If you’re using a Best Employee Surveys project to collect employee data and want to import it into our Best Places to Work programs, you’ll need to ensure that your data is collected in a way that maintains eligibility for those awards programs. While they’re summarized below, a complete set of guidelines will be sent to your primary contact by the Best Places to Work program coordinator upon registration. Oftentimes, this occurs after your employee survey is complete, so read carefully and ask our team any questions you may have. We’re here to help!
Register For Your Program(s)
Your employee survey agreement with Best Employee Surveys does not preclude the need to register for participation in whatever program you’d like to apply that employee data. Visit our website, to learn more about our awards programs and visit their registration websites.
Complete Your Employer Benefits & Policies Questionnaire
In the first part of the process, Best Companies Group (BCG) captures important information about company policies, practices and demographics in the Employer Questionnaire (EQ), worth approximately 25% of your overall program score. All questions apply to company operations in the program area, unless the question itself says “US” or “worldwide.”
The primary contact will receive a link to the EQ from [email protected]. You may have difficulty finding some requested information, so please set aside a few hours to complete it.
You can’t make the list without it! Use this sample survey to start gathering your responses.
What does Best Companies Group do with the submission?
If your organization makes the list, the authorized media partner will receive the information you provide for use in the list-related issue of their publication and/or website, as well as for “spotlight” information on each organization should an awards function occur. Therefore, please leave blank, or mark “N/A,” anywhere BCG requests information about your company that you do not wish for the partner(s) to receive.
Communicate With Your Employees
BCG strongly recommends informing employees of your company’s participation in the program and the survey process. This will help avoid deletion of the email survey invitation and help increase your company’s response rate.
While BCG encourages communicating with employees, please note the following: The survey is optional. You cannot require employees to complete it, or ask if they have taken it. You may not offer incentives related to the survey, including, but not limited to: food, company pens, mugs, raffles, drawings, etc. You cannot ask employees to submit positive responses to the survey. Your company should gather candid employee feedback in order to evaluate and improve your workplace. Please do not make placing on the list the focus of the survey process.
Do not communicate the following (or anything similar) to employees:
- “Our ranking will depend on the answers you provide, and we want our company to make the list this year.”
- “If you feel you cannot provide positive feedback, we ask that you refrain from taking the survey.”
- “Think of how proud we will all be if our company is named to the list of winners.”
Please submit copies of all communications you send to employees related to the survey to your program coordinator by the employee communications deadline. Please refrain from using the program logo in your communications, as it belongs to the publication partner and companies may not use it without permission. Failure to follow the guidelines above, or failure to submit your employee communications could result in list disqualification.
Achieve the Minimum Response Rate
A high response rate improves the accuracy of your survey results. Therefore, you need at least a 40% response rate if you have 25 or more employees, and an 80% response rate if you have 15-24 employees. BCG likely will not consider companies for the list if they do not meet this threshold.
Regardless of whether or not you make the list, the higher your response rate, the more the data will represent your company as a whole, and the more value your survey report will have at the end of the process. While BCG encourages a high response rate, tracking individuals who respond jeopardizes employee confidentiality and BCG will not allow tracking. Please keep in mind that the employee survey is optional, not mandatory. BCG will send employees up to three survey reminders. This only applies to employees on your email list that BCG selects for the survey. BCG cannot send Employee Feedback Reports to organizations with less than a 10% response rate.
To learn more, read this article on how to increase response rates.
Learn More
To learn more about the best way to collect employee feedback for your organization, read Which is Best for Your Organization: Program Participation or an Employee Survey Project.
