Announcing the 2019 Scaling Up Culture of the Year Award Winners
People are the heartbeat of every organization. That’s why when teams are fully engaged and working to their full potential toward a common purpose — magic happens. But prioritizing people and culture isn’t always the easiest path to take. There are so many decisions and competing priorities that business leaders must balance in order to cultivate a winning culture. The organizations that are brave enough to invest in those priorities are not only leading the way in this employee engagement revolution, but are seeing their efforts come to fruition, with greater innovation, higher retention, and a stronger competitive advantage in their marketplaces.
That’s why Emplify was so thrilled to partner with Scaling Up to create this first-of-its-kind award, dedicated to recognizing those companies who have found a way to scale growing businesses while prioritizing their people and culture.
Scoring and results
This inaugural award was evaluated using a holistic look at the state of engagement at each organization, leveraging Scaling Up and Emplify’s best-in-class practices. All applicants took Emplify’s proprietary 55-question engagement survey to set the data-driven baseline for each company. In order to move on as a finalist, each company had to have at least 50% participation.
The average employee engagement score from the applicant pool was about 3 points higher than what Emplify sees on average from companies across the country. This is a testament to the Scaling Up methodology and its strong focus on people.
Finalists were chosen based on the top engagement scores, which represented a diverse group of industries. The finalists were then asked to submit an essay, highlighting how they tie their employee engagement initiatives to their greater business strategy. They were also asked to submit a 90-second commercial that best sums up their unique culture. A panel of judges from both Scaling Up and Emplify reviewed the applications and ranked each applicant on the quality of their submission.
The winners!
We’re so excited to recognize our four winners, as announced at the ScaleUp Summit in Anaheim. These four companies demonstrate the best qualities of growth-oriented companies leading with people first, and are great models for future winning cultures.
Congratulations to the 2019 Culture of the Year winners: Ray White Canberra, J.C. Hart, Birge & Held, and Herman & Kittle Properties!
Check out their videos to learn more about these awesome teams:
Herman & Kittle Properties (video)
Thank you to every organization that applied for this year’s award. The fact that you care enough to pursue this honor is a testament to the work you’re doing for your people every day. We’ll see you in 2020!
