BulletProofBlog the blog on crisis communications

Last week, Glassdoor.com, an online community about companies and how they operate, released the results of its second annual Employees’ Choice Awards, listing the top 50 “Best Places to Work,” according to surveys collected from U.S.-based employees in 2009. It’s an impressive list, headlined by Southwest Airlines. And lest anyone think only certain types of companies with warm and fuzzy cultures can make these lists, take another look.

These companies run the gamut, from consumer products such as Kraft Foods, General Mills, and Procter & Gamble; to service firms such as PricewaterhouseCoopers, Schlumberger, and Booz Allen Hamilton; to retailers such as Best Buy, Whole Foods, and Sherwin-Williams; to tech firms such as Google, Apple, and Intuit. And it shouldn’t come as a surprise that many of these companies, while being best places to work, are leaders in their respective fields, as well. They also are best places to do business.

Companies do not become best places to work by accident. They don’t become best places to work because they throw more money at their employees. They become best places to work because they work at it. They recognize that employees are their No. 1 stakeholder group – and they do the one thing that almost all employee surveys list first. They communicate – and they do so strategically, consistently, openly, and honestly.

At the top of almost any survey of “what employees really want,” you will usually find these three desires: 1) they want to know where the company is going and what part they can play in getting there; 2) they want to be recognized for the contributions they make toward company successes; and 3) they want the company to recognize that they have outside lives to juggle along with work. Criteria such as compensation, job security, and advancement usually follow on the employee hit parade. Perhaps not surprising, when managers are asked what employees really want, they have these criteria exactly in reverse.

Companies that want to lead in effective recruitment and retention should heed these findings and establish effective, two-way communications with employees. Make them feel a part of achieving a vision, not just of earning a paycheck. When companies realize that effective internal communications are essential to a productive atmosphere, “Best Place to Work” awards are only the first in a long line of benefits.

Michael Konczal is a Senior Vice President at Levick Strategic Communications, the nation’s top crisis communications firm, and a contributing author to Bulletproof Blog. Connect with Levick on Twitter: @Levick.