Top Workplaces Cincinnati

Top Workplaces Cincinnati: 38,695 surveyed at 184 local firms to pick winners for 2018 cincinnati.com/story/money/2018/06/07/top-workplaces-cincinnati-39-k-surveyed-201-local-firms/601784002

The Enquirer Published 4:30 p.m. ET June 7, 2018 | Updated 4:45 p.m. ET June 7, 2018 These companies, agencies and government entities have been singled out by employees. So what sectors are in they in? Are they newer or more mature? Mark Wert, mwert@enquirer.com (Photo: ..)

CONNECTTWEETLINKEDINEMAILMORE Strong leaders set the tone for high-performing companies. But when it comes to judging whether an organization is a terrific place to work, there’s only one audience that matters: the employees. For the ninth year, The Enquirer partnered with suburban Philadelphia-based Energage, the employee research and consulting firm, to determine the Cincinnati area’s Top Workplaces through employee surveys.

In November, The Enquirer and Cincinnati.com started running articles and advertisements encouraging people to nominate companies as Top Workplaces. Energage invited those companies and other organizations in the region – 1,100 companies in all – to take the employee survey. Any organization was welcome, as long as it had at least 50 employees in the Cincinnati area. Organizations could be public, private, nonprofit, or governmental.

Energage surveyed 184 organizations that agreed to participate in the survey process. Those surveyed firms employ 58,3252,087 people in the Cincinnati area. Of those employees who received questionnaires, 38,695 responded, either on paper or online. This year, 125 Cincinnati-area employers scored high enough to earn Top Workplaces honors.

The employee survey seeks responses from 24 statements covering seven areas, including organizational health factors that measure how well employees are working together toward a common cause: Alignment – where the company is headed, its values, cooperation Effectiveness – doing things well, sharing different viewpoints, encouraging new ideas Connection – employees feel appreciated, their work is meaningful My manager – cares about concerns, helps learn and grow In addition, the survey asks employees about other factors: Employee engagement – motivation, retention and referral 1/2

Leader – confidence in company leadership The basics – pay, benefits, flexibility Statements relating to “connection” and “alignment” were among the most important to employees, while statements about pay and benefits rated among the least important.

“Obviously, you have to treat people fairly and pay people well, but we find pay and benefits correlate least with employee engagement,” said Doug Claffey, CEO of Energage.

To ensure organizations are playing fair, the consultant (formerly called Workplace Dynamics) runs statistical tests to look for questionable results. It sometimes disqualifies employers based on those tests.

For the rankings, employers are placed into groups of similar size, because smaller employers tend to score higher than midsize employers, and midsize employers tend to score higher than large employers. Based on scores determined from the employee survey feedback, employers within those size bands that score high enough are recognized as Top Workplaces.

Energage also determined a list of special awards based on standout scores on specific survey topics.

If you’re wondering why a particular employer isn’t on this year’s list, it could be because the company either chose not to participate in the program or did not score high enough based on the survey results. For a company to be considered for placement on the list, at least 35 percent of local employees had to complete the survey.

To participate in the 2019 program, go to cincinnati.com/nominate.

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