| Answers |
| Q After
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. |
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Q Our
parent company is located outside of Florida. Are we
still eligible to participate?
|
| A As long as you employ at least 15 full- and
part-time permanent employees in Florida, you are
eligible. Only employees working in Florida are eligible
to participate. |
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Q We
have several companies operating in Florida under
one parent holding company. Each company has its own
EIN (Employer Identification Number) 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. |
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Q We
have several offices/facilities in Florida 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
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 Florida, up to a total of 400 employees. |
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Q Our
company has employees throughout Florida. Will I need
to survey all employees throughout the state?
|
| A Yes, you will need to survey
all employees working in the state of Florida. If
you employ more than 250 employees throughout the
state, a random sample of all employees will be asked
to complete a survey. |
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Q We
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. |
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| Q What
if our workforce contains union employees? |
| A This is not an issue. We make no distinction
between union vs. non-union employees. Union employees must
be included in the survey. |
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| Q Our
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. |
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| Q Is
there a fee to participate? |
| A No. Participation in the "Best
Companies to Work for in Florida" program is
absolutely FREE if you choose the online survey process.
If your company should need paper surveys for your employee
base, there is a nominal paper survey fee to cover printing,
shipping and processing. Please see the Assessment
Process page for the paper fees. |
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| Q Should
the paper survey fee be submitted with our registration? |
| A No. Best Companies Group will invoice you
for the paper survey fee after you register and it is
determined that your company meets all the requirements
to be eligible to participate. |
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Q Do
surveys go to everyone?
|
| A If you have 250 or fewer employees in your
company, then the answer is yes. If you employ more than
250 associates throughout the state of Florida, a random
sample of up to 400 employees will be asked to complete
the survey. Please see the Assessment
Process page for more information. |
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| Q We
have more than 250 employees 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. |
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Q Are
managers included in the employee survey?
|
| A Yes. All employees will be asked to complete
a survey unless the company has more than 250 employees. At
companies employing over 250 associates, a random sample
will be chosen, and even then, managers are not excluded. |
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Q How
long will it take to complete the employee survey?
|
| A It should only take about 10 to 15 minutes
for each associate to complete the employee survey. |
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Q How
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 policies,
practices and demographics. Some research may be
necessary. The EQ is completed and submitted online.
A list of questions can be found on the Survey & Report
Samples page. You may begin gathering the information
requested on the EQ prior to the survey start date. That
way when the actual invitation is sent, you can simply
enter the requested information online |
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Q How
does the paper survey process work?
|
| 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. |
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Q What
does the employee do with the paper survey once it is
completed? Will the return envelopes be postage-paid?
|
| A The employee will put their completed survey
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. |
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Q What
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.
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Q How
does the online survey process work?
|
| A To conduct the online survey process, companies
submit a list of employee email addresses. Best Companies
Group will perform the random selection of survey recipients
for companies having over 250 employees. Employees are
then directly sent an individual survey invitation via email 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. |
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|
Q Not
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.
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Q Can
I combine both the online and paper survey options?
|
| A No, we cannot combine both survey methods.
Companies must choose to use the online or the paper survey
process. |
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Q I
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. |
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|
Q Can
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 you will be contacted with more information. |
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Q Can
I see samples of both the employer questionnaire and
the employee survey?
|
| A Yes, you can see samples on the Assessment
Process page or click to view the Survey &
Report Samples. |
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|
Q What
information is included in the Employee Feedback Report
and when will we receive it? What is the benefit of
purchasing this report?
|
| A Purchasing the Employee Feedback Report will
allow you to gain valuable insight into what your employees
are thinking. The Employee Feedback Report comes
in a folder and will contain large spreadsheets detailing
and summarizing your employees' responses (in percentage
format) to the 72 survey questions as well as the
employee comments. 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 have made the list. State benchmarking
is also included so companies can compare themselves to
the "Best Companies to Work for in Florida"
list-making companies as well as against the overall participation. The
benchmarking portion will be sent after the rankings
are revealed. |
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Q What
is the benchmarking?
|
| A The benchmark
report will represent the average responses for each of
the seventy-two (72) statements for all the state's
list winners as well as against the overall participation.
This information will allow your company to compare itself
to the "Best Companies to Work for in Florida." |
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Q How
do I order my company's Employee Feedback Report?
|
| A An Employee Feedback Report can only be ordered once you have registered
to participate in the "Best Companies to Work for in Florida" program.
To register, click
here. If you have already registered, please call
Best Companies Group toll-free at (877) 455-2159 or visit the
Order
Your Reports link. |
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Q When
will we find out if our company made the list and where
we rank?
|
| A You will receive a notification letter informing
your company whether or not you made the list. If you
make the list, you will find out where you rank in the
May 2010 issue of Florida Trend magazine. See the Timeline for more details. |
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Q A
portion of our employees do not speak English. Do you
offer employee surveys in alternate languages?
|
A We offer employee surveys in a variety of
languages. Additional languages are available at $195
per survey translation. If you need alternate language
surveys, please select the "Languages" button
on the registration form and you will receive additional
information. |
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Q How
much is the fee to translate the employee survey into
another language?
|
| A To translate the employee survey into another
language, the fee is $195 per language. Spanish surveys
are available in both the online and paper versions of
the survey. |
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Q How
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 via email. 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. |
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Q Who
can I contact with additional questions?
|
| A Please call Alicia Perry toll-free at (877)
455-2159. |
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Q Does
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. |
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