May 24, 2018
NOLA.com | The Times Picayune honored 50 New Orleans-area companies Thursday (May 24) at its annual Top Workplaces event, held at the Morial Convention Center.
Starting in October, NOLA.com | Times-Picayune welcomed anyone to nominate companies as Top Workplaces. In all, 574 employers in the region were invited to take the employee survey. Any employer was eligible, as long as it had at least 35 employees in the greater New Orleans area. Employers could be public, private, nonprofit, or governmental. There is no cost to enter the Top Workplaces program.
In all, 83 organizations agreed to take a survey administered by Energage, a Philadephia-based human resources research firm. Combined, the surveyed companies employ 35,047 people in the New Orleans area. Of those employees who received questionnaires, 14,405 responded, either on paper or online. For 2018, 50 New Orleans-area employers scored well enough to earn recognition on the Top Workplaces list.
Companies were honored in three categories: small (35 to 124 employees in the region), midsize (125-399 employees) and large (400 or more).
The Top Workplaces employee survey gathers responses on 24 factors covering seven areas, including organizational health factors that measure how well employees are working together toward a common cause:
- Alignment – where the company is headed, its values, cooperation
- Effectiveness – doing things well, sharing different viewpoints, encouraging new ideas
- Connection – employees feel appreciated, their work is meaningful
- My Manager – cares about concerns, helps employees learn and grow
In addition, the survey asks employees about other factors:
- Employee Engagement – motivation, retention and referral
- Leader – confidence in company leadership
- The Basics – pay, benefits, flexibility, training, expectations
Statements relating to “Connection” and “Alignment” are consistently judged most important to employees, while statements about pay and benefits rate least important for workplace satisfaction.
Smaller employers tend to score higher than midsize employers, and midsize employers tend to score higher than large employers. Employers are ranked among groups of similar size to most accurately compare results. Within those size groupings, companies are ranked, and those that score high enough are recognized as Top Workplaces. Energage also determines special award winners based on standout scores on specific areas of the survey.