| Answers |
| Q After
I register my company to participate, what happens next
and when? |
| A Please refer to the Timeline for a detailed list of important dates and deadlines for
the program. All registered companies will be notified
regularly via email of upcoming deadlines. |
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Q Our
parent company is located outside of the United States.
Are we still eligible to participate?
|
| A As long as you employ at
least 15 full and part-time employees in the United
States, you are eligible. Only employees working in the
United States are eligible to participate. |
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Q We
have several companies operating in the United
States under one parent holding company. Each company
has its own EIN (Employer Identification Number) and
each has its own set of benefits and working environments.
Do I need to register each company?
|
| A Yes. Since each company
is its own entity with its own benefits and working environment,
we will treat each company as a separate employer and
send each location a separate set of surveys, etc. Each
subsidiary company must have at least 15 full and part-time
permanent employees to be eligible. |
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Q We
have several offices/facilities in the United States
that operate using the same EIN and same set of employee
benefits and procedures. Should I register each company
separately?
|
| A No. If you are one company
with multiple locations you should submit only one registration
for all locations. We will then conduct a survey of employees
that are randomly selected from the various business units
that you operate in the United States, up to a total of
400 employees. |
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Q Our
company has employees in many states. Will the survey
apply to those throughout the United States?
|
| A Yes, if you employ more
than 250 employees throughout the United States a
random sample of all employees will be asked to complete a
survey. |
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| Q Our
company employs seasonal, temporary, per diem and independent
contractor employees. Should they be included in the survey? |
| A No. Seasonal, temporary,
per diem, independent contractors, interns, volunteers
or consultants should not be included in the survey process.
We only want to survey the permanent full and part-time
employees. |
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| Q What
if our workforce contains union employees? |
| A This is not an issue. We
make no distinction between union vs. non-union employees.
Union employees must be included in the survey process. |
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| Q Is
there a fee to participate? |
| A No! Participation in the
"Outside's Best Places to Work" program is absolutely
FREE if you choose the online survey process! If your
company should need paper surveys for your employee base,
there is a nominal paper survey fee to cover printing,
shipping and processing. Please see the Assessment
Process Page for the paper fees. |
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| Q Should
the paper survey fee be submitted with our registration? |
| A No. Best Companies Group
will invoice you for the paper survey fee after you register
and it is determined that your company meets all the requirements
to be eligible to participate. |
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|
Q Do
surveys go to everyone?
|
| A If you have 250 or fewer
employees in your company, then the answer is Yes! If
you employ more than 250 associates throughout the United
States, a random sample of up to 400 employees will be
asked to complete the survey. Please see the Assessment
Process page for more information. |
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| Q We
have more than 250 employees to be surveyed. Who
decides which employees will receive the surveys and how
they are distributed? Do we have to give you a list of
who is being surveyed? |
| A
The random selection will be conducted by Best
Companies Group for the online survey process. Companies
choosing the online survey process will be asked to upload
a list of all employee email addresses into an online
portal. Best Companies Group will then randomly
select the appropriate amount of employees (based
on company size) to receive the survey. Companies
will be asked to upload the employee email addresses via
an online upload portal sent shortly after registration
has closed. Companies choosing the paper survey
process will be required to tell Best Companies Group
how they conducted the random selection of their employee
population. Please see the Timeline for
dates surrounding the portal. |
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|
Q Are
managers included in the employee survey?
|
| A Yes. All employees will
be asked to complete a survey unless the company has more
than 250 employees. At companies employing over 250 associates,
a random sample will be chosen, and even then, managers
are not excluded. |
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|
Q How
long will it take to complete the employee survey?
|
| A It should only take about
10 to 15 minutes for each associate to complete the
employee survey. |
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Q How
long will it take to complete the employer questionnaire
(EQ)? Will it require a lot of research?
|
| A The employer questionnaire may
take between 8-10 hours to complete, depending upon how
easy it is to retrieve your company's information regarding
policies, practices and demographics. Some research may
be necessary. The EQ is completed and submitted online.
A list of questions can be found on the Survey &
Report Samples page. You may begin gathering
the information requested on the EQ prior to the survey
start date. That way when the actual invitation
is sent, you can simply enter the requested information
online. |
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Q How
does the paper survey process work?
|
| A
Best Companies Group will send your company a box of paper
surveys and postage-paid return envelopes that must be
distributed to employees. Employees complete the survey,
place it in the envelope, seal it and then drop the completed
surveys in the US mail. Completed surveys are mailed
back to our processing facility by each employee. |
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Q What
does the employee do with the paper survey once it's
completed? Will the return envelopes be postage-paid?
|
| A
The employee will put their completed survey in an envelope
(provided), seal it and place the envelope in the US postal
mail back to our processing facility. The return envelopes
are postage-paid. |
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Q What
if not all of the employees complete and return the
surveys? Is there a minimum response rate?
|
| A We are looking for a response
rate of approximately 65% or greater. Therefore, it is
not absolutely necessary that all who receive a survey
fill it out. While companies who have not reached 65%
may still be considered, response rates are taken into
account during the analysis process. The higher the response
rate the more representative it will be of your company
as a whole and the more valuable your company’s
data will be at the end of the process.
Companies
in the "small-sized" category (15-24 employees) must
have an 80% (or better) response rate from their employees
filling out the survey.
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Q How
does the online survey process work?
|
| A To conduct the online survey
process, companies submit a list of employee email addresses.
Best Companies Group will perform the random selection
of survey recipients for companies having over 250 employees.
Employees are then directly sent an individual survey
invitation via email containing unique access
information from Best Companies Group. The invitation
directs employees to a unique Web page where they can
submit their confidential responses. We can only send
email invitations to company email accounts. |
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|
Q Not
all of our employees have email addresses. Can we still
utilize the online survey?
|
|
A Yes!
The online survey process can still be utilized, as
long as the majority of employees have company email
addresses. In order to maintain the integrity
of the survey process, we cannot supply access codes
for your entire employee population, or for more than
15% of the number of employees that need to receive
a survey based on company size. If you will need
to request access codes for more than 15% of employees
participating in the survey, you will need to switch
to the paper survey process.
Employees receiving access codes will need
to be able to access the Internet at work. In
this situation, it is recommended that the company set
up a computer station/kiosk for those employees without
company email to take the survey, as the online survey
can only be used if employees have Internet access.
Best Companies Group will then provide the organization
with enough unique access codes for employees without
email addresses (less than 15%, if applicable),
so that they can complete the survey online.
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Q I
am concerned about the confidentiality of the survey
responses.
|
| A We will make every effort
to maintain the anonymity of the employees completing
the survey as well as protect the summarized data of all
participating companies. Please see our Statement
of Confidentiality for more information. |
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Q Can
the job role and department demographics on the employee
survey be customized to more closely align with our
organization?
|
| A Yes, for a fee, the job
role and department demographic categories can be customized.
Please call Best Companies Group for more information
or select the “Customization” option on the
registration form and you will be contacted with more
information. What's this? |
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|
Q Can
I see samples of both the employer questionnaire and
the employee survey?
|
| A Yes, you can see samples
on the Assessment
Process page or click to view the Survey &
Report Samples. |
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Q Can
I combine both the online and paper survey options?
|
| A No, we cannot combine both
survey methods. Companies must choose to use either the
online or the paper survey process. |
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|
Q What
information is included in the Employee Feedback Report
and when will we receive it? What is the benefit of
purchasing this report?
|
| A Purchasing the Employee
Feedback Report will allow you to gain valuable insight
into what your employees are thinking. The Employee
Feedback Report comes in a folder and will contain large
spreadsheets detailing and summarizing your employees'
responses (in percentage format) to the 72 survey
questions as well as the employee comments. It will also
include detailed instructions on how to interpret the
results. The reports will be mailed to each company shortly
after the companies are notified whether or not they have
made the list. National benchmarking is also included
so companies can compare themselves to the “Outside's
Best Places to Work” list-making companies as well
as against the overall participation. This portion
will be sent after the rankings are revealed. |
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Q What
is the benchmarking?
|
| A The
benchmark report will represent the average responses
for each of the seventy-two (72) statements for all
the nation's list winners as well as against the overall
participation. This information will allow your company
to compare itself to the "Outside's Best Places to Work." |
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Q How
do I order my company’s Employee Feedback Report?
|
| A An Employee Feedback Report
can only be ordered once you have registered to participate
in the "Outside's Best Places to Work" program. To register
click
here. If you have already registered, please call
Best Companies Group toll-free at (877) 455-2159 or visit
the Order
Your Report link. |
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|
Q When
will we find out if our company made the list and where
we rank?
|
| A You will receive a notification
letter informing your company whether or not you made
the list. If you make the list, you will find out where
you rank in the special publication. See the Timeline for more details. |
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|
Q A
portion of our employees do not speak English. Do you
offer employee surveys in alternate languages?
|
A We offer employee surveys
in a variety of languages. Additional languages are available
at $195
per survey translation. If you need alternate language
surveys, please select the "Languages" button on the registration
form and you will receive additional information. |
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|
Q How
much is the fee to translate the employee survey into
another language?
|
| A To translate
the employee survey into another language, the fee is
$195 per language. Spanish surveys are available in both
the online and paper versions of the survey. |
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|
Q How
will my company be notified throughout the survey process?
Will I receive regular updates?
|
| A Yes, you will receive periodic
updates regarding the survey timeline via email. However,
we do recommend that your company place the dates that
we send to you in your calendars. Best Companies Group
primarily works through email. It is important that you
read all instructions and details sent to you from Best
Companies Group. |
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|
Q What
is my company registers for the program and then needs
to withdrawal? Is it possible to be removed from the
process?
|
| A All companies that submit
a registration form are considered active participants
in the “Outside’s Best Places to Work”
program. If your company wishes to withdrawal from the
survey process, Best Companies Group must be notified
immediately. Missed deadlines will be considered an automatic
withdrawal from the process. To reactivate your company
from an automatic withdrawal during the survey timeframe,
a $100 fee will be charged. Once the survey process has
begun (after January 28, 2011), a $250 withdrawal fee
will be applied in addition to the total fees incurred
for any special requests (customization orders, language
translations, paper survey processing, etc.). Please contact
a Best Companies Group representative to withdraw from
the process. |
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Q Who
can I contact with additional questions?
|
| A Please call Megan Burns
toll-free at (877) 455-2159. |
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Q Does
Best Companies Group have any other programs or conduct
any other surveys or services?
|
| A Yes! Best Companies Group
is identifying and recognizing great workplaces on national,
state, regional and industry stages. For a complete
list of programs or to learn more about our additional
services, please visit www.bestcompaniesgroup.com. |
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