It's that time of the year again. Allergy season? March madness? Yes, those too, but more importantly it's time for the Best Places to Work survey results to come out! Some believe that getting on lists from publications like AdAge or Washingtonian is about frivolous self-promotion and is a waste of time. But those articles continue to be hugely popular for a reason, so it's certainly worth a shot to make use of a potentially powerful recruiting tool.
What are the common characteristics of those companies that repeatedly top the lists? Here are a few, based on results from AdAge, Washingtonian, Glassdoor, and CNNMoney:
- Personal touches, such as hand-written birthday cards and one-on-one meetings with executives make employees feel valued by upper level management.
- Who said there's no such thing as a free lunch? Some offices offer monthly catered lunch, stocked refrigerators, happy hours and homemade breakfasts. Just like Mom's house!
- Family-friendly companies offer flexible work schedules, childcare and breastfeeding rooms to encourage work-life balance.
- Workers who are in shape and healthy are less likely to use sick leave and run up high health insurance bills. So offering gym membership and well-being subsidies, like many "best of" companies do, is a win-win.
- Employees realize that they're at work to do work, so make it worth their while. The companies at the top of the list tend to focus on training and development, challenging their people often.
- And of course, who doesn't like a raise or bonus? Don't forget the value of a great compensation package.
You don't have to wait till these articles come out to find out if you'll be on the list. Be proactive! Start polling current employees to see if they think you would make the cut by sending out a firm-wide employee satisfaction survey. If the results aren't terribly flattering, figure out why and what you can do to fix them. If your employees think your company is a great place to be, don't be afraid to advertise those selling points to prospective employees and, if it's something you think your organization would benefit from, encourage your employees to officially vote for you. Finally, don't forget to ask your former employees to fill out a survey as well—they're more likely to give you honest answers and can be particularly helpful if you have a high turnover rate.
Learn more about how a professional online survey solution could help you get on the right track by registering for an upcoming demo.