Nominate your company for Hearst CT Top Workplaces 2021
Twelve months ago, as we launched the 10th year of the Top Workplaces awards at Hearst Connecticut Media, the biggest worry for most people managing companies was finding good workers. Unemployment hovered well under 4 percent, the range where employers struggle on the market for talent.
Now, of course, the world has changed and if you’re running a company of any size, a nonprofit agency or even a government office, your biggest headache is about coping with the pandemic and your colleagues’ safety — and returning to a “normal” work life that won’t look like what came before.
One constant: People matter the most in any organization. And one of the most effective claims you can make is that you’re a Top Workplace.
That means the Hearst Connecticut Media Top Workplaces awards for employers in Farifield, New Haven and Litchfield counties. We’re now starting our 11th year, a great time for all businesses and nonprofits to showcase all the ways they’ve valued employees throughout the coronavirus crisis.
Nominations are open for the 2021 competition.
We’re looking to honor the best places to work — whether they’re privately owned companies, publicly traded corporations, subsidiaries, partnerships, nonprofits or government agencies. A company need not have its headquarters here to compete.
The contest is open to any employer with 35 or more people in the three counties. Recognition is given for small, midsize and large organizations, and the contest also rewards the best executives.
Don’t wait, nominations close March 12. The cost to compete — and win — is zero.
Last year, Hearst Connecticut Media honored 49 employers from across the region. Awards are based on short, 24-question employee surveys by our partner, Energage, about how well employers value their ideas, communicate, puts their strategies to work, operate ethically and create a culture of teamwork and competence.
The currently reigning top winners from 2020 include Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices New England Properties (1st place among large employers for the third consecutive year), and Indeed at No. 2 for the large size category. Wheeler Clinic Inc. was No. 3 among large employers.
For midsize employers, Shelton-based Barnum Financial Group finished at No. 1. No. 2 was HAI Group, a specialty insurer to housing authorities, based in Cheshire, which anticipated the COVID-19 crisis ahead of most of us. And third was Splash Carwash, based in Milford with 14 locations in the region.
Criterion, a small but global software developer in Norwalk, won 1st place among small employers in its first year on the list and its CEO, Sunil Reddy, won the top leadership award in that category. Autism Behavioral Health, a Danbury company, was No. 2 among small employers. And Greenwich Emergency Medical Service was No. 3.
Only one company, ICON International Inc., the corporate barter firm, has made the winners list all 10 years. All of these winners, and all 49 from the 2020 list, have amazing stories to tell about working through coronavirus. And they can tell you why their Top Workplaces designation matters.
Hearst Connecticut Media Top Workplaces winners will be featured in the Connecticut Post, The News-Times of Danbury, Greenwich Time, The Stamford Advocate, The Norwalk Hour, New Haven Register and The Register Citizen of Torrington in September — and will be highlighted on all of the associated websites.
For complete coverage of last year’s winners, go to any of those media outlets’ websites and type /topworkplaces — such as www.ctpost.com/topworkplaces.
Energage, formerly known as WorkplaceDynamics, carries out the Top Workplaces surveys for more than 40 metro newspapers including some of the biggest. The company has surveed more than 20 million employees at tens of thousands of organizations.
Employers can be nominated online at topworkplaces. com/hearstct or by calling 203617-0727.