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Winning Workplaces and FSB:Fortune Small Business
Name The 2005 Best Bosses
Best Bosses treat young staff more like consumers than employees
Evanston, Ill., September 21, 2005 -- Winning Workplaces and FSB:Fortune Small Business magazine announce their third annual list of Best Bosses, 15 outstanding business leaders, from homebuilders to junk removal and robot construction, with the vision, creativity, focus, and great people skills to get the best out of their employees. The list and related stories will appear in the October 2005 issue of Fortune Small Business and will be available at winningworkplaces.org and fortune.com on September 21st.
A key trait of this year's Best Bosses is effectively managing the Gen Y workers flooding the job market. The word "fun," often with an exclamation point, is featured in more than half of these businesses' mission statements, mottos, or self-descriptions. Owners indulge their employees in scavenger hunts, dodgeball tournaments, go-cart racing, pumpkin-carving contests, and trips. Their offices overflow with waterfalls, koi ponds, and climbing walls, as well as the standard day-care centers and gyms. But, Best Bosses go beyond simply dispensing a laundry list of benefits; rather, they make sure their entire workplace culture fits the needs of their employees.
"What's most heartening is to see that leaders from a wide range of industries and from across the country all find ways to create workplaces where employees are gratified and rewarded, and the businesses and the employees both benefit," says Kenneth Lehman, chairman of Winning Workplaces, a not-for-profit that helps small and midsize organizations create great workplaces. Adds FSB editor-at-large, Ellyn Spragins: "Finding and hiring these workers isn't easy. That is why savvy bosses have to scout and select employees more creatively than their peers. The Best Bosses have crafted business practices to satisfy the specific demands of twenty-somethings, treating them more like consumers than employees."
Just ask Bob Cutler, Founder and CEO of C3-Creative Consumer Concepts, in Overland Park, KS. In addition to building a rock-climbing wall in the lobby, Cutler further fosters the values-based and fun-loving environment at C3 by encouraging employees to participate in a global community service program, which entails an expensed trip anywhere in the world to complete 40 hours of community service.
Or talk to Diane Hessan, President and CEO of Communispace Corporation
in Watertown, MA, who encourages employee communication and involvement.
Case in point: Rather than risk employee layoffs during the dot-com bust,
Hessan's employees created a survival strategy involving a voluntary pay
cut for all. Today, Communispace thrives at a triple-digit growth rate.
The Best Bosses for 2005 are:
More information about the companies can be found at winningworkplaces.org and fsb.com (OR FORTUNE.COM) on September 26th.
This year's finalists were culled from a group of over 100 nominees. Together, Winning Workplaces, FSB and other business leaders evaluated employee satisfaction, benefits, investment in workers, and various other measures. Next, a 360-degree performance review was conducted to ascertain nominees' management philosophies. From the finalists, the 15 Best Bosses were chosen.
The winners were announced at the "Best Bosses Conference and Celebration" on Sept. 20 in Chicago. Sponsors of the event included: Presenting: U.S. Trust; Career Search Partner: CareerBuilder.com; Technology Partner: CDW; Platinum: Clough Capital Partners, Madison Dearborn Partners, Strategic Talent Solutions; Silver: East Side Capital Corp., University of Chicago Hospitals, Bronze: The Alford Group, Ariel Mutual Funds, Baird & Warner, Deloitte, Bruce and Martha Karsh, Adele Simmons,Standard Motor Products, Inc., University of Chicago Graduate School of Business/Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship, White Pine Capital LLC.
About Winning Workplaces
Winning Workplaces is an Evanston, IL-based not-for-profit, whose mission
is to help the leaders of small and midsize organizations create great workplaces.
Founded in 2001, Winning Workplaces serves as a clearinghouse of information
on workplace best practices via a website and a monthly e-newsletter; recognizes
outstanding leaders of small organizations through the Best Bosses collaboration
with FSB: Fortune Small Business magazine; provides seminars and workshops
on workplace-related topics; and helps organizations assess their workplaces
through employee surveys and other feedback tools.