Jan 25, 2013, 06:30 by Greystone Administrator

The Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For® list published recently. A number of healthcare provider organizations made the list and congratulations to them! But this isn’t about them; it’s about your organization and thinking about it in relation to those 100 organizations. Great Places to Work® studies the inner workings of workplaces around the world, discovering what makes them tick. While there is much that can be learned from understanding how these organizations work, it is also interesting to note the robustness of their Web sites. Is it a coincidence that they all have a robust Web site? I think not. This top 100 list reflects many large, some multi-national organizations, and mostly non-healthcare companies, which may be far different or larger than your organization. Even if that’s so, there is at least one common thread applicable to all organizations: they consciously include their Web site as one aspect of making and showing that their workplace is great. Go to the list and take a look at some of the companies’ sites (their URLs are provided in it). You can see those organizations that are actively personifying their brand experience on their front door to the world; their Web site. They are taking steps to extend that experience by offering rich and fresh experiences that use imagery, features, storytelling, content, architecture and functionality to keep site visitors and customers engaged and to help extend the “great place” their organization is to the Web. In addition to consciously developing their workplace experience, it’s quite likely there is cross-functional organizational development occurring within these winning organizations. Do you need the same cross-functional support to bring your Web vision to life? That answer is yes. As you look at the winners’ sites, I encourage you to think about your Web site and strategy. Does your site reflect the greatness of your organization? Are there tools or techniques in use on the sites that are transferrable to your organization? Can your Web platform accommodate those tools / techniques? Do you know how to incorporate the workflow changes necessary to make it happen? Are you ready for change? Assessing your site and developing strategies to improve it can be daunting, but just as these top 100 organizations consciously put efforts into growing and developing their workplaces and Web sites, so must we with our Web sites and strategies. Whether it’s planning strategy, building consensus, updating content or finding platform improvements - determine what you need and take steps to move forward. If you’re not quite sure where to begin, that’s OK – we can help; contact us today. Your organization may not yet be one of the winners on Fortune’s list, but that doesn’t mean it’s not great. Like these winning organizations, take the first step. Your site is too important and your organization is too great not to shine on the Web.