| |
| 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 South Carolina.
Are we still eligible to participate? |
| A
As
long as you employ at least 15 full- and part-time permanent employees
in South Carolina, you are eligible. |
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Q
We
have several companies operating in South Carolina under
one parent holding company. Each company has its own
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. |
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Q
We
have several offices/facilities in South Carolina 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 South Carolina, up to a total of 400
employees. |
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Q
Our
company has employees in many states. Will the survey
apply to those who are out of state? |
| A
No,
only those individuals employed in South Carolina will
be surveyed. |
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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 process. |
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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
Should
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. |
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Q
Can
my company see the survey before we sign up to participate?
|
| A
Yes.
You can see samples on the Assessment
Process page or click to
view the Survey &
Report Samples. |
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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
in South Carolina, a random sample of up to 400 employees
will be asked to complete the survey. Please see the Assessment
Process for more information. |
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| Q
We
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. |
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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 company policies,
practices and demographics. Some research may be necessary.
The EQ is completed and submitted 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's
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. 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. |
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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
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 someone will contact you
with more information. What's
This? |
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Q
What
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 South Carolina"
list-making companies. 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. |
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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 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. |
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Q
A
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. Spanish surveys
are available in both the online and paper survey methods. |
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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. 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
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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Q
Who
can I contact with additional questions? |
| A
Please
call Alicia Perry toll-free at (877) 455-2159. |
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