2008 Great Place to Work^® Institute Awards

"Root is a great place to be because they trust and empower their people to be leaders regardless of what position they hold within the company."

Root Learning

Great Place to Work^® Award for
Collaborative Decision-Making: Top/Down, Bottom/Up

#7 Small-sized company, 2007 50 "Best Small & Medium Companies to Work for in America" Professional Services, Consulting, Management Privately Held 90 US Employees Headquarters: Sylvania, OH President and CEO: James Haudan www.rootlearning.com

At Root Learning, all programs, plans and initiatives affecting employees ("Rootizens") are formed by a collaborative decision-making process - using opinions and viewpoints derived concurrently from the top down (management-driven) and the bottom up (grassroots-driven).  Even Root Learning's mission and vision statements were created through a series of breakfast and lunch meetings where each employee had the opportunity to participate.

The "Broad Based ‘Opt-in' Dialogue" approach at Root Learning means that every person and every team has the right - and the responsibility - to engage in dialogue with others on any topic important to their daily work.  Rootizens are not required to participate, but in the spirit of collaboration, the invitation must be made.  This approach has shaped major initiatives at Root Learning from competitive intelligence-gathering to incentive programs and IT decisions. 

Recently, Root Learning introduced a program called "RISE" - Root's Internal Stock Exchange - as a part of their annual planning process.  A sort of "stock exchange" for ideas, RISE allows all employees to suggest benefits or programs to initiate.  All ideas were voted on and the winning idea was implemented contributing to the feeling that Root Learning "trust[s] and empower[s] their people to be leaders regardless of what position they hold within the company."

"I have never worked at a job, before this one, were I felt people around me were all working toward a common goal as part of a team.  People here believe in the company and are enthusiastic about doing a good job.  It is very encouraging and inspiring to me to work at a company where you feel you are contributing to the overall success of the business."