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The Best Christian Workplaces Institute emerged out of a partnership between a
woman with a novel idea and a human resources leader with 20+ years of
experience, which included running “best places to work” contests in the
Pacific Northwest. Five years ago, Helen Lee was a student at the F.W. Olin
Graduate School for Business at Babson College, taking a course on Strategic
Human Resource Management. It was the first time she heard the concept that an
organization’s human resources can be its greatest source of competitive
advantage. Having previously worked at a number of Christian organizations, she
found herself wondering how good these companies and ministries were at
nurturing their employees. Thus was born the idea of conducting a survey that
would highlight those Christian organizations with exceptional people
practices, similar to the Fortune magazine annual feature on “The 100 Best
Places to Work.”
Through John Pearson, CEO of the Christian Management Association, Helen was
introduced to Al Lopus, a member of the CMA President’s Leadership Circle and a
Managing Consultant with Watson Wyatt. Al had designed and led similar surveys
in Oregon and Washington states and had the expertise necessary to design a
survey specifically for Christian organizations. Together Helen and Al founded
Best Christian Workplaces Institute (BCWI), a human resource research and
consulting firm, with the mission of making Christian organizations the best
places in the world to work. Working in partnership with Christianity Today
magazine, where Helen had previously served as an editor and writer, BCWI
created the first Best Christian Places to Work survey, which was conducted in
the fall of 2002. The results from this survey were announced at the Christian
Management Association conference in February 2003 and appeared in the April,
2003 Christianity Today cover story. The survey was the largest ever
conducted on the attitudes of Christian workplace employees, with 8,700
participating, representing more than 15,000 employees in 85 organizations.
As a result of this landmark study, BCWI has helped numerous organizations gain
a clearer picture of their workplace environment and take steps to be better
stewards of their human resources. BCWI looks forward to continuing to serve
and improve Christian ministries through its future research and consulting
projects.
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