Page 45 - How America's Best Places to Work Inspire Extra Effort in Extraordinary Times

32B RE-ENGAGE

are the companies that Gladwell believes are at most risk of losing the
same connective power that a smaller employer can offer:

Our company strives for the small-company friendly and family-
oriented atmosphere despite having thousands of employees all over.
I was going to only work here for two years and move to another
state, but I have changed my mind. I am going to stay with the
company now since I am well aware how hard it is to find a job you
enjoy and a company you love.

In the eyes of this last employee the tipping point has been kept at bay,
and as a result he is choosing to engage and stay.
And finally, we identified an employee in a larger company (700
employees) that acquired the smaller company where she worked.
Surely, you might think, the transition into a larger company would
break the spirit of one who had cherished that family feeling with a
smaller company. Not so:

I joined this company through an acquisition. I was nervous at first
about joining such a large company, but I have never regretted it.
Despite the difference in size, the company has just as intimate a
feel as my former company. The senior leaders know people’s names
and what’s happening in their daily lives and truly care about us
as people as well as employees. This really trickles down into the
rest of the company, and that makes it a wonderful place to come to
work in the morning. Thank you for giving us an opportunity to
participate in this survey.

A story begins to emerge from these comments about what Best-
Places-to-Work employers are doing to create winning workplaces—
they are about creating a sense of family, building personal connec-
tions between the senior leadership and employees, and eliciting the
feeling that you’re part of something special in which you have a sig-
nificant measure of influence. In later chapters we will explore these