Attention all team players: Here’s how to become a Top Workplace
Be bold and begin the process by nominating your company today
In an effort to encourage employees to nominate their company as a 2021 Top Workplace, we thought these insights from a few of the companies ranked as 2020 Top Workplaces might be inspiring.
During our search for the Bay Area’s Top Workplaces last year, we asked companies that made the Bay Area News Group’s list to tell us their stories about how they stand out as a Top Workplace. And we also asked them to tell us what it has been like (as a Top Workplace) to navigate these especially challenging circumstances during the COVID-19 pandemic. We wanted to know what they do for their employees and their customers as well as the communities they serve. We asked them what decisions they had to make and how these made a difference in their becoming a Top Workplace. We also wanted to know how the pandemic affected their efforts to engage with the communities they support.
If you work for a great company that has a story to tell like these companies mentioned below, we would like you to let us know by nominating them today.
Top Workplaces share their stories about what makes them stand out
Godaddy
Continuing to land on the Bay Area Top Workplace list is a source of pride for team Godaddy. We have our employees to thank for making our Bay Area offices such special places to work, and love sharing the award with potential recruits as placing on the list is largely due to real employee feedback via the survey process. We’ve celebrated every win as a team and look forward to celebrating 2020 and beyond!
Coping with challenges
COVID-19 has presented challenges to every company and Godaddy is no exception. As we moved our entire Bay Area workforce to work from home, we were in the midst of relocating our Sunnyvale office to a beautiful new space in Santa Clara. We’re hopeful that our Santa Clara team will be able to enjoy the new office soon, but for now the safety of our team is our No. 1 priority. We’ve helped employees feel included and inthe-know by hosting frequent town halls with leadership, and for those struggling we offer free counseling sessions through our Employee Assistance Program. It has been tough as the Bay Area teams in Santa Clara and San Francisco are tight-knit teams that love spending time together in the office, from team lunches to Employee Resource Groups to group activities and celebrations. As a company we’ve worked to keep spirits up by coordinating a virtual social calendar of everything from yoga to cooking demos to parent/child activities for those home with little ones.
CD & Power
“We know our job is never done when it comes to investing in our people,” explains President Jill Collaro. “We’re honored to have won this workplace recognition, for the 5th year in a row. It motivates us to keep stepping up our game!” Being named a Top Workplace confirms for management that the investment in our employees is noticed and appreciated, and it encourages us to invest even more.
Investing in our employees
Offering extensive training has helped us attract and retain great employees. In 2018 we launched “Tall Bald Guy University” (TBGU for short), in honor of company founder Chuck Uischner. “We’ve continued to prioritize training and development because we saw how well it worked for our dad, frankly,” explained Don Uischner, company vice president and Jill’s brother. “It has been the cornerstone of a positive culture and our ability to deliver great service. TBGU was created by Lisa Carter, our general manager, and is our way of formalizing this commitment to our employees. Our father hired Lisa in 1991 and put her in charge of a Generator Diesel Shop because he recognized her value. She is the guiding light to our success that we are so incredibly grateful for.” Jill comments, “She is one of the many unsung heroes within our company.”
To help build trust and lasting bonds within our teams, we host fun activities throughout the year. However, this year’s theme day (Remarkable Day) may have to be adjusted, but we’ll figure out how to make it memorable. Recently, we reinvented our annual barbecue by sending each employee an Omaha Steaks dinner. In our day-to-day work, we inject a little fun, like wearing crazy hairdos to web meetings. Even some of the guys who haven’t been able to get their hair cut wore pigtails!
Over the years we have also built kinship within our team by working together for the benefit of our community, our veterans and children around the world. Each year we invest time and money to collect food during local food drives, purchase care packages for active-duty military and veterans, and support programs that help impoverished children around the world.
Our COVID-19 response
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, we implemented all Cdcrecommended procedures to keep our people and our customers safe. Many of our employees work from home on equipment that we provided. For people that need to visit or work from the office, we rotate days in order to make social distancing easier. We provide all employees with masks, sanitizer and gloves. Our field technicians have thermometers in order to check themselves daily before starting work. We have been blessed to be able keep our doors open and our employees safe and working.
Along with all the changes during the pandemic, Jill, our company president, initiated a new “HOPE” campaign. She believes strongly in hope and shares this with all, including the community! She sent monetary gifts of support and HOPE stickers, on behalf of CD & Power, to people nominated by employees who have been affected by the pandemic. For several years, large inspirational banners have been hung on the outside of our facility — the latest and current one being “HOPE.” Incredibly, we’ve received several calls of appreciation from people who drive by our facility. Jill says “hope for the future, because that is where we are going, and hope is on the horizon for us all.”
Lastly, we end all meetings with a “1-2-3, Ripple!” (a shout-out and hand gesture that highlights a former employee’s legacy and positive “ripple” affect). It’s a fun way for us all to end the meeting on a positive note, and to remind us all, that just like that little ripple in the pond, we can have that same ripple effect everywhere we go. We are getting ready to celebrate 35 years of Remarkable business. We are blessed to still be here, with a fantastic workforce that
we will continue to support, inspire and celebrate with always. We are only as good as our people, so we believe in them and encourage them. So, as we say on our way back out into the world … “1-2-3 Ripple!”
How to nominate your company
Now that you’ve read about the advantages of being a Top Bay Area Workplace, here’s how you can nominate your company today:
• All organizations with 35 or more employees in the Bay Area are eligible to enter. This includes public, private, nonprofit and government sectors.
• Each workplace is assessed by its employees via a brief 24-question survey.
• Each company will be surveyed from November through February of 2021.
Nomination deadline
Because you’re in it to win it, here’s how to enter:
• Nomination deadline has been extended to February 12, 2021.
• Please submit online nominations at mercurynews.com/nominate.
• Phone nominations can be submitted at (408) 841-7554.
• The entire process — from nomination to survey — is completely free of charge.
• The winners will be revealed in August.
Energage, our Top Workplaces research partner, will conduct the employee surveys. They have surveyed more than 2.6 million employees at nearly 7,500 organizations last year alone. Energage, based in Exton, Pennsylvania, conducts this survey in partnership with Bay Area News Group. The Top Workplaces list is entirely based on employee feedback through the survey process. Last year, the survey generated responses from more than 16,000 employees in the Bay Area.
Employees are asked 24 questions, and the employer may add five more. The questions measure employee opinions in the areas of engagement, organizational health and satisfaction. The identity of employees is kept anonymous. When the results are complete, each participating company receives a free summary report.