Courant announces Top Workplaces winners for 2020
The Hartford Courant recognized 48 companies in a special online ceremony Thursday honoring the Top Workplaces for 2020.
“After employees from companies all across Hartford, Middlesex, Tolland, New London & Windham counties were surveyed, this afternoon we recognize the best of the best,” Courant Publisher and Editor Andrew Julien told an online audience of hundreds Thursday afternoon. “Our top 48 workplaces, from banks to health care organizations, to manufacturers, all share core values that drive success in the workplace.”
This year, as the coronavirus pandemic upended businesses across Connecticut, the companies recognized by the Hartford Courant Top Workplaces 2020 awards found ways to stay connected with employees and keep them engaged even — if they no larger shared the same physical workspace.
A list of all winners can be found at courant.com. A special Top Workplaces magazine will be included in Sunday’s Hartford Courant.
“We went into the Zoom world,” said Candace Adams, president and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway Home Services New England Properties, the No. 1 employer in the large company category. “I went onto Zoom office meetings. We communicated every single week with our agents via email, via videos, via town hall meetings. We’ve had all-company meetings via Zoom where we’ve had a psychologist come on to talk about the path forward, what does this mean, how do people feel.”
Sabrina Trocchi, CEO and president of the Wheeler Clinic, said the coronavirus
pandemic has brought a new tenacity to the workplace.
“What has become so evident, more than ever, is the urgency to communicate, to be transparent with staff around what we’re doing, what we’re thinking, how we’re moving forward,
how they can be part of the decision-making and informing how we do that,” said Trocchi, who was given a special leadership award, along with Tom Caporaso, CEO of Clarus Commerce and Meghan West, president of CNC Software.
“Really, the biggest piece was to make sure that every staff member was heard, that they knew they were heard and there was a response,” Trocchi said. “Sometimes it wasn’t the response they were hoping, but it wasn’t just a ‘no.’”
More than 778 employers in the region were invited to take part in this year’s awards. To participate, a company, public agency, nonprofit or other organization had to have at least 50 employees in Hartford, Middlesex, Tolland, Windham or New London counties. There was no charge to participate.
Top workplaces were selected based on employee responses to a confidential questionnaire prepared by the Philadelphia-based research firm Energage. Surveys to 18,875 people employed at 62 companies and organizations. Among those, 11,690 people responded, on paper and online.
Top Workplace winners this year included Emergency Resource Management in the small employers division; Talcott Resolution Life Insurance Company in the midsize employers division; Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices New England Properties in the large employers division.