Today The Dallas Morning News opens nominations for Top 100 Places to Work 2014, our sixth annual celebration of companies where employees don’t dread Mondays.
Why should you nominate your company?
Dallas-Fort Worth is in a full-tilt growth mode, which means employers will have a harder time attracting qualified, motivated workers who fit into their corporate cultures. Our competition has a well-earned reputation that potential hires take seriously.
“It’s not unheard of for us to have 500 to 600 people apply for one position,” says Phillip Jones, CEO of the Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau, a four-time winner.
The fact that so many companies enter year after year shows that the process is pretty painless and highly rewarding.
We can make good companies better. That’s fact, not bragging.
“The Top 100 survey is an invaluable tool for us as we gauge the effectiveness of our programs and practices during the past year,” says Whitney Shelley, human resources vice president at Denbury Resources Inc., one of our 16 five-time winners. “We leverage our learnings as we build our people and business strategy for the next year.”
In the past, I’ve urged companies that think they’re at the top of their game to enter. This year, I’d like to encourage those that aren’t so sure.
Your company may be a stronger contestant than you think. If not, you’ll get a free 10-page executive summary from our research partner, WorkplaceDynamics of Exton, Pa., that includes advice about shoring up areas of worker dissatisfaction.
There’s no embarrassment factor. We at The News never see the list of companies that enter and come up short.
But we do know that last year, 10 of the winners had won in the past but didn’t make the cut in 2012. They listened to their employees’ feedback, worked on areas of weakness and made the list again in 2013.
“We decided to take actions to seek improvement,” says Jere Thompson Jr., CEO of Ambit Energy. “Thanks for the wake-up call.”
“We read through the written comments,” says Bruce Graham, president of Tyler Technologies Inc. “It can be a little painful to get the unfiltered truth directly from the troops. But in general, our people try to be constructive and not just vent.”
How it works
Our contest is one of the most competitive of the 40-plus regions surveyed by WorkplaceDynamics. Many companies that didn’t make our list would be Top 100 workplaces just about anywhere else, CEO Doug Claffey says.
“Companies in Dallas realize that providing a great workplace is a discriminator for talent,” Claffey says. “But it’s more than just a tool for recruiting. It’s a point of pride.”
Anyone — an assembly worker, the CEO, a customer, vendor or someone who admires the company from afar — can nominate any organization.
Nominations are due April 18.
Any organization with 50 or more employees is eligible. It can be publicly held, privately owned, a nonprofit or a government agency. Companies in Dallas, Tarrant, Denton, Collin, Ellis, Johnson, Kaufman, Parker, Rockwall and Wise counties can enter.
There is no charge to enter, but it is a serious commitment. Companies have to give us email access to every employee or agree to distribute paper surveys with return envelopes. At least 35 percent of your employees have to respond, and you can’t strong-arm them to do so.
Employees are asked to measure how true 22 short statements are about their organizations. Things like: I believe this company is headed in the right direction and I have the flexibility I need to balance my work and personal life. The survey takes about five minutes to complete.
The responses are anonymous, so workers can can complain at will.
Your company doesn’t have to be based here. Small units of big corporations are eligible as long as they have 50 or more workers in North Texas.
Small companies are as likely to win as larger ones, since the competition is divided into three employee sizes.
WorkplaceDynamics contacts the nominated companies, invites them to participate, processes the employee feedback and gives us a list of the 100 winners.
Top secret
Only a handful of people in our newsroom know the names and rankings of the Top 100 companies before the magazine is published in November, and we closely guard that information from others, including our bosses and our colleagues in advertising.
You can’t buy your way onto the list. The advertising department and the newsroom have an impregnable firewall.
Standout companies are announced in grand fashion at a luncheon in November.
Our speakers aren’t your typical luncheon fare. Last year, world-renowned sleep expert Jim Maas, who coined the phrase power nap, warned about the dangers of encouraging a company full of sleep-deprived zombies and gave tips for turning more shut-eye into higher productivity.
Our editorial department produces a beautiful and informative magazine that pays tribute to the Top 100 and gives practical and easy-to-copy examples of what makes a thriving workplace.
To provide full disclosure, the competition makes money for the newspaper and our research partner. The News sells advertisements in the magazine — but only after the competition is over.
WorkplaceDynamics gives every company that enters, not just the 100 winners, that 10-page executive summary. But it also sells a more detailed analysis.
If you know a company that deserves recognition, go to dallasnews.com/nominate or call 214-550-8155.
WANT TO ENTER?
Starting Sunday, you can nominate a company you admire for The Dallas Morning News Top 100 Places to Work 2014.
Go to dallasnews.com/nominate or call 214-550-8155.
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