In its 10th year, the program salutes a record 166 small, midsize and large companies.
The Salt Lake Tribune’s 2023 Top Workplaces
By Bob Helbig | Special to The Tribune
| Oct. 29, 2023, 12:00 p.m.
Great workplaces aren’t created by accident. They are built and nurtured. The Top Workplaces awards recognize the employers that do it well in the eyes of their employees.
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The heart of the Top Workplaces award is the employee survey process. Energage administers a 24-question survey to employees, who are the sole deciders of whether a company culture merits recognition.
This is the 10th year The Salt Lake Tribune has partnered with Energage, an employee survey company based in Exton, Pa., to celebrate exceptional workplaces in Utah.
There is no cost to participate in Top Workplaces and no obligation to purchase any product or service. For 2023, 2,819 organizations were invited to survey their employees. Based on employee survey feedback, a record 166 employers have earned recognition as Top Workplaces.
In the current job market, companies continue to focus on recruiting, retaining and motivating employees. It’s more paramount than ever, Energage CEO Eric Rubino said, for companies to be intentional about a culture that prioritizes employee appreciation and recognition.
“We really need workplaces that inspire employees,” he said. “You have to really acknowledge employees genuinely and consistently.”
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The award is open to any employer with 35 or more employees in Utah. Survey results are valid only if 35% or more of employees respond; employers with fewer than 85 employees have a higher response threshold, requiring responses from at least 30 employees.
Energage tabulates the survey results. Employers are grouped into small, midsize and large companies to best compare similar employee experiences. Employers earn Top Workplaces recognition if their aggregated employee feedback score exceeds national benchmarks. Energage has established those benchmarks based on feedback from more than 27 million employees over 17 years. They are ranked within those groups based on the strength of the survey feedback.
Why isn’t a particular company on the list? Perhaps it chose not to participate. Or its employee survey feedback might have fallen below benchmark scores. Energage runs tests on survey feedback and in some cases may choose to disqualify organizations based on irregularities in survey feedback.
To participate in the 2024 Top Workplaces awards, or for more information, go to the nomination page at https://www.sltrib.com/nominate.
Bob Helbig is media partnerships director for Energage, an employee survey company based in suburban Philadelphia.
Utah leaders are at the forefront of a nationwide initiative to increase election confidence among conservative voters.
The state’s top election officers, Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson and her director of elections, Ryan Cowley, spoke at a Sutherland Institute event on Tuesday along with the man behind an ambitious project to bring together hundreds of election administrators and scholars across the country to promote “a conservative agenda for democracy.”
Scott Warren, who leads the joint program from the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University and the center-right think tank R Street, presented the initiative’s “conservative principles for building trust in elections” in a message that was echoed by Henderson, Cowley and former Utah Gov. Gary Herbert.
“Voter access and ballot security are paramount, especially in the age of some saying elections are illegitimate or have been stolen,” Herbert said in a prepared video statement. “Unfortunately, this has become an all too common feature of campaigns and it undermines our system of self government.”
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Herbert called on attendees to adopt the principles developed by the Agora Institute and R Street partnership, which Henderson and the Sutherland Institute have been involved with since shortly after it was formed about 18 months ago. The principles are: 1) publicly affirming the integrity of elections in Utah and across the country, 2) using transparency and outreach to boost election confidence, and 3) inviting continuous improvement in election processes to increase trust in election results.
As part of the event held at Utah Valley University, Warren released new polling data commissioned by the partnership on Utahn’s election confidence, candidate preferences and media consumption.
Do Utahns trust federal elections?
The poll, conducted by Gallup in March, found that a majority of Utahns who identify as “conservative” are not confident that President Joe Biden was the legitimate winner of the 2020 presidential election. Only 17% of Utah conservatives are “very confident” that Biden won fairly and 20% were “confident.” Over 30% were “not too confident” and another 30% were “not at all confident.”
The distinction between conservatives who believe Biden’s win was legitimate and those who don’t correlates with other divides among conservatives. Utah conservatives who believe Biden won are more likely to have voted in 2020 (82%) than those who don’t believe he was the legitimate winner (62%), the poll found. They are also more likely to have always been a Republican, 70%-61%.
The divide extends to feelings surrounding the 2024 election: 90% of Utah conservatives who believe Biden’s win was legitimate, and 53% of those who don’t, have some or a lot of confidence that other states’ legislatures will certify the winning presidential candidate in 2024 “regardless of party.” 51% of Utah conservatives who believe Biden’s win was legitimate, and just 19% of those who don’t, think that Democrats will accept the 2024 presidential election if they lose.
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Utah conservatives who believe Biden won the 2020 election are unique in the nation in describing themselves as Romney Republicans (31%) or Never Trump Republicans (25%) and are twice as likely, at 39%, than that same cohort in any other state polled by Johns Hopkins and R Street to say they will vote for someone other than Trump and Biden in 2024, the poll found.
Nearly 80% of Utah conservatives who don’t believe Biden won the 2020 election fair and square say they will vote for Trump in 2020, compared to just 36% of conservatives who have confidence in the results of the 2020 election.
Do Utahns trust state elections?
Utahns are much more united in their perception of their own state’s election integrity.
Election policy scholar Derek Monson presented a Sutherland Institute poll conducted by Y2 Analytics in February which found over 70% of Utahns have confidence that the state’s decade-old vote-by-mail system counts ballots accurately, produces fair outcomes and is secure.
The same percentage of Republicans say they like how vote-by-mail allows them to avoid lines at polling places but around half of Republicans are worried about mail-in ballots being hard to track or being sent to the wrong home.
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“There’s a high level of confidence that elections in Utah are accurate and receive fair outcomes and that they’re secure,” Monson said.
Ryan Cowley, Utah Elections Division, speaks as a panelist during the Sutherland Institute Election Trust Forum at Utah Valley University in Orem on Tuesday, May 7, 2024. | Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News
Rep. Melissa Ballard, R-North Salt Lake, asks a question at the Sutherland Institute Election Trust Forum at Utah Valley University in Orem on Tuesday, May 7, 2024. | Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News
Attendees listen to Sutherland Institute Election Trust Forum panelists at Utah Valley University in Orem on Tuesday, May 7, 2024. | Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News
Doug Wilks, Deseret News executive editor, and Lauren Gustus, Salt Lake Tribune executive editor, speak as panelists during the Sutherland Institute Election Trust Forum at Utah Valley University in Orem on Tuesday, May 7, 2024. | Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News
Attendees listen to Sutherland Institute Election Trust Forum panelists at Utah Valley University in Orem on Tuesday, May 7, 2024. | Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News
Lauren Gustus, Salt Lake Tribune executive editor, and Doug Wilks, Deseret News executive editor, speak as panelists during the Sutherland Institute Election Trust Forum at Utah Valley University in Orem on Tuesday, May 7, 2024. | Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News
The state’s mature vote-by-mail laws and willingness to pursue reforms to increase election integrity have made Utah an example for the country on election administration, Monson said. This is why the Agora Institute-R Street initiative convened officials and academics from across the country in Park City a year ago to talk about how Utah election officials are doing their job and “persuading Republicans to kind of resist the erosion of trust in things like election outcomes.”
Henderson and Cowley invited Utahns to come and see the processes that build democracy to remind them who it is that makes elections tick: their neighbors.
“As we move into the 2024 election, it’s essential for all of us to continue to promote Utah’s strong track record of election integrity while we strive to continue to improve things so citizens can continue to have high levels of trust in our voting system,” Henderson said in a prepared video statement. “It’s important to remember that elections are not done at a national or even a state level. They’re performed at the local level by our neighbors and members of our communities.”
Cowley, who oversaw elections in Summit and Weber counties before joining the lieutenant governor’s office, lamented the loss of institutional knowledge that has taken place with 20 of Utah’s 29 county clerks leaving since 2020 because of the unprecedented pressure and harassment directed toward local election officers.
According to Cowley, distrust in elections is bipartisan and has more to with whatever the results were of the most recent election than with a faulty election system.
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“I think it’s honestly a mechanism of when the polling is done,” Cowley said. “If you were to go back four years, when you have a Republican President and Democrats lost the election, I think the polling would show probably an inverse number.”
Cowley said the best way to improve confidence in elections is to increase transparency surrounding election processes, invite community members to watch their neighbors oversee vote counting and gradually reform the election system based on public feedback, similar to how the state’s vote-by-mail system was developed over two decades.
Tuesday’s event included a panel on supporting election administrators with Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane, a breakout session on potential election reforms and a discussion on media reporting and election trust featuring Deseret News executive editor Doug Wilks, Salt Lake Tribune executive editor Lauren Gustus and KSL NewsRadio Inside Sources host Boyd Matheson.
Let’s be honest, the Arizona Coyotes relocation came by fast, though the writing on the wall has been present for years.
I don’t know about St. Louis Blues fans, but I’m excited to see hockey develop in Utah.
Having spent a large part of my life in Arizona, I can personally vouch for the fact that hockey never quite took off in the state.
Sure, there are many cold-weather transplants in the Phoenix area, but they were never willing to abandon their hometown teams and root for the Coyotes. It also doesn’t help that the Coyotes struggled, never developing a dominant team.
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The market produced significant youth leagues and arguably assisted in the development of Austin Matthews. Still, Arizona never made a competitive team like the Vegas Golden Knights, fellow desert inhabitants.
Arizona’s best season came in 2011-2012 when they reached the Western Conference Finals for the first time in their franchise history.
Hockey failed in Arizona.
Like Arizona, I have lived in Utah, too. Utah’s motto, “Greatest Snow on Earth,” really defines the Salt Lake City area, as nearby Park City is a sought-after winter sports getaway.
To remind Blues fans, Salt Lake City hosted the 2002 Winter Olympics. Though Utah only has one professional team, the Utah Jazz, anyone familiar with the area knows the Jazz fans are some of the most loyal fans in the NBA.
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Jazz fans also come from nearby Idaho and Wyoming.
Expect hockey to succeed and flourish in Salt Lake. There is something about looking outside your window and seeing snow-covered mountains that signal hockey is in the air.
It would be exciting to witness a stronger rivalry between the Colorado Avalanche and Utah hockey team.
Utah has yet to decide on a name. However, the following list includes trademarked potentials: • Utah Blizzard • Utah Fury • Utah HC • Utah Hockey Club • Utah Ice • Utah Mammoth • Utah Outlaws • Utah Venom • Utah Yetis
My vote is for the Yetis; it just flows.
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In the end, hockey will succeed in Utah. The market is growing, and fans have proven loyal to their Jazz. There’s a chance the hockey team could secure a top-two selection in the NHL Draft.
The Utah hockey team currently sits at No. 6 in the upcoming NHL Draft Lottery, with a 7.5% chance of winning the No.1 pick.
With a recent relocation and a top pick, Utah is expected to continue with a rebuild mentality.
An 18-year-old man recorded on surveillance video shouting a racist slur toward the University of Utah women’s basketball team during the first round of the 2024 NCAA tournament will not be criminally charged, Alex Vejar reported for the Salt Lake Tribune.
Attorneys for the city of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, decided on May 3 not to prosecute the man, a student at a Coeur d’Alene high school, “based on a lack of probable cause and the potential violation of his constitutional right to free speech,” Vejar reported.
According to charging decision documents, the man admitted to “shouting the N-word and a sexually explicit comment from a car as the Utes players walked nearby,” per Vejar.
The documents revealed that police considered charging the man with “disturbing the peace, disorderly conduct and malicious harassment,” Vejar wrote.
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But Coeur d’Alene Chief Deputy City Attorney Ryan Hunter wrote that the department had not found evidence that the man “acted with a specific intent to intimidate or harass any specific person,” and instead said evidence indicated the man’s “intent was to be funny,” Vejar reported.
Utah coach Lynne Roberts first publicly described the incident, which she said caused the team to change hotels, after Utah was eliminated by Gonzaga on March 26.
She described the incident, and the ensuing hotel switch, as a “distraction.”
The incident occurred outside a restaurant near the team’s hotel near Coeur d’Alene, where the team was staying prior to a game against Gonzaga due to a lack of hotel rooms around Spokane, per Doug Feinberg of the Associated Press.
Utah deputy athletics director Charmelle Green told KSL.com’s Josh Furlong that the women’s basketball team, as well as members of the cheerleading team and band, heard racial slurs shouted from people in white trucks while they were entering and exiting a restaurant on March 21.
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The Coeur d’Alene Police Department said on its Facebook page on April 3 that police had found surveillance video and audio that “corroborates what was reported by members of the basketball program.”
Initial review of the audio recordings revealed that a “clearly audible” racial slur was used more than once, the police department said.
Teams playing at Gonzaga weren’t the only women’s basketball competitors located a half hour’s drive away from where the NCAA tournament was being played. The early-round locations for the women’s tournament are locked in on Selection Sunday, as opposed to the men’s neutral-location sites being selected in advance, Feinberg reported for the Associated Press.
The incident in Idaho could now spark a review of how host schools and hotel blocks are selected for the women’s tournament. NCAA vice president for women’s basketball Lynn Holzman told Feinberg the review could take place as soon as this year.
