Each year when the Fortune
100 Best Companies to work for list issue is released, I pour over it to see if
something new is revealed. While I
always learn something, what comes through loud and clear is that it isn’t the
things these firms do for their employees—it is the organization’s culture that
really makes the difference.
You may not know that the
primary tool Fortune uses to select and rank organizations is the Great Place
to Work’s Trust Index (TI). The TI
is sent to a sample of employees at each nominated company so, as Fortune puts
it, “in effect, the workers vote their companies onto the list using criteria
related to their workplace cultures.”
It really makes the ranking meaningful to know that the organizations
aren’t selected just by what their leadership says—the employees themselves
participate and share how they feel about their company.
One of the lessons from
this year’s list is that the best employers are focusing more attention on
workplace culture as a competitive tool.
And, the great news is that most of the companies on this list are also
doing really well in their business segments.
One thing that amazed me is
that 12 companies have made the list every year since it started in 1998. That is a real achievement. Since 1998, the 100 best companies are
“shining examples of a different way of doing business that puts to rest the
old notion that treating employees well might hurt the bottom line. “ These 12 companies prove it is just the
opposite!
I worked for Marriott for
many years and that organization (on the list again this year as a Great place
to Work) follows the advice we all learned from the founder of the company, JW
Marriott who said, “take care of our associates and they will take care of the
customers.” It was true when he
said it and it certainly is true today.
Each of the companies on
the Fortune list this year has leaders who sincerely listen to their
employees. They hear what is
important to their work force and then do their best to provide benefits and
policies that meet their employee’s needs at this point in time. Some of these companies have amazing
perks for employees but none of them merely add things to their benefits
package just to be nice—they do it because it makes good business sense to take
good care of the people who take care of your customers! Fortune quotes the founder and CEO of
Ultimate Software, Scott Scherr who says, “The true meaning of a company is how
they treat their lowest-paid employees.”
How true!
Of course, many
organizations on the list do amazing things for their employees but nothing
stands out to me more this year than Google (six years as number one on the
list!). This year they increased
their parental-leave benefits—new parents, regardless of gender, can now get up
to 12 years of fully paid leave along with $500 of “bonding bucks” to all new
parents to use during the first three months of a child’s life. That is the kind of commitment to employees
that really tells the employees how valued they are!
Consider what you do each
and every day for your employees.
Is there something you might do differently to let them know how valued
they are?
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