Winning Workplaces' Webinar Series
"Excellent presentations, refreshingly honest speakers, and well facilitated." – Christina Warden, |
Hear insights from great bosses of small organizations, including Best Boss and Top Small Workplace award winners, at a discounted price.
LIVE SESSION: Exemplary Business Practices of the 2008 Top Small Workplaces Live Session Date: November 12, 2008 Post-Session Recording: $35.00 ORDER THIS RECORDING |
Small businesses, 25 million strong in the United States, remain the backbone of our nation's economy. They account for 50 percent of the country's private gross national product, create 60-80 percent of the net new jobs and are 14 times more innovative per employee than large firms. Yet, too often, small organizations are overlooked and under-reported.
For the past two years, Winning Workplaces and The Wall Street Journal have collaborated to honor successful small firms that have intentionally built highly engaged and innovative workplaces.
In this webinar, Winning Workplace staff showcase the themes and exemplary practices of the 2008 Top Small Workplace winners, as announced in The Wall Street Journal on October 13.
These Top Small Workplaces are steadily growing their revenues, guided by strong missions and values, and consistently deliver unmatched value to their clients. Join us to hear how they do it.
Presenters:
Diane Stoneman, Director of Consulting & Training, Winning Workplaces
Diane leads Winning Workplaces’ consulting and training practice and
has extensive experience in the fields of workforce and organizational development.
She is an experienced facilitator, marketer and consultant in human resource
strategies to increase workplace effectiveness. During her career, she has
worked as a workforce learning consultant at the Council for Adult and Experiential
Learning (CAEL), a program director at the Chicago Manufacturing Institute,
and a director of a major urban community development organization. Diane
has a bachelor’s degree from Grand Valley State University and holds
a master’s degree in social service administration from the University
of Chicago.
Mary Corbitt Clark, Executive Director, Winning Workplaces
Maximizing organizational and individual performance is a thread that is woven through Mary’s career. She has held senior management positions in human resources and organizational consulting firms, specializing in small to midsize companies, and has established human resources functions for entrepreneurial ventures. She also spent 14 years in career, management and organizational development consulting with Jannotta, Bray & Associates; Right Associates; and People Tech Consulting. Early in her career, she served as Director of Admissions at Northwestern’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management. She is on the faculty of the Lake Forest Graduate School of Management.
Back to schedule | Back to live webinars
RECORDING: Open Book Management is NOT Just About Financial Transparency Live Session Date: October 28, 2008 Post-Session Recording: $35.00 ORDER THIS RECORDING |
93% of the 2008 Top Small Workplace winners have successfully implemented open book management.
Opening up the books, teaching employees how the business makes money and offering them a financial stake can be powerful ways to ignite greater engagement from the workforce.
Learn from the people that wrote the book on OBM:
Presenter:
Richard Armstrong, President, The Great Game of Business, Inc.
Rich has over 18 years of experience in improving business performance through employee involvement, business literacy, open-book management and employee ownership. The Great Game of Business management practice is the most celebrated approach to Open-Book Management. The Great Game of Business has helped thousands of companies in a wide range of industries to achieve breakthrough growth and financial performance by coaching a simple, yet powerful belief: "When employees think, act & feel like owners… everybody wins." Mr. Armstrong is also a member of the board of directors of the National Center for Employee Ownership.
The Great Game of Business, Inc. provides affordable training and coaching services on the best practices of High Involvement workplaces and Open-Book Management. They offer publications, products, tools, and sponsor a national conference and recognition program to identify and celebrate exceptional Open-Book organizations. The Great Game's chief visionary, Jack Stack, is the coauthor of two best-selling books; The Great Game of Business (Currency/Doubleday, 1994) and A Stake in the Outcome (Doubleday, 2002). The Great Game of Business book is in its 23rd printing and has been cited in over 100 best-selling business books.
Back to schedule | Back to live webinars
RECORDING: Maintaining Community in a Virtual Workplace Live Session Date: September 25, 2008 Post-Session Recording: $35.00 ORDER THIS RECORDING |
In the current economy we are all looking for a productivity edge to differentiate our firms. You can look to many things, but none are more effective than the engaged employee.
In this one-hour session learn about some of the high-tech, low-tech and soft skill ways these inspiring leaders – which Winning Workplaces has honored for creating exemplary work environments – have managed to sustain a supportive, engaged community in their companies where many employees work virtually and are spread across the country or are just across town.
Presenters:
Michael Lacey, CEO/President, Digineer
Michael is CEO/President of Digineer, Inc., an 89-employee technology consulting firm based in Plymouth, MN.
Because employees spend most of their time at the client's location, Michael realized he needed to build a sense of team, allegiance and belonging among his dispersed workforce. To achieve this, Digineer dedicates more than $100,000 a year for education, training and social events for its employees. For example, "Digi-U" is a virtual university providing computer training and technology certification as well as classes in time management, health and wellness and other non-tech topics.
Timothy P. Keenan, President & Founder, HPTi
Timothy is President & Founder of High Performance Technologies, Inc. (HPTi), a 325-employee information technology firm based in Reston, VA.
Founded in 1991, HPTi provides a full range of information technology services, primarily for the federal government. In 2003, when a tragic plane crash killed HPTi's chief executive officer, its general counsel and its accountant, Tim Keenan – then chief operating officer – moved quickly to hold the firm together. With a workforce spread from California to New Jersey to Florida, HPTi utilizes many techniques to ensure the full engagement of its people. These techniques include a combination of process, technology and education to meet the needs of the HPTi people.
Back to schedule | Back to live webinars
RECORDING: Fostering Trust Within the Workplace Live Session Date: July 29, 2008 Post-Session Recording: $35.00 ORDER THIS RECORDING |
As a wise CEO recently said, "As leaders you should not spend time trusting your employees, but spend time getting your employees to trust you."
One of the most important elements of a harmonious, productive workplace is trust. Without trust, employees have little interest in being creative, taking risks and collaborating – leading inevitably to more errors, inefficiencies and missed opportunities.
In today's world, leaders must excel at cultivating trust throughout the workplace. However, too often their actions destroy the trust of employees.
In this one-hour webinar to hear how two exceptional business leaders have intentionally created a culture of trust and respect in their workplace and how it has paid off in the success of their business.
Presenters:
Paul Silvis, Founder, Restek Corporation
Founded in 1985, Restek designs, develops, manufactures and services products for the analytical science industries, specifically gas and liquid chromatography, and has achieved revenue growth triple the industry average in recent years.
Arguing that their corporate success is directly related to employee motivation and job satisfaction, managers are taught to view themselves as personal and professional coaches to their team. They adhere to the principles of servant leadership and are strongly proactive in helping their staff to construct individual growth plans and further their career. The company's founder, Paul Silvis, says, "It's just a happy fest if the environment doesn't lead to results," and clients do indeed stand by Restek's superior product and beyond-excellent customer service.
Paal Gisholt, CEO, SmartPak
During the last two years, Paal Gisholt has observed that while demand is steady, growth has been slow in the horse supplies and equine supplements industry. However, his company, SmartPak Equine, which he founded in 1999, has been a tremendous performer.
Incentives like an employee stock ownership, open-book management and a quarterly recognition program by and for employees has kept SmartPak's workforce motivated and focused on the company's core values. The organization uses continuous improvement measures such as weekly "errors meetings" to simplify tasks or to automate manual processes that are prone to error. Rapid growth has led Gisholt to state, "I have become a believer in letting our culture serve as the primary mechanism to generate alignment of goals within the organization, an 'invisible hand' of sorts."
Back to schedule | Back to live webinars
RECORDING: Designing Strategy from the Bottom Up Live Session Date: June 25, 2008 Post-Session Recording: $35.00 ORDER THIS RECORDING |
The more employees are engaged in developing their company's business strategy, the more they are committed to its success. But how do you engage them in a meaningful, productive manner? In this one-hour session, hear how these two leaders of a small and midsized firm accomplish just that and the impact it has had on their business.
Presenters:
Amy Bermar, Founder and President, Corporate Ink
Specializing in quickly-growing tech businesses, Corporate Ink is a public relations firm made "boutique by design" – intimate, focused, agile and distinctive. Founded in 1989 in Newton, MA, Bermar has maintained a strong dedication to staff development and engagement which has ensured that they remain one of the hottest PR teams in the Boston area. In a period of downturn when many PR companies were cutting staff size by half, each of their 12 employees were retained, involved even further in company vitals and expected to identify new options for acquiring skills and experience in terms of winning new business.
Every year, the entire team of employees identifies strategic goals for moving the company forward. Bermar has found this to instill a much greater sense of ownership and accountability where employees control their own success and failures.
William Petty, Chairman and CEO, Exactech
Exactech has grown a lot since it was founded in 1985 in a single warehouse for the production of orthopaedic implant devices. The company went public in 1997 and now operates with 260 employees inside its own Gainesville, FL, facility, with global sales and rising revenues. The company continues to respond quickly to customers and remains nimble in the market even with their rapid growth. Great care is given to preserve this quality of service and their people-first, non-hierarchical culture.
Essential to this culture is employee engagement. There is a high expectation that employees will be involved in all important aspects of the business, from compensation planning to strategy development. Consequently, the employees are committed to achieving the shared strategic goals that will propel the company to market leadership.
Back to schedule | Back to live webinars
RECORDING: Building an Ownership Mentality Among Employees Live Session Date: May 21, 2008 Post-Session Recording: $35.00 ORDER THIS RECORDING |
There is an abundance of compelling research and decades of experience that shows that when employees think and act more like owners it gives the business an enormous competitive advantage. Building a culture characterized by a mentality of employee ownership is not accomplished by a formulaic approach and does not happen overnight. Still, there are clear best practices that make up all these environments.
Tune in to this one-hour webinar to hear about these practices and how two successful leaders have sustained work cultures that are both highly participative and productive.
Presenters:
Mike Foley, CEO, Reflexite Corporation
At Reflexite, a global manufacturer of optical components and films, employees own a major share of the company stock. With 500 employees spread across the world, effective communication is crucial to maintaining an open and participatory workplace where employees think and act like owners. Its leadership continually educates, shares critical business information and intentionally structures opportunities for employees to problem solve and take on new risks.
Bill Marshall, CEO, Phelps County Bank
Founded in 1963, this establishment is now one of only two banks in the country which are completely employee owned. Before cash machines, online checking and global outsourcing, your bank was as familiar as the local grocery, and your banker knew you and your family like an old friend. Walking into Phelps County Bank today, you're going to understand what quality banking can still represent.
Ownership is at the core here, and it is this which has grown the bank despite new competition and lean times. Clients and employees relish the comfortable atmosphere and pervasive attention to quality work.
Back to schedule | Back to live webinars
RECORDING: Developing a Fantastic Customer Service Culture Live Session Date: April 23, 2008 Post-Session Recording: $35.00 ORDER THIS RECORDING |
Savvy business leaders know they must have a motivated and engaged workforce in order to retain a loyal customer base. In this one-hour session, hear from two leaders who will share their experience and practical advice on facilitating this connection in your business.
Presenters:
Mike Faith, Founder and CEO, Headsets.com
Headsets.com, an Internet and catalog specialist retailer of telephone headsets, has been led by Mike Faith since he founded the company in 1997. With more and more call centers moving offshore, companies like Headsets.com have risen to dominate distribution of telephone headsets to small and midsize offices.
While maintaining a successful enterprise is what drives Faith daily, he knows in order to be a success you have to treat both employees and customers with respect and understanding. The culture of Headsets.com can be summed up as 50 people working towards a common goal – delivering world-class customer service. Faith's philosophy for ensuring camaraderie is to constantly show his employees how crucial their role is within the organization.
Mark Wilson, CEO, Ryla, Inc.
Based north of Atlanta, Ryla, Inc. provides customer contact solutions for Fortune 500 companies, government agencies and non-profits nationwide. It's tough work, and the company's 377 employees are often on call at all hours, able to provide assistance in a variety of languages.
With benefits far above the industry standard and professional and personal development seminars enriching even entry-level positions, Ryla is making sure its team sticks around, resulting in a turnover rate around one-third the industry average. A high level of caring and diversity saturates this organization, and their uniquely positive attitude is perhaps no more apparent than in the employee-crafted cheers presented at monthly "Ryla Huddles," highlighting the accomplishments of the team and talents of each individual.
Back to schedule | Back to live webinars
RECORDING: Growing Leaders from Within Live Session Date: March 19, 2008 Post-Session Recording: $35.00 ORDER THIS RECORDING |
With 80 percent of all business coming from repeat clients, Gentle Giant Moving Company Founder Larry O'Toole reasons the core of such success rests with the emphasis upon developing leaders and nourishing respect and compassion in the culture.
At Healthwise, management intentionally reinforces the company's motto, "Lead from any position," rewarding individuals for taking initiative in solving problems, thinking strategically, and accepting personal ownership.
These leaders share their successes, challenges and lessons learned as they work to develop leaders.
Presenters:
Larry O'Toole, Founder and President, Gentle Giant Moving Co.
It began in 1980 with an ad in the Boston Phoenix, a borrowed truck and healthy dose of gusto. With much dust and sweat, a lot of laughs and more than a few precarious stairwells to follow, Gentle Giant Moving is now one of the premier moving and storage companies on the East Coast, conducting over 12,000 moves each year with 250 employees.
With 25 percent in new revenues between 2004 and 2007, one can indeed infer that Gentle Giant's formula works. Staff are expected to make billing decisions even at the lower levels, all with the end goal of minimalizing the trauma of moving. Employees enjoy a solid benefits package, including a formal mentoring program and a generous 401K plan, and most participate in events organized through the company's own community development foundation.
Don Kemper, Chairman and CEO, Healthwise
Conceived in 1975, Healthwise was one of the first companies to lead the consumer health movement. With its mission to "help people make better health decisions," this nonprofit has grown to 215 employees, all of the top three disease management companies, hundreds of hospitals, and most of the large web portals.
A shift from paper to Net-based documents and phenomenal growth in both revenue and staff numbers have resulted in rethinking work processes to create cross-functional teams, thus avoiding a siloed dynamic. The organization has institutionalized its culture "The Healthwise Way" around the pillars of respect, teamwork and "do the right thing." The company consistently attracts top talent and transplants to its Boise office.
Back to schedule | Back to live webinars
RECORDING: Family-Friendly Workplace Practices Live Session Date: February 20, 2008 Post-Session Recording: $35.00 ORDER THIS RECORDING |
According to Take Back Your Time (timeday.org), we work 9 weeks longer each year than our European peers, while we average about 2 weeks per year for vacations compared to Europeans' 5-6 weeks. Is it any wonder, then, that a recent Hudson Index found that nearly a third of U.S. workers now consider work-life balance and flexibility to be the most important factor in considering job offers?
In this session, learn how two exceptional leaders help employees balance the demands of work and family, and the big payoff it has had on their businesses. Includes:
Presenters:
Frank Guerra, CEO and Partner, Guerra DeBerry Coody
Frank Guerra is founder and CEO of Guerra DeBerry Coody, a full-service advertising, marketing and public relations firm based in San Antonio, Texas. Now in its twelfth year, GDC offers general market as well as Hispanic capabilities for regional and national clients.
Most recently Frank served on the national Bush/Cheney re-election team, working on general market as well as Hispanic advertising. In the 2002 election cycle, GDC served as the Hispanic agency of record for the Jeb Bush for Governor Campaign in Florida and the Rick Perry for Governor Campaign in Texas, garnering record-setting votes for both candidates.
GDC now applies these methodologies and tactics honed in the political arena to the corporate sector, helping clients win business, achieve sales goals, and build successful corporate community initiatives at regional and national levels.
Family culture is at the very core here, and its 61 employees consider their on-site, parent-driven and partner-supported childcare program fundamental to the nature of the organization as a whole. With 100 percent paid maternity and paternity leave, transportation reimbursement and emergency employee loans, team members "go home happy and come in to work happy."
James Tippmann, CEO, FRCH Design Worldwide
As Chief Executive Officer at FRCH Design Worldwide, Jim Tippmann is responsible for setting the company's strategic direction, guiding the business and directing its planned global expansion and diversification. He leads both the firm's Executive and Management Committees. Prior to assuming the position of CEO in 2002, Jim had been Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice President at FRCH. He served on the firm's Executive Committee and helped plan and implement firm initiatives nationally and internationally. Under his leadership as CEO the firm has doubled in size over the past 4 years.
Jim started with FRCH in 1988 in business operations after having begun his career in the Entrepreneurial Practices Division of Arthur Andersen. During that period he gained experience as a business consultant to a variety of small businesses. Immediately prior to joining FRCH, Jim worked in an executive position with several commercial and residential real estate developers structuring acquisition transactions and financing arrangements.
Back to schedule | Back to live webinars
RECORDING: Making the Flexible Workplace Work Live Session Date: October 30, 2007 Post-Session Recording: $35.00 ORDER THIS RECORDING |
Over 50% of the Top Small Workplaces finalists offer some type of flexible work arrangement for their employees. Studies have shown that small employers are significantly more likely to offer flexibility to their employees. More leaders are recognizing that providing flexible options for their employees is a smart, strategic decision as it allows them to effectively recruit and retain top talent. Evidence shows that employees that are allowed greater flexibility are more engaged in their jobs, have higher job satisfaction rates and are more productive.
Presenters
Diane Hessan, President & CEO, Communispace Corp, Watertown, MA
Communispace is one of the fastest growing social networking companies in the country. Diane leads over 175 employees in managing the more than 275 private online customer communities the company has created to help Fortune 500 companies deeply engage with, and listen to, customers – organizations such as Kraft, Unilever, Hewlett-Packard, Charles Schwab, Meredith, and GlaxoSmithKline.
The company has been honored with numerous awards for innovation and workplace best practices including being named a Winning Workplaces/Fortune Small Business' Best Boss. Hear how this leader has implemented innovative flex arrangements for employees, how these arrangements have set the tone for the company culture, changed internal management practices, and have had a direct impact on her business.
Karen Oman, Founder, Certes Financial Pros, St. Louis Park, MN
Karen Oman founded Certes Financial Pros in 1994, a firm specializing in placing high level financial professionals in contract, temp to perm, and permanent placement positions. The company was honored as one of Minnesota's Best Places to Work.
As a work/life balance leader, Certes gives their financial contractors input into the kind of work they do, location preferences, and how much they want to be paid for that work. In an industry where 60+ hour work weeks are the norm, Certes offers overtime pay for every hour worked over 40, plus provides such unique benefits as summers off, sabbaticals without losing benefits, and free access to five vacation homes around the country.
Back to schedule | Back to live webinars
RECORDING: Open Book Management: 10 Ways Business Succeeds When Employees Have Skin in the Game Live Session Date: September 25, 2007 Post-Session Recording: $35.00 ORDER THIS RECORDING |
Nearly 80% of the 2007 Top Small Workplaces finalists practice open book management. These are the same firms that average a 20% annual growth rate. Opening up the company books, teaching employees how the business makes money and instituting profit sharing plans can ignite greater commitment from the workforce. Increasingly, business leaders are implementing open book management to motivate their employees to act more like owners in order to grow their business.
Hear what two successful small business owners have learned from opening up their financial books and the impact it has had on their business.
You will learn about:
Presenters
Jeff Jeffery, President and CEO, IRMCO, Evanston, IL
IRMCO is an 89 year-old manufacturer of water-based lubricants for the metal-stamping industry. Jeff was instrumental in developing the first deep-drawing synthetic lubricants more than 20 years ago and is still very much involved with driving environmental responsibility and improvement in the same market. IRMCO has been recognized by Loyola University as one of Illinois' top family businesses on three separate occasions and is the current sponsor of the metal stamping industry's only environmental award. At IRMCO, with a staff of 25 employees, Jeff implemented open book management nine years ago when he noticed that the old profit sharing plan was too arbitrary and gain sharing bonuses too hard to quantify. When employees are treated like owners, Jeff has found that they act more like owners helping to control costs, staff appropriately and improve efficiencies.
Chris Turley, President/CEO of Turley Architects, Evanston, IL
Chris Turley is the President, Founder, and Lead Designer of Turley Architects, a firm that believes passionate clients are the best clients. Chris has worked on projects ranging from single-family homes, high-rises and historic structures, to hospitals, railway stations, theaters, offices, and commercial spaces. In addition to being a licensed architect in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin, Mr. Turley holds licenses as a residential builder, energy professional, and kitchen and bath designer. He has taught Architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology and gives seminars for groups including the American Institute of Architects, the Historic Chicago Bungalow Association, and the Chicago Center for Green Technology. Chris was inspired to start implementing open book management at Turley Architects as a result of his own past experiences as a frustrated employee at previous firms. The open book management system was implemented at Turley Architects in 2003 as an important way to give employees ownership of their work, thereby encouraging their full commitment to the long-term wellbeing of the firm.
Back to schedule | Back to live webinars
Please Contact Us for More Information
consulting highlightsCase Prospectus
Selected Research
Read Case Studies and Client
Testimonials from recent projects.
Read the Business Case for a winning workplace
and learn how progressive
people practices yield Competitive
Advantages.
