Ever since Fortune released its inaugural Best Places to Work list in 1997, the honor has only grown in significance, and not coincidentally, so have terms like “company culture,” “work-life balance,” and “office perks.” There are many reasons for the uptick in popularity experienced by these corporate catchphrases—technology, millennials entering the workforce, a national increased understanding of health and wellness, the economic downturn—but one thing is for sure: being a “Best Places to Work” is good for business.
Publically traded companies on Fortune’s 100 Best Places to Work list have gained an average of 10.8% per year since 1998. Companies on the list from the information technology and professional services sectors boasted an 8.5% and 13.4% lower turnover rate than their respective industry averages. These statistics aren’t surprising considering that companies willing to devote resources to keeping their employees engaged are rewarded with better quality of work, higher productivity, and a stronger sense of loyalty.
DPR Construction, a Cvent Web Surveys client and one of the nation’s largest general contractors, not only made Fortune’s top 100 for five straight years, they scaled the list’s upper echelons—coming in at #10. So, what does it take to stack up to the best corporate culture companies on the block? For starters, keeping up with the Googles is no easy task, but here is how DPR did it.
1. Understand your Employees– This is the first and most important step to creating an extraordinary work environment. Fun perks are great, but they aren’t substantive enough to be the bedrock of a successful employee engagement program. Collecting your employees’ feedback and finding out what key factors drive their satisfaction or dissatisfaction levels is the only way to know how to better engage them.
DPR sends out comprehensive, anonymous employee satisfaction web surveys each year. The company heavily promotes participation among all staff members and provides many different ways for them to access the survey—emails, on-site kiosks, unique URLS, versions in both English and Spanish. This is critical because DPR’s field employees don’t have regular access to a computer, and for many, English is not their first language. Once DPR collects its employees’ feedback, the company actually puts the data to use. Reports with year-over-year analyses and regional comparisons are distributed to regional managers, so they can have complete visibility into overall satisfaction trends. The regional managers use these insights to alleviate areas of dissatisfaction in their business plans for the upcoming year. While it would not be feasible to address every single concern cited by employees, collecting their feedback and taking steps to make changes shows you value their input and care about their professional happiness--and that inspires loyalty and high performance.
2. Offer Cool Perks– Let’s be honest, perks add a fun element to your corporate culture, brighten employees’ days and can make for great recruiting fodder. At DPR, work groups take a half-day off once a year to do a team-building activity, employees are treated to free breakfast on Fridays, and there is even a wine bar in its San Francisco office.
How do you know what perks your employees would love? Ask them in your employee engagement survey!
3. Cultivate a Challenging Environment– When employees feel challenged, they work harder to deliver results. Success leads to fulfillment and keeps employees engaged. DPR creates a challenging environment by posting scoreboards based on success factors to get employees' competitive juices flowing.
4. Incentivize High Performance– Employees at DPR receive annual bonus points based on their performance and company goals. They can save up and put their points toward merchandise or services offered in DPR’s catalog and online store.
These are just a few pieces of the “Best Places to Work” employee engagement puzzle—and they are specific to DPR and what makes its own employees happy. Every company is unique, but they all start with an understanding of their employees. Your employees might have a different idea of a great work environment than DPR's, but you won’t know until you ask. Read DPR’s full employee engagement success story here.