

Starting at 44:00, Gaye led a panel featuring leaders of this year's two Chicago area winners: Marvin Klein, Founder, PortionPac Chemical Corporation; and Tom Walter, President & CEO and Tasty Catering.  As you absorb the lessons learned and insights of these two leaders, consider their workplace culture practices, which I've listed below respectively, that have led them to success – even in this tough economy:

PortionPac

Selected workplace best practices:

• Offers personal and financial support for employees on a case by case basis
• "Front to Back Day"
• Offers experience to improve personal confidence and communication skills
• Employees have a high degree of autonomy

Business results:

• 2009 revenue up 7% from 2008
• Over the same period their competitors suffered double digit losses

Tasty Catering

Selected workplace best practices:

• Personal financial crisis fund fed into by employees
• Healthy free meals provided to staff on a daily basis
• If an employee comes up with idea and is willing to put in the effort, the company will help finance and support the endeavor

Business results:

• While sales fell in 2009 vs. 2008, it experienced only half the decrease of its industry and remains profitable
• High average employee tenure of 7.5 years

What are your takeaways from watching this video?

In a post on the Business Insider blog re-posted from his own blog, GRP Partners' Mark Suster argues that leaders should solve problems and drive innovation from the top.  He writes,

I challenge you to consider whether you’re top-down or bottom up.  In analysis there are always circumstances for each approach.  But in leadership and entrepreneurism the top-down approach will be the right solution more often than not.

Now, I get that Suster is not saying that leaders should engage employees from the top down 100% of the time, but he is saying it should happen this way the majority of the time.

However, in our experience conducting employee engagement research of small businesses as part of our annual workplace award program, we see that management and decision making can happen in many different ways to lead companies to success in the metrics that ultimately matter: sales and profitability.  Our President detailed four decision-making approaches that run this gamut in these two posts.

Three of the four approaches she wrote about involve bottom-up decision making in some capacity.  And in fact, in the applications we received for our 2010 Top Small Company Workplaces award, we saw bottom-up engagement factor prominently in the qualitative feedback of some firms that are performing quite well, even in this tough economy. 

Check out four case studies that bear this out below.  All four companies have been profitable in the last three years.

Application Question: How have your organization’s people practices contributed to your top line revenue and bottom line profitability?
Response by Bronto Software
8-year-old software firm from North Carolina
2009 sales: $5.1 million; 132% 3-year sales growth
At Bronto we have a sales team who is instrumental to our success.  Because of our organic funding, growth comes from bottom up.  Employees have directly influenced consistent new client growth along with amazing client retention.

Application Question: How does the organization encourage employees to participate in important business decisions?
Response by Barhorst Insurance Group
17-year-old financial services firm from Texas
2009 sales: $6.9 million; 16% 3-year sales growth
Our organization is built on a foundation of bottom up planning!  Every year we have the branch managers provide a sales and expense plan that is fed into our annual corporate plan.  In 2008 and 2009 we completed or long term 2020 strategy to grow from 50 million in sales to 1 billion in sales.  The strategy team was comprised of 10 mid level associates from each department.  The team received feedback from their peers and developed a strategic road map for the future.  This plan includes monthly and quarterly progress reports to the leadership team.  The strategy team will begin rotating new team members through in 2010.  By using a bottom up method employees take ownership for the company's success and failure.

Response by Intermark Media
11-year-old advertising firm from New York
2009 sales: $92.7 million; 161% 3-year sales growth
At Intermark Media we believe changes in the company should be driven from the bottom up.  The employees who are interacting with our clients everyday have valuable insight into what processes work well and what changes need to be made to better meet the needs of our customers.  We encourage all employees to be a part of our decision making process at Intermark Media.  Weekly team meetings allow employees to voice opinions, discuss new ideas and solve problems.  Team leaders encourage input from each and every team member.  In addition to weekly meetings, leaders communicate daily through their email group to vote on awards, discuss ideas and concerns and get feedback.

Application Question: Over the last year, what kind of impact has the economy had on your business?
Response by Man-Machine Systems Assessment
20-year-old consulting firm from the District of Columbia
2009 sales: $8.6 million; 5% 3-year sales growth
The economy has little effect on our business.  We have continued to grow in spite of the economy and I truly believe this is because of the way we operate our business and the culture we have created.  MSA employees feel safe, and know that the owners will do everything within their power to provide work, support their needs, and care for them and their families.  This kind of loyalty is earned, and not bought.  The MSA family is strong and the support we have for one another from the top down to the bottom up allows for strength and faith as we face challenges, like the economy.

Related: We tackled bottom-up staff engagement activities in greater detail with the help of CEOs from two of our previously honored small firms in this webinar.

The following is a guest post on workplace team building and employee engagement by Steve Ritter.  Ritter, the Founder and CEO of Team Clock Institute, is the former Director of HR at Leaders Bank, which was named the #1 Best Place to Work in Illinois in 2006, and was a finalist for Winning Workplaces' Top Small Workplaces award in 2008.

Growing up, most of us are taught how to succeed as individuals.  Unfortunately, individual talent and dedication alone are not nearly enough to ensure a team’s success.  Teams are messy.  Conflict is unavoidable. Team dynamics are fluid.  Despite these challenges, working in teams is fundamental to most endeavors.

Twenty-five years ago, I began the quest of understanding the complexities of teams following a happenstance opportunity with the Chicago White Sox.  At the time, a seemingly strong team was underperforming for reasons beyond the grasp of their leadership.  Unexpectedly, a complex situation ended up having a simple solution.  Since then, identifying the recipe for healthy and effective teams has been my passion giving rise to the founding of the Team Clock Institute, a research and training consultancy specializing in breakthrough teams.  Recently, the Team Clock Institute responded to a unique challenge.

The Issue: Early in 2010, I received a call from a FORTUNE 500 company facing the integration of disparate cultures following the acquisition of a prominent player in the industry.  All of the expectable merger/acquisition politics were underway and the leadership team was seeking a simple model to anchor the transition.  What began as a casual conversation on a commuter train grew into an opportunity to assess the integration effort and provide recommendations to enhance successful business outcomes.

The Response: Accordingly, the Team Clock model was introduced to key players on the leadership team. The Team Clock model mirrors the face of a clock where each hour represents a stage along the path of team development.  In a nutshell, strong teams begin with an investment in common norms and direction.  Based on this foundation, team members test trust as they become more cohesive.  This platform supports their efforts to be innovative and take risks.  This activity inevitably leads to change and a repositioning of people and functions.  Healthy teams find a way to refocus following such growth and cycle begins again. 

The Impact: Over the next six months, the Team Clock Institute assessed a series of key business units to determine opportunities for greater effectiveness.  Results were analyzed revealing the strengths, vulnerabilities, areas of congruence and discord on the team.  Debriefing sessions were facilitated to discuss results and targeted actions were identified that would bring measurable change in team engagement and productivity.

Typical examples of diagnostic vulnerabilities included:

• Mired in loss: too depleted to re-invest.
• Inability to manage conflict/differences respectfully.
• Indulgence in the comfort zone: afraid to take risks and explore new ideas.
• Adherence to the status quo: unwilling to accept the consequences of change.

From a strengths perspective, the Team Clock Institute identified key anchors to healthy team interactions based on the diagnostic results for each team.  Goals were established in each of the core areas of vulnerability and business metrics were assigned to determine ROI.  The goal areas included:

• Investment infrastructure

- Consensus philosophy/mission/values/vision

• Trust and interactional dynamics

- Effective management of conflict

• Innovation and team effectiveness

- Measureable productivity/efficiency shifts

• Distancing to leverage change for growth

- Functional repositioning and identification of new opportunities/methodologies

The business case for effective teaming is simple.  Healthy teams are more productive and adaptable.  Anticipating the 4th quarter of the calendar year, the organization is poised to re-assess their team effectiveness metrics mapped to their productivity results.  Pending the quantitative impact, the qualitative result is clear: the emotional journey of a healthy team provides opportunities for positive workplace culture that struggling teams rarely experience.  Where is your team on the Team Clock?

Learn more about all of the resources at the Team Clock Institute at www.team-clock.com.

It takes time, commitment by company leadership, and at least some financial investment to make significant inroads to implement employee development strategies to create more leaders at all levels within an organization.

So why should a firm go down this path?  What's the ROI?

An article on Newswise this week based on a new study published in The Leadership Quarterly provides answers to these questions.  According to the employee engagement research of Kaiser Permanente by faculty at three California-based universities,

the more effective both the CEO and head of a department are perceived to be; the more [employees] supported the change in strategy.  ...   Moreover, the data showed that leaders are more likely to be effective in getting employees to achieve organizational objectives ... when the employees are shown that their leaders are united in supporting the strategy.

In other words, as the title of the Newswise article suggests, the number and competency of leaders in an organization contribute directly to the effectiveness of both senior leadership and the strategies they seek to carry out to achieve desired business outcomes.

With this in mind, I wanted to share the most popular posts among readers of our Employee Leadership Development blog – the ones that have helped them most to think about and act on the process of creating more leaders among their workforces.  Check them out:

1. The Connection of Flexibility and Training to the Bottom Line
2. 10 Best Practices: Transitioning to Work at Home
3. Updates: Resource Interactive's Work Environment, Comment to Our Post on Zappos' 'Leaving Bonus'
4. Employee Engagement: A WorthWHILE Metric
5. 30 Employee Development Strategies to Boost Productivity
6. BNET: Strong Workplace Cultures a Boon for MBO Leaders
7. Five Proven Strategies for Retaining Top Talent
8. Friday Nugget: Don't Underestimate the Importance of Learning
9. How a Small IT Firm Creates Knowledge Leaders, and the Company ROI
10. Job Swapping Extends Beyond Non-Management Employees

How does a focus on developing leaders factor into your overall employee practices?

Photo credit: CAREEREALISM

I wanted to share with you two upcoming events for which Winning Workplaces is a promotional partner.  You will surely gain valuable insights at both of them to help you implement employee engagement and team building activities for a more productive workplace – especially at the latter event, whose programming is all about that.

SJF Summit on the New Green Economy: Early Bird registration ends this week

What: SJF Summit on the New Green Economy
When: September 14-15, 2010
Where: Durham Marriott Convention Center, Durham, NC
Event Website: www.sjfsummit.org

Register now for SJF's second annual Summit on the New Green Economy: Accelerating Growth and Impact.  The SJF Summit will be a dynamic gathering of entrepreneurs, investors, government and community leaders  sharing inspiring successes & practical tools and exploring strategic partnerships to build the green economy with opportunities for all.  The event will feature keynotes from Bruce Usher, former CEO of carbon trading firm EcoSecurities, and David Orr, distinguished professor at Oberlin College describing the innovative Oberlin green economy initiative, as well as many more.  There will also be a Cleantech CEO panel and concurrent sessions on the latest in cleantech investing, emerging capital market innovations, green jobs and green economic development strategies, and carbon markets.

Creating Competitive Cultures: Register by August 31 and save $300

What: Creating Competitive Cultures: New Leadership Strategies for Building Great Companies
When: October 27-29, 2010
Where: Denver Marriott City Center, Denver, CO
Event Website: www.competitivecultures.com

Inc., the magazine for growing companies, has partnered with Winning Workplaces to discover and recognize private companies with exemplary workplaces that motivate, engage, and reward employees. Honorees will appear in the June 2010 issue of Inc., and the achievement of these companies will be commemorated at the 2010 Inc. and Winning Workplaces Conference on Creating Competitive Cultures (C3).  At C3, you'll learn about innovative approaches from award-winning companies and extraordinary entrepreneurs, the inspirational tools and processes they deploy to build teams and workplace environments that have a lasting impact on financial results and personal satisfaction.  Creating Competitive Cultures presents the newest leadership strategies for developing the best possible company culture, one that results in a loyal, motivated, inspired, and focused team.

What workplace improvement events, in person or virtual, have you already attended this year?

I'm adapting Mark Twain's famous quote in the title of this post because I feel the need to provide a counterpoint to Mike Shipulski's "obituary" of imagination – in an organizational sense – on the Blogging Innovation website today.  Writing as if imagination were a person, Shipulski says,

In recent years (imagination's) health declined as the two new thinking systems, lean and Six Sigma, tricked companies into severely constraining their thinking, and, eventually, there was no longer a place for her.

I'm someone who thinks that regardless of the adoption of a management approach such as the two he lists above, imagination is still alive and well.  I think its vitals are especially strong (in keeping with the obit analogy) in small businesses, where because of wavering if not falling consumer confidence and spending, reduced spending by many of the larger companies they serve and are served by, and in many cases insufficient support by lending institutions and the government, and other factors, firms and their leaders and managers have had to get incredibly imaginative in recent years.

The following articles on our website show how imagination factors into the payoff of employee engagement best practices in terms of a more productive workplace:

Ask An Expert - Vacation Days: Real vs. Perceived Time Off
"The GreenPages example shows that organizations' leadership are only limited by their imagination in how they approach time off for their workforces."

Success Story - JFK Medical Center
"Many of the programs at JFK, which has been widely recognized for its enlightened workplace approach, are beyond the reach of smaller employers.  However, some programs would be feasible for a small workplace with some leadership imagination and sensitivity."

Perhaps more to the point of the current relevancy of imagination, the term showed up several times in the qualitative feedback of applicants for our 2010 Top Small Company Workplaces award.  In response to our question How do leaders in your organization foster a sense of community and collaboration among employees?, TXS Industrial Design in Texas wrote:

On a personal level, with interaction and interest of management, TXS may sometimes resemble "The Office" with humor and humility, sickness and health, birthdays and weddings, celebration of babies and joyous occasions and an occasional party or FoosBall tourney to spark imagination.  Our family of employees feel secure in their jobs and the longevity of the workplace.

In answer to our question asking for an example of an employee learning initiative, Maryand-based Orbit Logic Incorporated wrote:

We do an annual survey to see how employees feel about their job and the work environment.  One of the best suggestions to come out of that survey was an employee lunch and learn.  We really liked the idea, so we ran with it.  The topics are varied, ranging anywhere from benefits overviews to marketing to software development overview for non-developers.  It is very easy for people's imaginations to run wild with information.

Finally, fulfilling our requirement of describing the workplace culture of their organization and the key people practices that support that culture, California-based Perfect Fitness wrote:

Our company, Team PERFECT, is on a mission to serve everyone who desires a life lived to the fullest extent of their imagination, to serve those who realize that's the point of living anything less, and we haven't truly lived.  You have nothing to lose but your own self-imposed limitations, and you can gain anything you dare to imagine.  We believe that by sharing our understanding, you will become as passionate about your potential as we are, this is how we are teammates to all, teachers to some and students of others.  We know of no greater reward in life than helping others unlock their success and achieve their dreams.

Related: The CEO of one of our 2009 award winners, Chicago-based Radio Flyer, explains in this video on our YouTube channel how the company's workplace values of fun and imagination allow them to better resonate with their customers – parents – and foster greater employee commitment and innovation.

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