| 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 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 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 25 full and part-time permanent employees working
in the United States 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 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 the survey
apply to those throughout the United States? |
| A Yes,
if you employ more than 250 employees throughout the United
States a random sample of all employees will be asked
to complete a 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 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 Is
there a fee to participate? |
| A No!
Participation in the "Best Places to Work in Insurance"
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 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 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
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 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. |
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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 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 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
is 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 Can
I combine both the online and paper survey options? |
| A No,
we cannot combine both survey methods. Companies must
choose to use either the online or the paper survey process. |
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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. National benchmarking is also included so companies
can compare themselves to the "Best Places to Work
in Insurance" list-making companies as well as against
the overall participation. This 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
nation's list winners as well as against the overall participation.
This information will allow your company to compare itself
to the "Best Places to Work in Insurance." |
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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 Insurance" 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 Report 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 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
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 Jackie Miller 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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