What Makes A Company A Best Place To Work?
What makes a company simply the best place to work? Turns out, it’s not such a secret after all. This week, we profile our top 25 winners from the Hartford Business Journal’s Best Places to Work in Connecticut competition. These companies demonstrate common characteristics that bring out the best in their employees and leaders and help them succeed even in a difficult economy.
In each case, the employees who drive the businesses are motivated, empowered by management and highly productive. They turn out superior products and services to their clients and customers. They love what they do and it shows. Not surprisingly, companies where a strong team spirit prevails and employees are valued tend to be financially successful. Enthusiasm carries all the way to the bottom line.
These companies are also good neighbors, ranking high year after year among top contributors to civic and charitable causes in dollars and volunteer participation. They look for community minded employees and give them the means to actively participate in a myriad of causes across the state.
The winning companies participated in a two-part survey about personnel policies and practices conducted by the Pennsylvania-based Best Companies Group, a third-party research firm that manages similar “Best” programs throughout the nation and Canada. The survey information was collected from both employers and employees and used by Best Companies to rank competing companies based on the quality of their workplaces.
The following profiles explain what makes these organizations such satisfying places to work. Their shared traits seem less coincidence and more like a formula for success. They demonstrate that success in business is more than a matter of products, branding and service. It’s also about the character of the organization as reflected in the contentment of its employees.
Publisher
Click here to view photos from the event.
Click here to link to Best Company Group’s presentation
THE FINALISTS:
(listed in alphabetical order)
Stories by Kevin Moore
Special to the Hartford Business Journal
A.W. Hastings & Co., Enfield
Aerodyne Alloys, LLC, South Windsor
Comcast, Berlin
Dime Bank, Norwich
Edward Jones, Enfield
EMCOR Services New England Mechanical, Vernon
Envision Pharma, Inc., Southport
Haggett Longobardi – A Division of J.H. Cohn, Glastonbury
HARCO, Branford
Homecare Management Strategies, Inc./OMNI Medical Billing Plus, Wallingford
Icon International, Stamford
KBE Building Corporation, Farmington
Kforce Professional Staffing, East Hartford
Kostin, Ruffkess & Company, LLC, Farmington
Michael Page International, Stamford
New England Financial Group, West Hartford
Ovation Benefits Group, Farmington
Pepperidge Farm, Inc., Norwalk
PPI Benefit Solutions, Wallingford
Pullman & Comley, LLC, Bridgeport
Robinson & Cole, LLP, Hartford
Shared Technologies, Inc., Milford
Shipman & Goodwin LLP, Hartford
Standard Builders, Inc., Newington
UHY Advisors N.E., LLC, New Haven
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How the ranking process works:
Now in its fourth year, the Best Places to Work in Connecticut program was created by the Hartford Business Journal and Best Companies Group to identify and recognize best places to work in the state of Connecticut. The program is managed by Best Companies Group, a third-party research firm that manages similar “Best” programs all over the United States and in Canada.
The Best Places to Work in Connecticut program was open to all publicly or privately held organizations, either for-profit or not-for-profit. To be eligible for consideration, companies must have had a total of 15 or more employees working in the state of Connecticut. Companies with headquarters in another state, but with 15 or more employees working in Connecticut, were also eligible. Participation in this program required organizations to go through a workplace assessment process, which included surveying their employees, as well as taking an inventory of the company benefits, policies and offerings. The information was processed and analyzed by Best Companies Group and then used to determine the Best Places to Work in Connecticut.
All participating companies went through a two-part workplace assessment process. Part one of the assessment (worth 25 percent of the evaluation) consisted of a employer benefits and policies questionnaire about benefits, policies, practices and other general information. Part two of the assessment (75 percent of the evaluation) consisted of a 72-question, confidential employee engagement and satisfaction survey. This comprehensive, two-part assessment allowed the workplace experts at Best Companies Group to perform an in-depth analysis of each company’s strengths and weaknesses and ultimately determine which companies deserved to make the list. Susan Springer, Best Companies Group Director of Workplace Assessments, managed the overall analysis process.
Companies also received the in-depth employee feedback report, which showed the percent of positive responses for each of the 72 questions, along with the percent of positive responses within seven demographic categories (gender, age, ethnicity, duration of employment, full- or part-time status, job role and department). Companies also received state benchmarking reports in which they could compare themselves against list-making companies and all participating companies.
More information about Best Companies Group is available at www.BestCompaniesGroup.com.
