The best keep raising the bar

The Great Place to Work Institute has again done the job for Fortune and picked the "100 Best Companies to Work For" in America. The companies on the list are medium to large – 1,000 or more employees – and they have to be at least seven years old in order to make it. Our back page Newsbrief interview this month is with list co-creator (along with Bob Levering) Milt Moskowitz, and he told us that about half the 450 applicants this year were new, applying for the first time.

The list is ten years old, and not too surprisingly, they've seen some big changes over the past decade. We spent some time on Fortune's Website and learned a little more about the winners.

The companies on the list this year are certainly more flexible then they were ten years ago; 72 of the 100 offer job sharing today compared with only 18 a decade ago; 79 now offer compressed work weeks on a year-round, regular basis; just 25 companies did so ten years ago. In 1998, just 18 provided telecommuting opportunities; today 82 offer that option. 

The best places to work have more diversity, both racial and gender, and they seem more accepting; a decade ago, 28 on the list offered domestic partner benefits; today 70 do. They encourage better internal communications, say Levering and Moskowitz, and have increased use of employee stock ownership programs (although that's one area that could be improved, Moskowitz told us). Generally, they're "more supportive of employees raising families and more fun than the workplace of ten years ago."

Two-thirds of the total score comes from employee responses to a 57-question survey which goes to a minimum of 400 randomly selected employees from each company. More than 100,000 employees from 446 companies participated in the survey this year. It asks about things like attitudes towards management, job satisfaction, and camaraderie within the organization.

Employees at these "Best" companies seem a little more satisfied with their work-life balance. (We were surprised that there wasn't more improvement, but it could have to do with workload and demand for more productivity; a new LifeCare poll found 40% of employees saying they were overloaded). Eighty percent said management does encourage them to balance their work lives and their personal lives – up 11% from ten years ago – and 84% say their employers offer special and unique benefits today – an increase of just 6 points. Eight percent more employees believe their management is competent and 15% more believe they have the opportunity to receive special recognition.

Work-life seems to have gained in importance. At Standard Pacific, new moms get two months’ paid leave – maybe not so unusual for some, but this is the construction industry. Plante & Moran's Personal Tightrope Action Committee, which celebrates its 26th anniversary this year, was initially created to address the needs of working parents but now focuses on work-life balance for all the firm's employees. Last year, SAS Institute opened a new work-life center along with a new health care center and employee services facility. Nearly a third on the list offer onsite childcare; Men's Wearhouse tops the list for lowest fees; they charge an average $240 per month (fees are on a sliding scale from $60-$160 per week based on income) and SAS charges a straight $300 per month.

Sixteen companies on the list this year pay 100% of their employees' health-care premiums, including many we've never written about, like Valero Energy, which has more than 18,000 employees and has never laid off a single one. Also on the list of those who fully pay for health care: Nugget Market, a family-owned California supermarket chain has turnover of 8.2% (unheard-of in the grocery business); Kimley-Horn & Associates, an engineering consultancy, where any employee can award a $50 on-the-spot bonuses to a colleague and most work 7:30 to 5:30 Mondays through Thursdays and leave at 11:30 a.m. Fridays; Lehigh Valley Hospital & Health Network, where half of new hires are employee-referred; and Russell Investment Group, which has pumped 15% of pay into retirement accounts every year since 1975.

Some of the more unusual perks: Methodist Hospital System employees got a $250 gas card last year. Quicken Loans workers in Michigan can hop on company-sponsored buses to see the Cavaliers play ball (CEO Dan Gilbert owns the team). Arnold & Porter will pay a referral fee of $15,000 if you recommend an employee they end up hiring. Employees who get married or register a domestic partnership at Goldman Sachs are given an extra week of vacation. At AstraZeneca, all prescription drugs made by the company are free to employees.

Levering says the improvements they're seeing are a direct result of global competition. More companies now realize that they can't compete successfully unless they attract and hold onto the most qualified workers. Today’s employees, he says, just won’t put up with a lousy workplace environment. And women workers in particular are demanding a more family-friendly milieu. "So we expect that the workplace will continue to improve as the competition for qualified workers should intensify over the next decade."

One thing hasn’t changed: the best companies still outperform their peers. According to analysis by Russell Investment Group (# 30 on the list, by the way), if you had begun investing in a portfolio of publicly-traded "100 Best" stocks in 1998, reinvesting annually to reflect changes in the list, you'd have a return of 14.6% today compared to the S and P 500 return of 5.96%.