Rating the Job
The first annual best workplaces for Financial Professionals survey asked participating companies 100 questions covering five categories, and included CFO interviews in the scoring process. A "radiating pentagon" scorecard rated firms on a 4.0 scale, with each point representing a break between quartiles, allowing easy comparison with the 2.0 average.
A separate employee questionnaire offered a check on the finance department's workplace claims, and formed the basis for the job- satisfaction component of the benchmarking. Staffers checked reactions to a range of comments about quality of supervision, co-workers, promotion opportunities, work interest, and the job in general--rating pay from "barely live on income" to "income provides luxuries," for example.
The Best Workplaces survey resumes this month, when Hackett Benchmarking & Research and the Association for Financial Professionals accept applications for the second annual program (see BestWorkplaces.org). It is very much a work in progress. For example, "this year we didn't ask, 'Do you have dedicated HR people in the finance department?'" notes Rick Roth, Hackett's managing director. "We'll incorporate that into next year's study."
The AFP will recognize top performers in this first year of research at its 22nd annual conference, in Chicago, October 14 through 17. -- R.H.
QUALITY OF WORK LIFE: NCCI
A Financial Environment Policy
When the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI), which collects and analyzes workers' compensation data, was evaluating its options for new facilities two years ago, CFO Alfredo Guerra wasn't just looking at bricks and mortar. "Our business boils down to two things: data and people," he says. "We were looking for a source of competitive advantage."
As a result, the Boca Raton, Florida-based firm custom-built a $52.5 million corporate headquarters--including a fitness center, a day-care facility, and a Starbucks coffee bar--to reflect its respect for employees' personal needs. To minimize hierarchy among its 900 employees, all executive offices are glass-walled and exactly the same size, "pretty small" at about 10' x 12', says Guerra, in exchange for a lavish amount of meeting space.
But beyond the tangible amenities, finance employees say they appreciate NCCI's commitment to helping them meet family obligations. A flexible-hours policy has been "a tremendous asset," says Lisa Jarnot, a finance manager who has been promoted over the past seven years from her initial assignment in the call center, while she has raised two sons. And having four hours of work time per month to volunteer has also been enriching, she says, especially a recent project in which the majority of the 62-person finance department helped build a Habitat for Humanity house.
Such perks could cost a pretty penny, but Guerra says he has implemented them in an era of fiscal conservatism. The capital expenditure for the new building was a cost-effective alternative to reupping for leases at three separate locations, he says, and the local YMCA operates the day-care and fitness programs at reduced rates to employees in exchange for free rent. In addition, the community-service hours have provided some meaningful team-building opportunities.
While the flexibility has been popular, Guerra plans to tighten up some processes, namely those that help his finance team chart more comprehensive career paths. He has recently condensed job classifications and identified the skills needed to enter each one. -- Alix Nyberg
PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: SODEXHO
Toughening the Soft Skills
Winning friends and influencing people are hard skills to teach. But for finance professionals in Sodexho's $1.5 billion corporate-services division, these soft skills are crucial to getting accurate financial data from the 1,800 institutional cafeterias and facilities-management venues they service, most managed by nonfinancial professionals.
"The best ideas are the ones that start with the general managers, because they're closest to the customers," says David Scanlan, a 19- year Sodexho veteran who oversees the division's 25-member finance team as its vice president of finance. "And you really need their buy-in, because it's a massive effort to standardize across all those sites."
To teach effective collaboration, Scanlan uses what he calls a "champion" program that turns broad strategies, such as maximizing cash flow, into discrete tasks, such as upping credit-card use. Specifically, he assigns a project to each staff member, and holds him or her responsible for creating a plan, getting colleagues to work with the managers in their geographic area on implementing it, and tracking results. The tasks "develop their leadership abilities," says Scanlan, "because they're having to influence others without having them as direct reports."
The results have been impressive. For example, credit-card use increased an average 18 percent in the first nine months of the cash- flow initiative launched last September. Accountability is also built into the process, since each champion must present results at an annual meeting with the corporate CFO and divisional president.
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