Employee Loyalty Blog: Best Places to Work—How Does Your Company Measure Up?

Best Places to Work—How Does Your Company Measure Up?

January 31, 2006
Greg Robinson, Employee Loyalty Blog

Fortune Magazine recently announced their list of the 100 Best Places to Work for in 2006. In reviewing the list of the companies and some of the actions they took to keep employees happy and productive, I was struck by the creativity of some of the items and how focused companies have become at targeting the specific needs and interests of employees.

Some of the policies, compensation strategies, benefits, and services offered are as follows:

Compensation
• All new employees get stock in the company
• Management salaries capped at 10x the lowest paid employee
• Profit sharing
• $250 spot bonus awards for exemplary work

Benefits
• Subsidized child care
• Tuition reimbursement
• $3,000 credit for purchasing a hybrid car
• Full health insurance premiums paid for employees and dependents
• Reimbursements for adoption expenses and fertility treatments

Customer Focus
• Clear passion and focus on the customer
• Reputation for customer excellence allows company to pay employees 5-7% less than competition

Career Advancement
• Promotions from within
• Broad non discrimination policy

Employee Recognition
• Week long employee appreciation event
• Employee recognition of one another
• Incentive vacations

Community Involvement
• Employees paid for up to 40 hours of volunteer work per year

Onsite Services
• Concierge service for employees
• Free hair and nail salon onsite
• 24-hour subsidized fitness center
• Onsite medical center
• Game rooms

Training
• Mentoring for new employees
• Commitment to training—spend 2.5% of payroll
• Culture training for new employees
• College credit for training programs
• Free English as second language classes
• Citizenship clinics (for employees who want to become US citizens)
• Reimbursement for GMAT and GRE prep classes

Health
• Onsite clinics
• Free screening exams
• Reimbursement for Weight Watchers
• Company sponsored exercise/healthy eating programs

Leadership and Communication
• CEO meets all new employees
• CEO leads regular town meetings
• CEO makes calls every week to thank employees for their contributions
• Prospective hires are interviewed to ensure fit with culture
• Continuous communication via daily online newsletter
• Board of directors selected by employees
• Salespeople empowered to make decisions about refunds and exchanges

Employee Input
• Employee opinions solicited via intranet that can be accessed remotely
• Monthly online employee surveys
• Employees encouraged to raise issues

Flextime
• “Mom’s hours”—mothers can work while children are in school and have summers off
• Flex time arrangements ranging from one day a week to 80 hours in 9 days

Vacation/Leave
• Paid sabbaticals
• 16 paid holidays per year

Part-time Workers
• Part time workers can select weekend programs and compressed work weeks
• Bonuses for part timers
• Part timers eligible for stock options
• Tuition reimbursement for part-timers

While no one company offers all of these benefits to their employees, this list serves as a helpful guide to evaluate the impact and creativity of your employee retention strategies.

Poll Closed