QAfter
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.
QWe
have several companies operating in Vermont under one
parent holding company. Each company has its own Employer
Identification Number (EIN) 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.
QWe
have several offices/facilities in Vermont 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, facilities, factories,
stores, etc., 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 Vermont, up to a total of 400 employees.
QWe
are a personnel placement company with associates who
are technically our employees, but they work for other
companies. Are we still eligible to participate?
A Yes. However only those
"in-house" employees will be counted and surveyed. The
employees who are "placed" with other companies are not
counted and will not be surveyed. There must be a minimum
of 15 "in-house" employees to be eligible.
QOur 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.
QShould
the participation fee be submitted with our registration?
A No. Best Companies
Group will invoice you for the participation fee after
you register and it is determined that your company meets
all the requirements to be eligible to participate.
A If you have 250 or
fewer employees in your company, then the answer is Yes!
If you employ more than 250 associates in Vermont, a random
sample of up to 400 employees will be asked to complete
the survey. Please see the Assessment
Process for more information.
QWe have
more than 250 associates 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.
A Yes. All employees
will be asked to complete a survey unless the company
has more than 250 employees. Companies employing over
250 associates, a random sample will be chosen, and even
then, managers are not excluded.
QHow
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
company policies, practices and demographics. Some
research may be necessary. The EQ is completed and
submitted online.
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.
QWhat
does the employee do with the paper survey once it's
completed? Will the return envelopes be postage-paid?
A The employees will put their
completed surveys 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.
QWhat
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.
A To
conduct the online survey process, companies submit
a list of employee email addresses. Employees are then
directly sent an email invitation 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.
QNot
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
have 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.
QI
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.
QCan
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 someone will contact
you with more information. What's this?
QWhat
information is included in the Employee Feedback Report
and when will we receive it?
A The Employee Feedback Report
comes in a folder and will contain large spreadsheets
detailing and summarizing your employees' responses to
the 72 survey questions (in percentage form). 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 made the list. Companies will also receive the responses
from the two open-ended questions on the survey.
These comments will be transcribed exactly as submitted
by employees. State benchmarking is also included
so companies can compare themselves to the "Best Places
to Work in Vermont" list-making companies as well as against
the overall participation. This portion will be sent after
the awards event. If you would like to see samples of
the report content, please see the Employee
Feedback Report page.
QWhen
will we find out if our company made the list and where
we rank?
A You will receive a
notification letter informing you as to whether or
not your company has made the list. If you make the
list, you will find out where you rank either at the gala
awards event or in the special publication. See the Timeline for more details.
QA
portion of our employees do not speak English. Do you
offer employee surveys in alternate languages?
A We do offer employee surveys
in a variety of additional languages! There will
be an additional $195 fee to cover the cost of translation
(flat rate) per language. If your company needs an additional
language please select the "Languages" button on
the registration form. Alternate language surveys
are available in both the online and paper survey methods.
QHow
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. 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.
QDoes
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.
