Employer of Choice

Employer of Choice  

12 Characteristics of an Employer of Choice

An employer of choice strives to pay employees compensation that may include a salary and benefits that are equal to or above market rates. Most employers of choice offer employees a comprehensive employee benefits package, as they can afford to add benefits for employees, including health insurance, paid time off, paid holidays, and paid vacation.

Employers can consider themselves an employer of choice without these compensation offerings, but they must substitute a powerful mission or vision in their place. An example might be a non-profit agency with a mission to cure cancer in children.

These are examples of the additional factors that make an employer an employer of choice.

• Job Security: Employees are reasonably certain that their employer is financially sound. Freedom from concern about losing their jobs, employees are able to concentrate on their goals and core functions without worry.
• Empowerment and Authority: Employees are empowered to make decisions about and take responsibility for how they do their jobs. Employees are given a strategic framework (company mission, vision, values, goals, feedback) by their department, but they control their choices and how they perform their core functions and make progress on their goals.

• Respect: Employees may not always be right and their ideas may not set company direction and choices, but ​with an employer of choice, employees feel that they are fundamentally respected by their bosses and coworkers.
• Opportunity for Growth: At an employer of choice, employees feel as if they are encouraged to continue to develop their skills and careers. These employers offer performance development planning, career paths, and internal and external training opportunities. Job assignments help employees expand their skills.

• Access to Information: Employers of choice share information with employees that range from the company financial progress and results to the success framework referenced above. Employees feel as if they are members of the in-crowd because they know what is happening.
• Commitment: Employers of choice are committed to their employees and to their customers. This is reflected in everything from Human Resources policies to business strategies. This commitment plays out in retention and engagement strategies and perks that can range from free lunches and beverages to monthly employee and family events. Lunch with the president, inclusion in candidate interviews, and a place on an employee selection committee cement employee commitment and involvement. Running a boot camp for customers or a conference or training event at the company location highlight employer commitment and most of the other strategies on this recommended list.

• Involvement: At an employer of choice, employees feel as if they have the opportunity to be involved. They can make suggestions, think up new products or service innovations, serve on employee committees to plan events and work processes, and attend appropriate meetings and have input on work processes that affect their jobs.
• Positive Relationships With Coworkers: Gallup research finds that engaged employees are likely to have a best friend at work. On a larger scale, at an employer of choice, because the cultural fit is considered in recruitment, coworkers like and enjoy working with each other. A bad boss is dealt with by the organization before he or she can negatively impact employees and the work culture. Remember that for employee retention, employees leave bosses more than they leave anything else present in their workplace.

• Work-Life Balance: Increasingly demanded by employees, work-life balance initiatives such as flexible scheduling choices, allow employees to work undistracted by the family and life events and needs occurring outside of the workplace. These initiatives minimize employee stress and help them accomplish life's challenges while working.
• Performance Culture: An employer of choice finds ways to tie the performance and the interests of employees with those of the employer. Two of the ways that employers accomplish this are through their variable compensation system that ties rewards to performance and a job plan process that provides regular guidance and feedback.

• Fairness: Perceptions of unfair treatment or a workplace that favors certain individuals over others for unknown, undefined reasons, is an anathema to an employer of choice. Employers need to fairly develop and apply policies, treat employees with the same regard and consideration, and make the workplace guidelines clear and enforceable across the board.
• Recognition: Employers of choice provide feedback to employees about their performance, growth prospects, accomplishments, and areas needing improvement regularly. One of the most powerful forms of feedback is employee recognition. For an employer of choice, recognition is regular, targeted to real successes, and used to reinforce positive, desired behavior.

These are not all of the characteristics of an employer of choice, but if you've implemented a significant number of these factors in your company, you are well on your way to becoming an employer that attracts and retains superior employees.

Your reputation will proceed you and employees will seek you out as a desirable place to work. That's the first goal of any effective recruitment strategy. Be the employer that superior employees choose.

A recent Gallup study found that only 47 percent of American workers are completely satisfied with their jobs. A Market Tools study found that 21 percent of employees had applied to another job in the past six months. Clearly, many employees are ready to look elsewhere for the next step in their careers.

How do you make them look at you? More importantly, how do you make your current employees stay with you?

Or, in short, how can your company become an employer of choice?

Becoming an employer of choice means that applicants are eager to work for you, that people envy your employees, that you receive unsolicited resumes, and that your most talented workers stay with the company throughout their careers.

It’s the holy grail for every employers. So do you achieve it?

There’s no single answer to that question. In fact, coming up with the answer may require answers to more questions. Here are a few you should tackle:

1. “Employer of choice” to whom? Determine who are the people you want to run your business. Shark-like go-getters? Tech wizards? Ideallists who want to change the world? Employees of your competitors? Your workers don’t have to be people who live nearby or happened to see your job listing. Create a vision for your workforce and strive to bring it to life. The answer to the first question leads to the second:
2. What do the people that you want, want? A recent survey of college seniors by the National Association of Colleges and Employers found that, when weighing a job offer, these workers look first for opportunities for personal growth, then job security, and then friendly co-workers. “High starting salary” didn’t make the top three. So if you’re offering recent grad lots of money up front but little chances of career advancement, you’ll need to change your priorities to be successful. There are plenty of workplace surveys out there, but you’ll get the best information from your employees, your candidates (even the ones who turned you down), and your applicants. Ask them what drew them to your organization. What set you apart? What’s still lacking? Accept the answers without judgment. You can’t improve unless you acknowledge you’re not perfect. Spoiler alert: Answers to the next question may require collaboration with your senior leadership.
3. What are you prepared to do to attract your ideal employees — and keep them? This may require some changes within your structure or culture. You may have to increase perks, change policies, or even enhance your workplace with, say, a gym, or daycare center, or coffee bar. And that can’t happen without approval of your senior leadership, who may not see the need behind such transitions (and costs). You can tell them that more engaged employees will lead to higher retention, lower hiring costs, higher productivity, and eventually greater profits — all true.

Every company wants to have an employer brand that positions them as an employer of choice. Who wouldn’t want to have talent competing for you instead of the other way around?

So, in addition to the answers to the questions above, here is a short list of attributes of an employer of choice.

Great Workplace

Great Workplace

Your company can be a great workplace — and more successful as a result.

Business leaders — and researchers — rely on Great Place to Work^® metrics to establish the standard that defines a great workplace. Great Place to Work’s annual research is based on data representing more than 10 million employees in 50 countries representing about 6,000 organisations of varying sizes, industries, maturity and structures.

 

Defining a Great Place to Work 

And what determines if a company gets recognized on the annual list that the Institute produces and FORTUNE publishes? Every company that participates in the process undertakes an employee survey that accounts for two-thirds of the result; a management questionnaire accounts for the other one-third. The employee survey is based on the Institute’s definition of a great place to work: 

• One where employees trust the people they work for
• One where employees take pride in what they do
• One where they enjoy working with co-workers  

And, there is the secret:  it is not the perks and extravagant benefits -- it’s the relationships at work that matter. As a business leader, you have an immediate impact on your employees’ experience of these relationships.

Why a Great Workplace Matters Now

While trusting relationships in the workplace have always mattered, business leaders would be wise to focus on company culture now for these three reasons:  

- Mitigate Employee Turnover:  As the economy begins to rebound, employees will have greater options to move to companies where they feel respected, their contributions recognized and have opportunities for career development. At SAS Institute, employees enjoy a respectful work environment that supports their development; SAS enjoys an average turnover rate of about 3%!  Voluntary turnover will likely see an increase in 2011, so focusing relationships with your people is a key way to shore up their commitment to your organization.

- Align Customer Service: Leaders know that their employees are in charge of the relationship between their customers and their organization. As consumer confidence increases, companies like Zappos, with excellent customer service, will move to the front of the line. While high-quality products are an important component of your company’s success, it’s your people that take care of the customer. As the economy rebounds, is your company positioned to take advantage of this market potential?

- Be Positioned for Growth: Finally, the economic recession has been instructive for businesses on a number of levels. The increasingly competitive landscape of our inter-connected economy has taken center stage in our post-recession business calculus. Companies like Qualcomm and W.L. Gore & Associates that invest in processes for innovation and development of their people will lead the way in solving tomorrow’s business problems with cutting-edge products and solutions. Is your organization ready to invest in increasing its creative capacity for developing new, innovative products and services?

The best companies are acutely aware of these workplace trends and opportunities and are actively pursuing a strategy to address all three. These tips will be of use as you create your own great workplace and a great company culture:

• It is not about doing “more.” It is about doing “different.” As a leader, you have to make decisions and communicate. The question to consider is how to make decisions (involve employees and ‘close the loop’ on outcomes) and communicate (transparency and accessibility) in a way that builds more trust. Focus on a few, vital things and begin from there.

• Take the long view. The creation of trust takes time, so have patience and keep focused on the end-goal:  more trust in the workplace. Best companies don’t happen overnight.  Like a garden, they take careful cultivation over time.

• Integrate rather than “action plan.” This is not to say you shouldn’t create a plan with employees, but developing trust is not about checking off a box, but integrating trust building behaviors and practices into your organization’s culture.

• Align to your values. One of the consistent things we see is how the best companies’ cultures are aligned to their respective values. Your company’s values are its “north star;” be sure they are reflected in your hiring process, as well as in your employee policies and guidelines including employee accountability, promotions and education.

As you consider how to grow your business, make creating and sustaining a great workplace an element of your overall strategy.

What is a Great Workplace? The Employee View

Great workplaces are built through the day-to-day relationships that employees experience — not a checklist of programmes and benefits.

The key factor in common in these relationships is TRUST. From the Employee’s perspective, a great workplace is one where they:

• TRUST the people they work for;
• Have PRIDE in what they do; and
• ENJOY the people they work with.

Trust is the defining principle of great workplaces — created through management’s credibility, the respect with which employees feel they are treated, and the extent to which employees expect to be treated fairly. The degree of pride and levels of authentic connection and camaraderie employees feel with one are additional essential components.

What is a Great Workplace? The Manager View

From the Manager’s perspective, a great workplace is one where they:

• ACHIEVE ORGANISATIONAL OBJECTIVES;
• With employees who GIVE THEIR PERSONAL BEST; and
• WORK TOGETHER AS A TEAM / FAMILY in an environment of TRUST

There are nine ways – or practice areas – where leaders and managers create an environment of trust. Great workplaces achieve organisational goals by inspiring, speaking and listening. They have employees who give their personal best by thanking, developing and caring. And they work together as a team / family by hiring, celebratingand sharing.

This fundamental model, confirmed by Great Place to Work through over 25 years worth of analysis of employees’ own opinions, is universal and consistent year-over-year, country-to-country. It applies not only to all organisations but to companies with diverse employee demographics.

How Can Trust Be Measured?

We look at TRUST through two lenses. We assess the culture of the organisation through answers provided on an employee survey, the Trust Index^© survey, which is modeled on the five dimensions found in the employee view of a great workplace. And we look at the workplace through a Culture Audit^©, organised by the nine practice areas in the management definition of a great workplace.

This survey precisely measures the behaviours and the environment that forms the underpinning of world’s most desirable workplaces and successful businesses.

Business leaders, academics and the media rely upon Great Place to Work metrics to establish an objective standard that defines a great workplace. These metrics – from the Trust Index and Culture Audit – form the basis of the methodology Great Place to Work uses to advise and train companies on how to transform themselves into great workplaces.

How the Great Place to Work Trust Index works

Firstly, perceptions of the organizations’ employees are assessed using the Great Place to Work Trust Index Model. We asked a representative sample of the organization’s employees to share their feedback on various variables, which, in our research, define a great workplace from the employees’ perspective.

What makes an organization a great place to work? For more than 20 years, and now across more than 54 countries, Great Place to Work Institute has been asking millions of employees from different kinds of organizations this very question. It was identified that great workplaces are characterized by three key relationships. We found that at great workplaces, employees trust (credibility, respect and fairness) the people they work for, have pride in the work they do and enjoy the company of people they work with.

We put together a list of variables that come together to make an organization a great place to work for its employees in a comprehensive model. It’s widely known as the Great Place to Work Trust Index Model, the world’s most well researched, accepted and sustainable definition of a great workplace, from an employee’s point of view. Great Place to Work Trust Index Employee Survey is one of the most comprehensive methods of measuring employees’ experience at their organization.

We get this information by getting employees of the participating organizations to fill a detailed employee survey questionnaire (see step 2).

Secondly, the strength of people-related management practices of the organization is assessed using the Great Place to Work Culture Audit Framework.

Based on our research, we rate various people-related practices followed at these organizations. We also found that organizations that are successful at creating and sustaining a great workplace culture follow specific practices in nine key areas. These key areas are outlined in the Great Place to Work People Practice Framework. Great practices in these areas can help a firm achieve its objectives with employees who give their personal best and work as a team. This is known as Great Place to Work Culture Audit Assessment—one of the best ways of assessing an organization’s people practices, mapping their impact on the employee perceptions, and outlining a clear set of actions for leaders and managers to improve results. We get this information by getting organizations to fill in a detailed Culture Audit questionnaire (see step 3).

 

Cotton linters: a valuable raw material for paper industry

Cotton linters: a valuable raw material for paper industry

  

BIVIS process: a continuous pulping process from cotton linters for high quality writing & printing papers and special grades. Cotton fibres and cotton-based papers have a long story, which is still continuing today.

 

Papers from cotton fibers

For a long, paper was formerly made from non-wood fibres such as flax or from woody materials, such as mulberry trees. Even though if pulp and paper industry is using mainly wood and recycled fibres as raw materials, cotton fibers are still today very valuable fibers for paper industry. They are used for special grades and high quality papers.

Cotton fibers

Cotton fibers, mainly known as a raw material for textile industry, are also a popular raw material for paper industry. Cotton fibers converting plant, located in cotton growing countries, are providing long and short fibers.

Long fibres are also called “staples cotton”. The length of such fibers is between 20 to 50 mm. They are separated from seeds and short fuzz with gins machines, and then collected and sent to spinning mills.

Cotton linters, which are short fuzz or short fibers, are separated from the seeds using delinting machines. They are collected and then used by paper and chemical industry. The length of cotton linters is generally included between 1.5 mm and 6 mm.

Cotton fibers used in paper industry

Cotton fibers are used to produce high quality papers. But, due to high prices of the raw material, paper industry generally uses cotton wastes. For very special applications virgin fibers can be used. Paper industry uses different kinds of cotton fibers.

Wastes from textile industry: cotton combers, cotton threads and cotton rags:

Cotton combers, waste from combing machines used in textile industry, are long fibers (up to 2cm). Cotton threads and cotton rags allows getting long fibers. Both of these are wastes from textile industry. These fibers are used for very high valuable papers such as bank note paper. Morphology of the fibers, different than the one of cotton linters, allows getting high mechanical and physical properties required for the end use of paper for some special properties such as double fold, strength, opacity and printing properties.

Waste from agriculture: Cotton linters

Bleached cotton linters fibers are used for many applications in paper industry. It is used alone or mixed with other pulps, for applications such as technical papers, security paper, insulating paper, filter paper, non- woven fabrics and fine papers such as art paper. High quality printing & writing papers are also produced from cotton linters pulp.

Technical information regarding cotton linters

1.  General information: Cotton linters are short fibres (fuzz) located around cotton seeds. These fibres are separated from cotton seeds using a special machine, called linter machine or delinting machine. Cotton fibres collected after first pass using the delinting machine are called “first cut linters” and they are called “second cut linters” after second pass in the same machine. Third cut linters often called as “hull fibres” and mill runs are also available for pulp production. Cotton linters are delivered in bales; the weight of them depends on country origin. The bale weight is generally around 500 pounds (220 kg).

2.  Cotton species and linters: Main cotton species producing linters is Gossypium Hirsutum Latifolium. Other cotton species, such as Gossypium Barbadense, have naked seeds, so these species are not giving linters. Gossypium Hirsutum Latifolium represents roughly 87% of world cotton fibres production and Gossypium Barbadense around 8% of same production.

3.  Cotton linters properties: Cotton linters physical properties are summarized in Table 1 and chemical composition of typical second cut cotton linters is mentioned in Table 2.

 

Technical information regarding cotton

linters pulping processes

1.  Conventional pulping processes: Lot of conventional processes are discontinuous processes. Main steps of these processes are here after mentioned:

•  Cotton linters bales handling and dry or wet fibres cleaning.

•  Fibres handling and spherical boilers feeding.

•  Cotton fibres cooking with alkali solution (generally 10 to 15% Caustic Soda) and steam, using spherical digesters.

•  Drainage of the pulp in “blow tanks” with black liquor recovery.

•  Unbleached pulp washing using belt press.

•  Cotton linters pulp dilution and fibres shortening using refiners for further cotton pulp pumping using conventional centrifugal pumps.

•  Pulp bleaching including 2 or 3 bleaching steps performed with bleaching agents such as Oxygen, Hydrogen Peroxide, Chlorine Dioxide, Sodium Hypochlorite or other. These bleaching steps are using pulp mixers and conventional pulp chests or bleaching towers. Pulp washing is performed after each bleaching step using washing drums. Pulp Ph is then adjusted to requirements.

•  Bleached cotton linters pulp may be later screened and cleaned.

2.  BIVIS pulping process: At the end of eighties, CLEXTRAL developed a continuous process for cotton fibres pulping using BIVIS machines. Since 1989, 11 pulping lines processing cotton fibers (cotton linters, cotton combers and cotton wastes for textile industry) using BIVIS process are in operation in the world, 3 of them are processing cotton linters. The latest pulping plant processing cotton linters started in Uzbekistan. The pulping line capacity of the mill is 20,000 ADT/year. Bleached cotton linters pulp is used to produce writing & printing paper.

Cotton linters pulping line at Yanguyul Pulp and Paper Mill

Process description: BIVIS process is a continuous and automated process. Main steps of BIVIS process are described hereafter. See process diagram.

•  Cotton linters bales handling and dry cleaning: Cotton linters are delivered to the mill in high density bales. First step of the process includes bales openers. Cotton fibres are then dry cleaned. Dry cleaning equipment includes a cyclone used for heavy contaminants removal. A beater cleaner for dust and foreign matters as well as a metal detector are then used to complete dry cleaning. Fibers are then air conveyed to a feeding device for further cooking step.

•  Cotton fibers impregnation / cooking: Back water is added and Alkali content is adjusted for cooking operation which is simultaneously performed together with fibers chopping. Cooking operation is performed at high pulp consistency (35%) and temperature at BIVIS discharge is 90°C. No steam is required for cooking step because the conversion of electrical energy into heat during the process is high enough for wax, fat, pectin and proteins dissolving and cellulosed foreign parts degradation. Cotton fibers treatment is completed in a dwell unit, consisting on an insulated housed belt or screw conveyor allowing a 60 minutes retention time.

•  Pulp washing and bleaching: Unbleached pulp issued from retention tank is delivered to a second BIVIS machine unit used for washing, fibers cutting and pulp bleaching. Pulp washing operation is performed using 3 first compressing and shearing sections of the BIVIS machine the barrel of which is equipped with filters. Generally direct washing is performed; however, counter-courant washing may be used. Fibers cutting is simultaneously performed together with washing. Bleaching operation is carried out injecting a hydrogen peroxide solution and an alkali solution. No chelating agent or stabilizer is used. Washing water and chemicals are added by mean of volumetric metering pumps. Pulp consistency at BIVIS discharge is included between 35 to 40%. Bleaching reaction is completed in a second dwell tank, consisting on an insulated housed belt or screw conveyor allowing a 90 minutes retention time.

•  Bleached pulp washing: Bleached pulp is diluted down to 3.5% and the pulp is then dewatered using a screw press, which delivers bleached pulp at 35% consistency. After dewatering, the pulp is diluted using an agitated dilution chest and pulp consistency is adjusted to 3-3.5%. Pulp Ph is adjusted to required value in the dilution chest using Sulphuric acid before to be stored in a dump chest. Bleached cotton linters pulp is then refined and screened.

           Operating parameters: Based on 1 ADMT (Air Dry Metric Ton) of bleached cotton linters pulp, produced using here above described process, main operating parameters are:

•  Raw linters consumption, based on 94% dryness cotton linters and depending on linters quality: 1.14T to 1.27T,

•  Cotton linters wastes and dust from dry cleaning section: 60 to 100 kg, depending on linters quality,

•  Electrical energy consumption: 1000 to 1100 kWh,

•  Steam consumption: 0,

•  Chemicals consumption:

–  Caustic Soda (active product): 60 to 65 kg,

–  Hydrogen peroxide (active product): 45 to 55 kg,

–  Sulphuric acid or Hydrochloric acid: (active product): 5 to 10 kg, depending on clear water or back water Ph,

•  Clear water consumption for motors cooling and fresh water consumption: 25 m3, 9 m3 of which is later recycled in pulping process.

Pulp properties: Pulp properties, after Valley beater refining, are summarized in Table 3.

 Technical information regarding cotton linters paper process:

 Several paper grades includes cotton linters fibers. The amount of bleached cotton linters pulp used in the end paper is depending on paper properties required. Special grade papers and high quality writing and printing papers are produced using 100% bleached cotton linters pulp. From bleached cotton linters pulp, as described here above, writing and printing paper is produced using conventional equipment. Paper production process includes a stock preparation unit and a Fourdrinier paper machine. For some paper qualities, paper is later calendered.

Description of paper production process:

1.  Stock preparation:

•  Pulp storage: Bleached half stock is stored in dump chest.

•  Refining: Before pulp refining, fibers length adjustment is done using a wide angle refiner fit with “cutting” fillings. The bleached cotton pulp is then refined with disc refiners. Main refining operating parameters are specific energy required for fibres cutting and pulp refining is 350 kWh/ADT and drainage index of refined pulp is 50 °SR after pulp screening.

•  Screening: Bleached pulp is screened using conventional equipment including hydro-cyclones.

2.  Paper production: Conventional equipment is used for pulp preparation. Paper produced includes 12% of China clay, 2.5% of Starch (Hiphase 43) and Aluminium Sulphate as retention agent. 80 g/m2 paper is produced using conventional Foudrinier machine. The paper is then calendered using a supercalender fit out with 10 rolls.

3.  Paper properties: Paper properties are summarized in Table 4.

4. Printing properties: 

Printing properties of 100% cotton linters calendered writing and printing papers were compared with 2 typical and standard European writing & printing papers. Compared to other European writing & printing papers, the calendered paper using 100% Cotton linters fibers is presenting:

•  Better colour and details rendering, therefore less ink consumption,

•  Better gloss,

•  Better printing homogeneity,

•  Less paper blotting.

Conclusion of the Certified Laboratory

“100% Cotton linters writing and printing paper is presenting printing properties, at least as good as and often better, than European W & P papers”.

Cotton linters: an available resource for high quality paper:

In 2007, world cotton fibers (cotton staples) production was 26,243,000 tons. It is generally considered that cotton linters quantity, which is potentially available in the world, represents around 18% of cotton staples,

i.e. around 4,724,000 tons for 2007. Cotton linters pulp production in 2007 was estimated at 400,000 tons, for both paper and chemical industries, requiring around 500,000 tons of linters. So, only less than 9% of potential linters fibers were used for pulping.

Conclusion:

Cotton fibers are mainly grown and produced in developing countries. Generally, these countries do not have outstanding wood resources for paper industry and they are importing pulp and papers for local consumption. So, high quality crops residues, such as cotton linters, are valuable products for local paper industry. Today, only a part of available linters is consumed by industry and therefore, a substantial tonnage is still available for pulping and paper industry. This material allows producing special grades papers and quality writing and printing papers.

Courtesy : Papermart