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Contact: Josie Clark – 312-795-3557, jclark@mtconsultants.com
Winning Workplaces Names The 2006 Best Bosses
FORTUNE Small Business Highlights Select Bosses
Evanston, Ill., September 28, 2006 -- Winning Workplaces announces their fourth annual list of Best Bosses – 18 dedicated, passionate, and driven business leaders representing such diverse fields as investment management, equestrian products, web hosting, and legal services. The winners, who were evaluated on the personal statement of the leader and employee and customer satisfaction ratings and interviews, are a group that understands the connection between employee involvement and bottom line results. A related story will appear in the October 2006 issue of FORTUNE Small Business and at FSB.com highlighting select winners. The full list of Best Bosses will be available online Sept. 28 at winningworkplaces.org
A key theme among this year's Best Bosses – 17 from commercial companies, one from a non-profit, drawn from a national pool of applicants –is providing employees with a piece of the action. Extending benefits such as gourmet dinners or the keys to the boss's car, as two of this year's leaders are doing, help breed worker loyalty. But, there's nothing quite like fully investing workers in the business. In fact, 14 of this year's bosses run companies that are partly or fully owned by their employees. This reflects an emerging trend: the National Center for Employee ownership reports that an estimated 9,225 companies offer ESOPs, stock bonus, and profit-sharing plans – an increase of almost 2,000 from than in 1999.
"When employees have a sense of ownership and know that they can contribute directly to the outcome, it is easier for them to become directly engaged," says Mary Corbitt Clark, Executive Director of Winning Workplaces. "The Best Bosses understand the connection between employee engagement and the bottom line." Revenue growth jumped on average 40% last year among the 17 for-profit honorees. What's more, the Best Bosses are pulling back the curtain on financial and operating results for employees. Of the 18 winners, 17 Bosses practice "open-book management" and are teaching employees how to read and understand financial documents.
Elaine Pofeldt, senior editor of FORTUNE Small Business, notes the wide range of Best Bosses' attributes and the common-sense practices they promote. "They are listening carefully to their workers and giving them what they want: opportunities to educate themselves continually; the chance to work alongside the best people in their fields; benefits that ease the complex demands of their lives outside of work and a chance to give back to the community in more than a token way. These bosses know how to recognize their teams' achievements in creative and memorable ways."
The entire class of Best Bosses for 2006:
This year's winners were selected through a nomination and application process
that evaluated employee satisfaction, benefits, investment in training, and the leader's personal vision. The finalists were screened by a panel of judges that included Winning Workplaces management team and board members, small business owners, and workplace consulting experts.
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.