I. Employee Response Rate

• It is required that the following percentage of employee responses to the survey be met by the deadline of March 31, 2008.  (e.g. If your company has 220 employees, 50% (110) of your Washington-based employees must respond).

II. Eligibility

• To be eligible as a Best Companies finalist, each employee may only respond once to the survey and must be employed at a Washington State branch of the company.
• Best Companies participants must have employees in Washington State. Regardless of size, your percent of response will be calculated based on the number of employees in your Washington State locations.
• Contract employees and part-time employees are not eligible to respond to the survey. (Full-time employees are defined as those who work more than  32 hours per week and are eligible for benefits)
• To be a Best Companies finalist, the primary contact must sign the entry application noting that he/she has read these rules and guidelines and communicated pertinent information about the program to the appropriate people within the company such as, but not limited to, the nature of the Best Companies program, the survey Web site and deadlines.
• Information supplied in the corporate profile and entry application should reflect the best knowledge of the participating company.  A signed copy of the corporate profile should be kept on file.
• Companies that tamper with the survey data, online process, or intentionally prevent any of their Washington State employees from participating in the survey may be disqualified from the Best Companies program.
• Companies that have received Best Place in their categories for three of four years will be listed in the Best Companies Hall of Fame. They will be ineligible to participate in the Best Companies to Work For Program for three years.
• The employees of Washington CEO and the 2008 Best Companies sponsors are not eligible to participate.  Judges on the 2008 panel may not be employed at companies participating in the 2008 Best Companies To Work For program.
• Company data, collected throughout the Best Companies process, will remain strictly confidential, unless otherwise noted.  Survey results will be released as a combined score total.  Detailed survey data will be released to each specific company in the form of result packets, after the program is completed.

III. Scoring Guidelines

• Participating in the Best Companies program does not automatically place companies on the Best Companies to Work For list or guarantee that they will be profiled in Washington CEO Magazine.  Best Companies are determined through a numerical formula determined by an independent research firm and by judges' scores.
• Top scoring companies will be ranked on the 2008 Best Companies To Work For list.  1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd placeholders in each category will receive a 2008 Best Companies To Work For trophy presented by Washington CEO Magazine. 
• Employee survey scores are based on a scale of 0 - 5 and are weighed as 66.6% (100 points) of the final score.   The judges' score, worth 33.3% (50 points), is based on the corporate profile and the employee survey data.  The judges will use a scale of 0 - 5.