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What is Best Places to Work?
What is the goal/objective of the program?
Who can participate?
Is there a cost to participate?
Do participating companies receive survey feedback?
What is the process?
What is the timeline?
What are the benefits of participating?
How will companies be selected for the list?
Is there an HR questionnaire (Workplace Practice Report) to complete this year in addition to the Employee Survey?
What if a company does not make the list?
Confidentiality
What is Best Places to Work?
Best Places to Work in the Valley is a local contest designed to identify the best places of employment in the metro-Phoenix area based 100% on employee opinion survey results. The program was founded in 2003 by BestCompaniesAZ, The Great Place to Work Institute (research partner for Fortune Magazine 100 Best Companies to Work for in America and HR Magazine), and our local Media Partner, The Phoenix Business Journal. In 2004 we transitioned over to research partner, Quantum Market Research, the exclusive research partner for Best Places to Work competitions in 40 US cities. As a result, participants have access to the country's largest database of comparative benchmarking.
What is the goal/objective of the program?
To identify the best places of employment in the Metro-Phoenix area (Maricopa and Pinal counties) for the benefit of the local economy, business and workforce.
Our primary focus:
 To create and publish a highly credible list valued by employees and management.
To foster a competitive spirit among valley businesses for improving workplaces in Metro-Phoenix.
To obtain information about Metro-Phoenix's businesses to help raise workplace standards throughout the valley by benchmarking workplace performance now and into the future.
To help the valley attract and retain a talented workforce.
To promote Metro-Phoenix's best employment opportunities on an exclusive website - http://www.bestcompaniesaz.com/bptw.shtml - to attract new workers.
Who can participate?
We are looking for local companies that employ at least 25 employees in the Metro-Phoenix area (Maricopa and Pinal counties). These companies can be for-profit, non-profit, private, public, subsidiaries or business units, government or state agencies, or charitable organizations. The 25 employees must be full-time or part-time LOCAL employees (seasonal, temporaries or contractors should not be included in this headcount).
Is there a cost to participate?
There is NO fee to participate in the survey. Plus, you will receive a free Category Overview Report from Quantum Market Research. This report shows how your employees responded in the 10 specific categories (listed below). If you are interested in customizing your report or purchasing a full detailed report of your results see pricing information below or contact Quantum Market Research for details.
Categories Surveyed:
Team Effectiveness
Retention Risk
Alignment with Goals
Trust with Coworkers
Individual Contribution
Manager Effectiveness
Trust in Senior Leaders
Feeling Valued
Work Engagement
People Practices
Do participating companies receive survey feedback?
The top three finalists in each category (small, medium and large-sized companies) will receive a free complimentary standardized report showing the participating company's scores against the average of all participating companies in that tier (small, medium or large-sized company). The report will illustrate your company's scores vs. the average of all other companies in your category or tier. To see an example visit http://www.qmrinc.com/bestplaces/reports/.
What is the process?
1) Sign Up!
Sign up your company at http://phoenix.bizjournals.com/phoenix/nomination/. The application is brief and should take less than 5-10 minutes to complete.
2) Register Your Company with our research partner - Quantum Market Research
Within 2 weeks of signing up, you should receive an e-mail from Quantum Market Research that contains the rules of the competition and a link to the online registration page. Here, you will be given your company's Organization Code and directed to the survey website at www.qmrinc.com/bestplaces.
3) Consider survey customizations
Participants may benefit from customizing their employee survey for $2,000.
Customizations include:
adding questions unique to your company or industry
adding custom demographics to enhance your slicing functions, (i.e. by department or location)
surveying employees outside your contest area
4) Take the survey
Once you have your company's Organization Code, distribute it to your employees along with a link to www.qmrinc.com/bestplaces, so that they may complete the survey online. The survey contains approximately 40 likert-scale questions and one open-ended question, and takes less than 10 minutes to complete.
By taking this survey, you will help us measure how your company stacks-up against other same-size employers.
You will be asked to evaluate your company in these areas:
Team Effectiveness
Retention Risk
Alignment with Goals
Trust with Coworkers
Individual Contribution
Manager Effectiveness
Trust in Senior Leaders
Feeling Valued
Work Engagement
People Practices
5) Advanced reporting options provide by Quantum:
Your participation in this survey is an excellent opportunity to learn what your employees are really thinking, and provides you with valuable information you can use to improve your day-to-day operations and workplace environment. For those who want to capitalize on this opportunity, Quantum offers a suite of add-on reporting options. There are three reporting packages that come with various combinations of analytical tools starting at $500, $750 up to $1,250. To see a demo of these reporting tools, visit www.qmrinc.com/bestplaces/reports.
6) Human Resource Support provided by BestCompaniesAZ:
Receive pre-planning assistance and an individualized consultation session with BestCompaniesAZ consultants, your experts on building "best places to work".
BCAZ can help your company produce customized sample emails from CEO, strategies to produce high response rate, consultation on additional questions to address current issues, and other custom needs. Call or email today if we can assist - 480-545-5151.
What is the timeline?
July 5 - August 29
Companies sign up to participate.
August 29
Deadline to sign up.
Beginning of September
Quantum will provide each participating company with instructions on how to disseminate the employee survey to the local workforce.
Each company will need to prepare a communication instructing employees to visit a specific URL which will require the organization code.
ALL full-time and part-time LOCAL employees should be invited to participate in the survey online. Temporary, contractors or seasonal employees should NOT be included in the survey.
The survey is anonymous and should take employees about 15 minutes to complete online. Paper versions of the survey are available. Spanish version is available upon request.
September 5 - September 26
Employees complete online survey
End of September
Deadline for employees to complete online survey
Mid October
Each company is notified by The Business Journal as to whether or not they made the list.
December 11
Awards Luncheon at the Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa announcing winners and ranking in each category (small, medium and large-sized companies)
December 11
Best Places to Work list published in The Phoenix Business Journal and on BestCompaniesAZ website.
What are the benefits of participating?
Decades of research demonstrates a positive correlation between progressive people practices and increased financial performance. For instance, publicly held companies on Fortune magazine's "100 Best Companies to Work For" list historically have far outperformed the stock market averages over recorded three, five and 10 year periods. The same correlation can be found among local 2005 "Best Place to Work" companies when comparing their performance to the S&P 500.
The Phoenix public companies showed a return of almost double the S&P 12 month return. Some specific areas of improved financial performance that firms with better workplace practices can typically expect are:
Lower turnover costs. Companies on "best lists" typically experience lower turnover rates that are about one-half that of their industries.
Ability to attract and retain higher quality candidates.
Lower costs associated with the negative aspects of bad workplaces - better attendance, lower medical costs resulting from stress-related illness, fewer on-the-job accidents.
Higher levels of autonomy, innovation and risk-taking.
Increased public profile and positive recognition increasing employee pride.
Higher degree of employee satisfaction among resulting in high employee morale.
Higher degree of customer satisfaction.
Opportunity to advertise and promote your "best place to work award" on an exclusive niche site created for ONLY valley "Best Companies" - www.BestCompaniesAZ.com
Opportunity to be featured in special Business Journal supplement promoting your company and award.
How will companies be selected for the list?
The list of Best Places to Work in the Valley will be based solely on the employees' survey results. For the company's results to be statistically valid and to qualify for the competition, companies need to get employee participation based on the following percentages per size of the organization:
Less than 50 employees - 85%
51 - 150 employees - 70%
151 - 500 employees - 50%
501 - 1,000 employees - 30%
1,001 - 3,000 employees - 15%
3,001 - 5,000 employees - 8%
More than 5000 employees- 5%
In other words, a company with 17,000 locally-based employees would need at least 850 employees to participate. A company with 100 employees would need 70 of its employees to participate, and so on.
Quantum will notify each participating company prior to the cutoff date if the appropriate response rate indicated above has not been received.
We will select the top companies in the following three categories:
Small-sized companies - 25-99
Medium-sized companies - between 100-250 employees
Large-sized companies - over 250 employees
An overall favorable company score must first be achieved to make the list (using a ranking formula which will be determined by Quantum once all company results are in), and then each company will be listed in rank order up to 30 based on overall rating.
Note:
The past 2 years an overall favorable company score of 80% was required to land on the list, and then companies were ranked 1-30. These numbers may vary based on level of participation each year.
Is there an HR questionnaire (Workplace Practice Report) to complete this year in addition to the Employee Survey?
No, this information is compiled every other year by BestCompaniesAZ HR Consulting team (next study will be conducted in 2008). If you are interested in purchasing the 2006 Workplace Practice Results in CD format, click here for more information and the table of contents.
What if a company does not make the list?
If your company does not appear on the Best Places to Work in the Valley list, it will still experience advantages from participating.
1. Feedback Reports - Your workplace will have the opportunity to purchase the survey feedback online through Quantum Market Research as indicated above. This report will show how the employees responded to the questions in the employee survey. This information can be extremely valuable for it can highlight the strengths and weaknesses of your company so that you can prioritize future activities and move towards the goal of becoming one of the best workplaces in the valley in the future.
2. Individualized Consultation - You can also schedule an individualized consultation with BestCompaniesAZ, Founding Partner of the Best Places to Work program.
This consultation includes:
Survey Analysis and Reporting - BCAZ can assist analyzing Quantum's survey results and preparing and presenting a report to management on common themes, strengths, weaknesses, and action plans for improvement.
Benchmarking - In additional to your survey benchmarking options, BCAZ can also benchmark your HR programs, policies, procedures, benefits and perks against the 2006 benchmark data from the 2006 Best Companies.
Facilitation of Focus Groups -Focus Group facilitation is also available upon request with two experienced "best place to work" facilitators.
Call or email today for pricing! 480-545-5151
Confidentiality
Companies that participate but do not make the list will not be disclosed. We do not reveal whether or not a company has participated for selection on the list. |
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