| 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 the United
States. Are we still eligible to participate? |
| A As
long as you employ at least 25 full- and part-time permanent employees
in the United States, you are eligible. Only employees
working in the United States are eligible to participate. |
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Q We
have several companies operating in the United
States under one parent holding company. Each company
has its own Employer Identification Number (EIN) 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 25 full- and part-time permanent employees to
be eligible. |
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Q We
have several offices/facilities in the United States
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 the United States, up to a total of
400 employees. |
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Q Our
company has employees in many states. Will I need to
survey all employees throughout the United States? |
| A Yes,
if you employ more than 250 employees throughout the United
States you will need to conduct a random sample of all
employees. |
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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 25 "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 Places to Work in
Healthcare" program is absolutely free
for 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 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 United States, 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 survey 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.
Companies choosing the online survey process will be asked
to upload a list of all employee email addresses into
an online portal that will be sent to the primary contact
at each company shortly after registration closes.
Best Companies Group will then randomly select the appropriate
amount of employees (based on company size) to receive
the survey. 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. |
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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
survey 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 place 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. |
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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 company 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. What's
this? |
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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 FREE Participation Report
and when will we receive it? |
| A As
part of your participation, you will receive your Overall
Survey Average, which is the total percentage of positive
responses given by your employees that completed the suvey.
This report will be sent to you in October 2010.
More in-depth information is available for purchase.
Click here to learn more about the Employee
Feedback Report |
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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 (percentages) 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. National benchmarking is also included
so companies can compare themselves to the "Best Places
to Work in Healthcare" 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
benchmarking contains the averages of the employee
responses from the companies making the "Best Places
to Work in Healthcare" list as well as against
the overall participation. This information will allow
your company to compare itself to the "Best Places
to Work in Healthcare." |
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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 Places
to Work in Healthcare" 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 a special issue of Modern
Healthcare in October 2010. 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" option
on the registration form. |
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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. The surveys can be translated
into 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. 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 Best Companies Group toll-free at (877) 455-2159
and ask for Jessica Pouchan. |
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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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