Google's "Bureaucracy Busters" program was designed to cut down on internal red tape and make administrative processes more efficient. Instead of creating a committee of senior leaders to conduct an internal review of various processes and make recommendations, CFO Patrick Pinchette asked all employees to post their bureaucracy-cutting suggestions on an internal site and vote on the ones they found most promising. Ultimately, close to 4,500 Google employees voted on nearly 1,200 employee-generated ideas. This year, Google has begun implementing changes, which range from improving their internal expense report system to adding more maps of buildings around their campuses. Nine of the top 10 suggested improvements have been enacted, with the tenth currently in progress.

SAS Institute uses a series of videos to help employees from every discipline answer the question, "What does SAS do?" in a way that doesn't require the audience to know technical terminology or marketing-speak. While the videos are humorous in nature, they nevertheless underpin an important belief -- that because all employees, regardless of their roles, contribute to SAS' success, they should therefore be able to speak knowledgeably about the company and its products.

The "60-Second Scoop" videos give employees a glance at a new product and the basic need-to-know details in a minute flat, while the "Help Me Understand" videos feature executives communicating more broad-reaching software or business concepts. Additionally, a special website was created featuring presentations, documents, and online resources to help employees tell the SAS story.

Tom Mendoza, the Vice Chairman of NetApp, personally calls hardworking employees to thank them for going above and beyond in their daily work, a program he calls "Catch Someone Doing Something Right." Any employee can write directly to Mendoza describing how another employee helped the company, helped a customer, or generally exemplified NetApp's culture. Mendoza then makes 10-20 calls every day to employees around the world, and has been doing this for more than 15 years. Employees are often filled with pride when they receive a call from Mendoza, and note that the program speaks to NetApp's commitment to creating a culture of appreciation.

Microsoft strives to empower employees to chart their own career paths, starting from day one with the "Welcome Experience" online tool, used to introduce new employees worldwide to the company. Through the tool, new hires develop a personalized "action plan" -- including training, learning and actions for their first 90 days -- based on their role, location and business function. The tool also delivers more than 1,000 pieces of curated, filterable on-boarding content, which employees can save to a personal library or automatically schedule time in their calendar to view later.

When filling key leadership positions, Gore seeks broad input from the associates. For example, after two longtime divisional leaders retired, the company held a series of input sessions across the division, asking more than 1,300 associates to identify the attributes that should be considered when selecting the new leadership team. A similar process was used to ask Human Resources Associates for input on a new global HR leader, and the current CEO was named only after asking a wide group of leaders whom they would support as the next president. These practices are in keeping with W.L. Gore & Associate's core belief that leaders must demonstrate "followership" to truly lead -- in other words, that leadership is something to be earned, rather than appointed.

Kimberly-Clark partnered with IBM to host its first-ever "One K-C Culture Jam" in order to hear directly from employees on how to best accelerate culture change and drive better business results. The five-day online event provided a space for employees to share ideas, problem-solve and collaborate on things they could do to close any gaps and deliver outstanding results. Over 16,000 employees from more than 60 countries gathered online to share their thoughts and ideas. More than 22,000 comments were received, including ideas related to the company's products and culture, as well as grassroots initiatives that employees and Kimberly-Clark could begin acting on. Additionally, feedback gathered through the One K-C Culture Jam is now being incorporated with results of the company's global engagement survey, with the aim of creating a world-class workplace.

Marriott provides its associates with a variety of formal opportunities to communicate with management. At every Marriott property worldwide, associates have the chance to ask questions, share best practices and personal news, and raise concerns with managers and their fellow associates during brief daily stand-up meetings held at the beginning of each shift. These meetings, which provide ongoing training of guest service standards, have a themed name in each of Marriott's brands, such as the "Daily Line Up" or "Daily Hello." Most properties also conduct monthly departmental meetings and either monthly or quarterly associate rallies, during which associates may ask questions and provide feedback on any topic.

One way that Diageo values employees' contributions is through running "VIP Tours" of the company's Guinness brewery in Dublin, Ireland. Over a six-week period, employees were invited to bring their friends and family to these company-organized tours, which offered a unique "insider's view" of the brewery behind the gates. This practice was designed to recognize the contribution that families make to people's lives within the brewery, and to involve them accordingly in Diageo's operation.