WorldBlu, a company specializing in organizational democracy, has announced it has certified 48 organizations as part of the sixth annual WorldBlu List of Most Democratic Workplaces 2012, published annually on“Democracy in the Workplace Day.

Joining the ranks of well-known companies such as Zappos.com, Namaste Solar, Menlo Innovations and the WD-40 Company on the 2012 WorldBlu list is Malaysia’s social media start-up SAYS.com as well as two other Malaysian companies, MindValley and STATSIT.

For-profit and non-profit organizations from across the US, Canada, Mexico, the UK, the Netherlands, Denmark, Haiti, India, New Zealand, South Africa and Singapore made the WorldBlu List from a diverse range of industries including, technology, manufacturing, healthcare, retail, services and energy.

The organizations ranged in size from five to 90,000 employees representing over $17 billion in combined annual revenue. This is the most global WorldBlu List to date, indicating a global movement towards democracy in the workplace.

“People want freedom rather than fear in the workplace,” comments WorldBlu Founder and CEO, Traci Fenton. “WorldBlu-certified organizations model how democracy in the workplace unleashes human potential and helps build world-class organizations that change the world for the better.”

Organizational Democracy at SAYS.com

As a social media advertising start-up, SAYS.com competes with other Silicon Valley start-ups to attract the best, young talent. SAYS.com employs both Malaysian recruits and employees from three other continents. The organization’s average age of its employees (as well as its employee count) is 25. They have been doing what competitors three times their size aspire to do, having grown profits 480 percent in the previous year.

“Great ideas can come from any individual in the company, and a democratic workplace allows a seamless flow of ideas to be organized and realized. One of our most successful projects came from an intern who single-handedly kick-started a project that is now a case study of cause-related social media marketing done right,” says Khailee Ng, the 27-year old CEO and Co-founder of SAYS.com.

“This project, in a big way, has further strengthened our positioning as a leader in social media advertising and directly impacting our bottom-line,” he adds.


Best Practices in Organizational Democracy


At SAYS.com, employees write their own job descriptions with team members and leaders, resulting in a continuous flow of ‘micro-innovations’ and opportunities for new talents to emerge. Besides that, key decisions at SAYS.com are not made by the CEO or team leaders alone, but via in-house processes to ensure everyone has a chance to contribute input.

“SAYS.com understands the importance of free and open communication, creating an environment that attracts a dynamic work force and maximizes each individual’s talent,” comments Fenton.

Companies become eligible for a spot on the WorldBlu List of Most Democratic Workplaces only after its employees complete the WorldBlu Scorecard, an assessment evaluating their organization’s practice of the WorldBlu 10 Principles of Organizational Democracy, with an overall combined score of 3.5/5 or higher. Organizations from the for-profit and non-profit sectors that have been in operation for at least one full year and have five or more employees can apply for WorldBlu certification.

WorldBlu List of Most Democratic Workplaces 2012: (This is not a ranking)

1.    Achievers (formerly I Love Rewards) – San Francisco, CA
2.    AIESEC International – Rotterdam, Netherlands
3.    areyoufrank? Minneapolis, MN*
4.    Axiom News – Ontario, Canada  
5.    Barrett Values Centre, Ashville, NC*
6.    Beyond Borders – Washington DC
7.    Boost New Media – Wellington, New Zealand*
8.    Chaordix – Calgary, Canada
9.    Chroma Technology – Corp Bellows Falls, VT
10.    DaVita – Denver, CO  
11.    DreamHost – Brea, CA
12.    Dyn – Manchester, NH*
13.    Explore Communications – Denver, CO
14.    Future Considerations – London, UK and Madison, WI
15.    Glassdoor – Sausalito, CA  
16.    Great Harvest Bread Company – Dillon, MT  
17.    Greenleaf Book Group – Austin, TX  
18.    Guayaki Yerba Mate – Sebastopol, CA
19.    Haiti Partners – Port au Prince, Haiti  
20.    HCL Technologies – Noida, India
21.    Ikamva Youth – Cape Town, South Africa*
22.    Innovation Partners International – Washington, DC  
23.    Integritive – Asheville, NC  
24.    LEARN – Laval, Canada  
25.    Menlo Innovations – Ann Arbor, MI  
26.    MindValley – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
27.    Mojo Interactive – Orlando, FL  
28.    Namaste Solar – Boulder, CO  
29.    Nearsoft – Hermosillo, Mexico
30.    New Belgium Brewing Company – Fort Collins, CO  
31.    NixonMcInnes – Brighton, UK  
32.    Orpheus Chamber Orchestra – New York, NY
33.    Quick Left, Boulder, CO*  
34.    Podio – Copenhagen, Denmark  
35.    Productivity Associates – San Diego, CA  
36.    Reserveage Organics, Gainesville, FL*
37.    Rabbit – London, UK  
38.    Rypple – Toronto, Canada  
39.    SAYS.com, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia*
40.    STATSIT – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
41.    sweetriot – New York, NY  
42.    TakingITGlobal – Toronto, Canada  
43.    The Link School – Buena Vista, CO
44.    Tickled Media, Singapore*
45.    Valtech – Copenhagen, Denmark  
46.    WD-40 Company – San Diego, CA
47.    Woo-hoo! – Copenhagen, Denmark
48.    Zappos.com – Las Vegas, NV

* Indicates the first year the organization has received WorldBlu certification.