Best Workplaces Winner (Medium, 50 - 99 employees): World Wide Technology Oct 19, 2017, 12:50pm HST Updated Oct 19, 2017, 12:54pm
How do you recognize employees for outstanding work? Spot bonuses, and a “mission possible” award, which highlights the achievements of employees who are consistently executing in critical roles throughout the company. What perks do you offer to employees, beyond a standard benefits package? -Telecommuting: employees can work from home one to three days per week. -Half-off tuition: We will pay half the tuition, fees and books for coursework related to an employee's job. -Professional development programs through the WWT University. -Profit sharing: All employees, excluding executives, receive bonuses derived from a 3 percent share of the company's net income. -Onsite health benefits, such as regular screenings and flu shot clinics. -Day of Caring: Paid time off for volunteering. -Community impact: WWT will match employee donations and sponsorships for local organizations. -Regular team-building activities and get-togethers. -Free snacks and beverages during the day. Three reasons your employees love coming to work every day: -WWT’s culture and people make going to work fun and exciting. Most employees consider one another close friends and extended family, so it is common for us to socialize outside of the office on a regular basis. -Work is challenging, meaningful, and appreciated: WWT provides tools and resources that enables collaboration and teamwork. -See impact and reward of our work from idea to outcome: Management is quick to acknowledge and reward WWT teams and individuals for customer success stories.
What's a question you ask every job candidate, and what do you want to hear? How do you align with our core values? Some of the key characteristics that we look for is someone who is engaging and has a great personality; has great communication skills and seems to be very polished; passionate about what they do and eager to learn new things; capable of being an individual contributor and a great team player, and who is very confident but humble at the same time. How do you plan to raise your Best Workplaces score next year? Extend onsite health services, increasing paid maternity leave by four weeks, team-building events, charitable giving. ABOUT Score: 97.116402 Top local executive: Michael Hicks Hawaii employees: 57 Business: Technology solutions provider Website: www2.wwt.com WORD FROM THE SURVEY “WWT’s culture and people make going to work fun and exciting. Most employees consider one another close friends and extended family, so it is common for us to socialize outside of the office on a regular basis.”
Best Workplaces Finalists (Medium, 50 - 99 employees) 2. Primary Properties How do you recognize employees for outstanding work? We provide time during meetings to give them a high five, and also have them share their accomplishments with our team. Showing how proud we are of them is important, but we also like allowing them to share their successes so we may learn from them. Three reasons your employees love coming to work every day: We have a nurturing environment that encourages participation. Meetings are planned by our team and they divide out the duties, including refreshments, so they can each be a part
of a staff meeting once a year — we have four to five agents in a team plan one meeting each year. How do you plan to raise your Best Workplaces score next year? By talking more with our agents during our individual goal-setting sessions. In order to get better, I need to communicate with each of them on a regular ABOUT Score: 96.144832 Top local executive: Kay Mukaigawa Hawaii employees: 55 Business: Real Estate services Website: primaryhawaii.com
Enlarge COURTESY THE HAWAII GROUP 3. The Hawaii Group How do you recognize employees for outstanding work?
We have an employee-of-the-quarter award, where the team member is recognized with a lunch and lei, and they have the choice of one of the following prizes: A three-day, twonight stay at a beachfront house on the North Shore; Extra paid day off; $200 cash; Two tickets and limo ride to any entertainment or sporting event; A $200 dining certificate to any restaurant of their choice. What perks do you offer to employees, beyond a standard benefits package? In-office massage therapist (Weekly); Regular meals for employees; Daily snacks and drinks; Birthday day off; 11 paid holidays; Paid time- off to volunteer in the community; Birthday and anniversary lunches and gifts for all employees; Tuition reimbursement; Health and fitness reimbursement; Cell phone reimbursement. What's a question you ask every job candidate, and what do you want to hear? What is your favorite station on Pandora? We are pretty flexible with a candidate’s answer, we want to get an idea of what they will listen to in the office. ABOUT Score: 91.449814 Top local executive: Matthew Delaney Hawaii employees: 50 Business: Finance, operational and staffing support, recruiting and marketing solutions for small businesses Website: thehawaiigroup.com
Enlarge COURTESY EAH HOUSING 4. EAH Housing How do you recognize employees for outstanding work? EAH offers bonuses and has a service award recognition program for those that serve EAH for a number of years. We offer monetary awards, these awards range from $1,000 to $2,000. Employees fill out a "recognition form" that asks what their favorite restaurants, stores and desserts are so managers can customize recognition based on the employee's preferences. What perks do you offer to employees, beyond a standard benefits package? Humana360 Wellness Program — employees can earn points for prizes. Bonuses, summer and winter parties, potlucks, 4 percent match on 403b. We offer a generous sick and vacation leave package. We observe 11 holidays, 2 of them are floating and can be taken at any time and on top of that, the COO will send an email out for a day off tomorrow or let's go home early today as a surprise. Last year, it happened 5 times. How do you plan to raise your Best Workplaces score next year? Listening to our staff's concerns and implementing changes as needed. We do surveys every year to capture employee's concerns and feedback ABOUT Score: 89.862543
Top local executive: Kevin Carney Hawaii employees: 77 Business: One of the largest and most respected nonprofit housing development and management organizations in the western United States. Website: eahhousing.org
Enlarge COURTESY HEMIC 5. HEMIC (Hawaii Employers' Mutual Insurance Company) How do you recognize employees for outstanding work? HEMIC gives spot awards and bonuses to recognize outstanding employee and team performance and accomplishment. We honor employees who exemplify a spirit of excellence as nominated by their colleagues with a special Spirit of Excellence award. When customers write in to praise HEMIC, teams and individual people, we publish these accolades in our company newsletter in a section called, "Chee Hoo!" We also promote and celebrate staffs support of community organizations and service in community events. We celebrate big and small, meaningful accomplishments. We recognize hard work and team work. We do this as individual teams, departments and on big occasions, company-wide. We're a 100 percent local company, so you can bet our celebrations include ono grindz.
What perks do you offer to employees beyond a standard benefits package? We have exciting extracurricular outings, including company picnics and annual holiday parties, as well as departmental celebrations. HEMIC has generous benefits: Matching 401k up to 6 percent; Cafeteria plan with a wide variety of insurance benefits, including medical, dental, supplemental and more; Flex spending and dependent care account; Subsidized 24-Hour Fitness gym membership and free Zumba classes; Flexible work hours; Company-paid continuing education and certification; Recognize and reward work anniversaries (5, 10, and 15-plus years) at annual company rally; Celebrate birthdays each month with a party. What's a question you ask every job candidate and what do you want to hear? What does great customer service look like to you? We are a service organization and we strive to provide superior customer service to all our customers. We look for people who embrace this spirit, whatever their role in the company, because that attitude and commitment to service makes for outstanding performance. Recently, one applicant gave us a neat response to this question: Great customer service is anticipating your customers’ needs and delivering before they ask for it. This answer demonstrates the spirit of active engagement that we value so highly. ABOUT Score: 85.755029 Top local executive: Martin Welch Hawaii employees: 88 Business: Hawaii's largest workers' compensation insurance carrier Website: hemic.com
Enlarge COURTESY HAWAII COMMUNITY FOUNDATION 6. Hawaii Community Foundation Three reasons your employees love coming to work every day: -Everyone at HCF plays a role in transforming givers’ generosity into lasting change for our Island communities. The staff expresses this as one of the most rewarding reasons for coming to work. "Not many people can say I am going to work today to make this world a better place, but I can." said Robert Abad, senior accountant. -HCF is an organization with 100 years of history in Hawaii, and employees are at the heart of the difference HCF has made. -We are a catalyst for change: HCF staff values the unique role the foundation plays as a convener of community leaders and funders to collectively improve tough issues, from reducing high school drop-out rates, to providing immediate support to those in need and administering scholarships and grants. What perks do you offer to employees, beyond a standard benefits package? HCF supports a family-friendly environment, allowing for flexibility and children in the workplace when needed. Employees are encouraged to volunteer for nonprofits during allocated work hours. Board members and staff connect at a monthly “Board Bento Hour” on ways to better serve the community. What's a question you ask every job candidate, and what do you want to hear?
We often ask potential candidates to share their reason for wanting to work in the nonprofit sector. Our goal is to hire people who are passionate about wanting to make a positive difference in Hawaii. ABOUT Score: 84.347181 Top local executive: Micah Kane Hawaii employees: 64 Business: Services and administration for charitable giving Website: hawaiicommunityfoundation.org