It’s a high-tech global marketplace, but this year’s Top Workplaces also depend on face-to-face and personal communication as they strive to keep staff motivated and collegial. Encouraging teamwork and support of employees, each company focuses on frequent communication within their operations.
Following are some of the many comments recently submitted by the 2012 Top Workplaces:
“We have implemented monthly cross-functional, international communication meetings and internal webinars, confidential employee communication surveys, departmental team meetings, open door interaction with teams and managers and open floor-plan office arrangements to maximize collaboration and seasonal social events,” noted Actuate Corporation.
Arena Solutions: We encourage communication from all levels within the company. We are not top-down in our communication, that’s not our culture. We’re very informal and our communication systems reflect that. Information is often shared in the hallways, the kitchen or during casual office chats. Our CEO and other execs are very approachable and make themselves available for drop-in discussions or to answer quick questions. When asked, “hey — do you have a minute?Ó the answer is almost always “yes.” And that casual collaboration is what helps us work together so well as a team.
California Water Service Group noted that the company intranet provides a channel for daily communication and news updates. “We are also piloting social interaction sites similar to Facebook for both employees and retirees.”
With 35,000 employees around the world, Celestica uses global, regional and site online communication vehicles. It also has “Connections,” an online business networking tool that helps employees collaborate with each other and share best practices with peers. At the San Jose site, monthly “all hands” meetings provide a place for employees to ask questions and the “open door” policy means any employee can go to the general manager and ask questions, too.
Del Grande Dealer Group: A monthly newsletter is emailed to all employees to announce top achievers, discuss upcoming events and update staff. Managers hold weekly meetings with their teams, and the company conducts an annual, company-wide employee satisfaction survey.
“We believe that communication IS leadership – they are one and the same,” responded The Container Store. “We don’t work on a ‘need to know’ basis, but rather we ask ourselves who will benefit from having this information?” The goal is to help staff do their job better and be the best employee and leader and person they can be, noted the company. “We believe the advantages of our open, honest, transparent and thorough execution to communication far outweighs and possible disadvantages É. It’s consistent with our belief in valuing our employees É making sure we all feel appreciated, included, empowered and receive the information and training we need to be successful in our roles.”
The Cooper Companies has an intranet which helps employees communicate as well as have access to company resources and information. Monthly email blasts share news and announcements and departments and groups circulate news as well. Road shows and local meetings plus a family-oriented culture also facilitate face-to-face communication.
In addition to quarterly company-wide webcasts, Curtis Instruments holds one-off meetings as needed. “In all meetings, employees are encouraged to ask questions, no matter how tough they may seem.” Bi-monthly “Coffee with the CEO” also fosters discussions, and there are monthly “Cookies with the Rookies” which encourage interaction between experienced employees and new hires.
Edelman, a communications business, said, “We place great importance on making sure employees at all levels are informed about the business at the global and local level through a variety of touch points. Strategic developments and company news are communicated through live video chats with the executive team to allow employees to understand and hear information first-hand.
Hitachi Data Systems Corporation holds quarterly town hall meetings at its headquarters, has an internal community platform for discussion and collaboration, an “Open Channel” which allows employees to submit anonymous questions which will be answered within a few days, and has regular email communication to all employees. “Empowerment, accountability, transparency and the practice of ‘team before self’ are all manifested in the way we communicate with our employees around the world.”
iD Tech Camps responded that the company “is passionate about developing a transparent culture built around open and honest communication.” The CEO holds a “Quarterly Ketchup” meeting “to update all employees on how the company is doing, reviews successes, plans for improvement and goals for the future.” And, “all employees are encouraged to pass along iDeas, and several of these, including a new wellness program, have been implemented.”
Integrated Device Technology reported it has a “transparent culture built around open and honest communication.” There’s a suggestion box on the home page and employees are welcome to submit comments and suggestions, which are visible to all. Video conferencing allows all employees to communicate with each other around the globe and a quarterly company-wide meeting includes the CEO’s updates on the company. An “ask the CEO” section online encourage employees to ask questions and the CEO also uses this as a forum to gain feedback from employees.
As a school district with 1,200+ employees working at 22 different worksites, the Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District Òworks hard to create a unified vision and message that is communicated and reinforced with all constituents. Through a combination of formal and informal meetings, a summer Leadership Institute and a Back to School Kickoff as well as other events through the year, they work to keep everyone updated.
The superintendent has a bi-weekly Grapevine newsletter and the district publishes a three-times-annually Community Connections update. Students and parents also have email access to teachers and administrators.
Mason McDuffie Mortgage Corporation’s BEST program — Bringing Excellence and Service Together -— recognizes an operations team member each month with a prize and “gives us an opportunity to say to them how important they are to our success individually, collectively and as a company.” Operations employees may nominate a co-worker; managers and executives are not eligible.
Nelson Family of Companies, in addition to publishing news and information on line, has a Community at Nelson blog “where we share information about the ways our employees are giving back to the community. We also have a peer-to-peer recognition program where individuals are recognized company-wide to celebrate their contributions and successes.”
While “Email is the most efficient way to get important messages out to everyone, and it is utilized by all levels of management,” noted Pet Food Express, each store also gets a weekly visit from a senior management (AKA “road warrior”) who make themselves available for questions, concerns and conversations from any employee.
Qualcomm MEMS Technologies: We are a global organization so we utilize streaming video for all-hands meetings at both corporate and divisional levels and regularly use technologies such as TelePresence and Lync for staff meetings and program reviews.
To foster communication between teams, RedSeal reports a “vibrant corporate intranet where individual teams post their latest work (such as any new marketing materials) and our CTO surfaces his emerging research in his own ‘CTO Corner.’”
Riverbed Technology augments its all-hands meetings with fun, social activities offsite. Sales teams in different global regions host mid-year kickoff meetings. “At the end of each earnings quarter, our CEO, CFO and other executives host company-wide information-sharing meetings. Remote employees attend via web conferencing and all employees are given the opportunity to ask questions.”
Rocket Fuel reported they use face-to-face meetings along with high-tech systems. “Our all-hands Monday lunches are a great forum to keep everyone informed. We give weekly sales updates, department updates including client wins and customer successes.” They also “leverage tools like Apple’s FaceTime, Skype and Yammer! to capture the latest happenings within the company along with funny or relevant tidbits that could affect the company, or give an employee a chance to take a break and smile.”
At Simply Hired, open communication is a priority. “One of the values we follow is ‘You owe people your candor.'” Every other week we hold a company-wide meeting where everything from company revenue to product changes are openly discussed.
Workday’s co-founder and co-CEO Dave Duffield sends a weekly email to the company reviewing activities, programs and events on the calendar. It also recognizes “special contributions of staff. Employees contribute to the content of this email to ensure it is broad in scope and relevant to the entire company.”
VMware, Inc. reported that more than 95 percent of their employees are linked on the Òinternal social network where people communicate across departments, levels and geographies.Ó Benefits are Òidea sharing that keeps us innovative and ongoing feedback from all directions ensures progress and forward momentum.Ó A global livestream broadcast is done quarterly.
Not all companies responded to all questions.
Ideas!
Have employees participate in brainstorming sessions, create a list of what is not going well and from that list each employee selects a problem(s) he or she wants to resolve. – Californa Water Service Group
Committees led by staff drive passion iniatives such as office culture, health and wellness, philanthropy and social. – Edelman
A new headquarters was designed with no walled offices to facilitate an “open door” policy. The building also has “collaboration areas” where all employees are encouraged to congregate. “We’ve made these areas conducive to exploring new ideas with large screens and printable white boards.” – Rambus, Inc.
Mason McDuffie Mortgage Corporation’s BEST program – Bringing Excellence and Service Together recognizes an operations team member each month with a prize and “gives us an opportunity to say to them how important they are to our success indivually, collectively and as a company.” Operations employees may nominate a co-worker; managers and executives are not eligible.
