100 Best Companies List Has Many Familiar Names

Fortune magazine is out with its annual list of 100 Best Companies To Work For and the names there are recognizable to anyone keeping track.

SAS, the North Carolina software giant, is No. 1 for the second year
in a row. The company, with onsite childcare, healthcare, employee gym,
and more — lots more — is a regular. It has made the list for the last
14 years.

Wegman’s Food Markets, and Google, Net App, and Boston Consulting are
all still in the top 10.  Zappos, the much-admired shoe company now
owned by Amazon, and REI, the camping and outdoor recreation
provisioner, are the only newcomers. Zappos is 6th and REI 9th on the
2011 list.

Edward Jones, the financial adviser, and Qualcomm, the wireless
technology company, which were the two companies displaced from 2010′s
top 10. Jones slipped only slightly to 12th. But San Diego-Based
Qualcomm slid all the way to 33rd place.

Why? It isn’t explained in the magazine’s articles on the list and the companies who make it.

The Great Place to Work Institute is the non-profit that compiles the Fortune
list. It has some of the stringiest criteria, basing its selection of
its top 100 companies on multiple factors, but relying heavily on its
“Trust Index.” “A great place to work^,” says the Institute,
“is one in which you ‘trust the people you work for, have pride in what
you do, and enjoy the people you work with’.”

It’s not easy to make the top 100 list. More than 1,000 companies
submit applications each year hoping to make the Fortune list, says Amy
Lyman, Director of Corporate Research and a co-founder of the Institute.
More vie for a placement on lists for small and mid-sized companies.

Companies go through a fairly rigorous process
that includes extensive employee and management surveys, analyses of
employee engagement, and the development of the Trust Index. The Index
measures what the Institute believes are the cornerstones of a great
place to work: Credibility, Respect, Fairness and Pride and Camaraderie.

For a company making the list, the rewards are more than simply pride and a marketing opportunity.

Sean Broderick, VP, National Business Development for Bernard Hodes Group, says a Fortune ranking “add immediate awareness and validation. It’s 3rd party validation of your branding message.”

“For a regional employer, that’s a benefit they can’t buy. It gives
you a competitive advantage in attracting top talent because an outside
organization is saying you are a good place to work. So you’ll get the
pick of the talent,” says Broderick.

There’s also a financial correlation. Say Lyman, “We have found that
companies that have a high trust also tend to be more successful.”

Russell Investments,
the financial consulting firm that developed the Russell 3000, began
tracking the financial performance of the 100 Great Place companies
several years ago. Over a 12-year period (1998-2009) companies on the
list outperformed both the S&P 500 and Russell’s own 3000.

From ERE.net by John Zappe Jan 20, 2011, 5:17 pm ET