Pulling Together
Amid the economic uncertainty of the past year, one might expect that identifying organizations said to be among this year’s best places to work in Connecticut would be quite a challenge. That’s not the case. We discovered, instead, that the worst of times has brought out the best in people — in employees, managers and executives. The businesses inside represent more than just this year’s group of finalists in the Hartford Business Journal’s annual Best Places to Work Awards. They’re a sampling of the kinds of businesses from across the state that have confronted, to one degree or another, the most difficult economy that many employees have seen in their lifetimes. These companies did so with great humanity, tenacity, and a determination to maintain positive work environments.
Several finalist companies implemented employee assistance funds to help their employees facing sudden, unexpected financial crisis due to the loss of a spouse’s job or other financially crippling blows. Others, adjusted work shifts to accommodate child and elder care realities at home so a spouse could work extra hours or take on a part-time job. Still, others refused to cut skill training and development budgets to enable employees to continue learning — and earning.
The results were employees at these companies, as evidenced by their comments in our Best Places to Work survey, who stood behind their employers — even during necessary staff and resource reductions. They praised their managers and senior executives for their open communications, commitment and fairness of treatment, even in the face of harsh, but necessary decisions.
Congratulations, finalists. You’ve earned the title, Best Places to Work, by proving yourselves to the most important judges of all — your employees.
Publisher
THE FINALISTS:
(listed in alphabetical order)
Stories by Kevin Moore,
contributing editor to the Hartford Business Journal
Barnum Financial Group
Beekley Corporation
Bingham McCutchen LLP
Burns & McDonnell Engineering Company, Inc.
Business & Legal Resources
Comcast Corp.
Connolly
Digitas
Dur-A-Flex
Edward Jones
Henkel Corporation
Hinckley, Allen & Snyder LLP
Homecare Management Strategies, Inc./OMNI Medical Billing Plus
Hudson Home Health Care
ICON International, Inc.
Kforce Inc.
Kostin, Ruffkess & Company, LLC
Michael Page International
Ovation Benefits
PPI Benefit Solutions
Pullman & Comley, LLC
Robinson & Cole LLP
Shared Technologies Inc.
Standard Builders, Inc.
Yale-New Haven Hospital
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.
Information on the Best Places to Work in Connecticut program can be found at www.bestplacestoworkinct.com.
