A way to show recruits you’ve got a top workplace
Employers looking to hire would prefer interviewing three people and happening upon the next Sidney Crosby of — fill in the blank — salespeople, engineers, plumbers, teachers or hospice workers.
Convincing future stars to take the job can be more challenging than beating the Chicago Blackhawks. And keeping those already on the team isn’t easy either in a tight job market with unemployment sitting at around 4 percent.
For the past eight years, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has been running a program called Top Workplaces — sort of a way to let employers have a third-party poll their workers (for free) on how
they perceive their jobs and the organization’s operations.
The process takes a few months and generates rankings of the Pittsburgh region’s Top Workplaces.
Last year, more than 23,000 employees at southwestern Pennsylvania organizations responded anonymously to the PostGazette’s survey.
Energage, the research partner for the project, conducts Top Workplaces surveys for 50 major metro newspapers and reports that it surveyed 3 million employees at more than 7,000 organizations in 2018.
As the nomination process opens for 2019, it’s a good moment to dip into what has been learned since the Post-Gazette’s program launched in 2011.
1. A tech company bonanza: Either tech recruiters have discovered it helps to be named a Top Workplace as they deal with a highly competitive field or there are just more tech companies in the Pittsburgh region than there used to be. Or both. In 2011, five companies in the rankings could arguably be included in that category. By 2017, 14 had a tech connection — although really any company these days is looking for IT skills.
2. Bank mergers have been a big thing, Part I: For several years, ESB Bank, based in Ellwood City, was a reliable Top Workplace. ESB in 2014 was acquired by Wheeling, W.Va.-based WesBanco, meaning it wasn’t on the 2015 list. In 2018, WesBanco was named a Top Workplace.
3. Bank mergers have been a big thing, Part II: First National Bank, a Mercer County financial institution, showed up in the first list in 2011 and has been there every year even as the bank, through its FNB Corp. parent, has swallowed up local names such as Parkvale Financial Corp. and fartherflung organizations such Annapolis Bancorp. It also moved its headquarters to Pittsburgh.
4. Employees like being asked what they think, 2018 Anonymous Comment Part I: “I have worked at Pitt Ohio for under 6 months and right away my manager has given me constant feedback. Positive in most cases. That is key because you don’t want to be left in the dark about how you are performing. It also makes me feel less stressed because I want to do well ...”
5. Pittsburgh Public Schools might want to consider participating: A Dec. 29 story noted the city school district is expecting a wave of retirements and plans to do some hiring. Since 2011, educational organizations that have been named Top Workplaces include Shady Side Academy, North Allegheny School District, West Mifflin Area School District, City Charter High School, Robert Morris University, Slippery Rock University, Yough School District, Montour School District and Pittsburgh Technical College.
6. Employees like being asked what they think, 2018 Anonymous Comment Part II: “My manager provides me the freedom to manage my own schedule and work/ life balance. He enables me to perform at my highest every day and allows for personal growth that will benefit Williams’ longterm.”
7. Auto dealerships find it useful to have a reputation as a good place to work: In 2011, there were two on the list — #1 Cochran and Jim Shorkey Family Auto Group. The category had grown to include six dealerships by 2014 — including Day Automotive, Kenny Ross Automotive, Diehl Automotive Group Inc., CarSense and Tom Henry Chevrolet. Recent years have seen a slight pullback as a wave of mergers and acquisitions hit the industry.
8. Sometimes you skip a year and then come back: Re/Max Select Realty has been named a Top Workplace every year except one — 2014.
9. Employees like being asked what they think, 2018 Anonymous Comment Part III: “I am not Micro Managed. Given the responsibility and allowed to get the job done. Evaluated on performance.”
10. Everybody has to deal with hiring at some point: The range of Pittsburgh-area organizations that have participated at various times over the years includes — in no particular order — MSA Safety, Turner Dairy Farms, Google Pittsburgh, Giant Eagle, Chevron Appalachia, Don’s Appliances, Bridges Hospice, Edgar Snyder & Associates, Tudi Mechanical Systems, McCandless Township Sanitary Authority, Pittsburgh Airport Marriott, Alcoa Corp. and FedEx Ground.
Here’s how to be a part of this:
Anyone can nominate a public, private, nonprofit or government organization with 50 or more employees in the Greater Pittsburgh area. Nominations can be done online or by calling 412-428-8020. It’s free.
The deadline is Feb. 15, 2019.
Once nominated, workplaces that participate are evaluated by their employees using a 24-question survey administered from January through March.
Every organization that participates gets feedback, even if the organization doesn’t make the Top Workplaces rankings.
In August, the Post-Gazette will host a celebratory event and publish the rankings of the region’s Top Workplaces so future potential employees can check them out.