The best places to work put their employees first

Published 9:00 pm Sunday, May 29, 2005

Work’s getting you down, you say? Your paycheck is as stagnant as a mid-summer ozone layer. Corporate revenue is slipping faster than a NASCAR racer on an oil slick and your division is losing the most. You’re on your fourth boss in four years and the last three keep sending postcards from company satellites in Peoria, Emporia and Pocatello.

Well, fret not, because we’re here to tell you that working can be fun again, although unlikely with your current employer.

Indeed, in these days of cut, cut and more cuts, salary freezes, 401(k)-match take-aways, traditional pension defaults, new jobs without health care benefits and frequent outsourcing, there are companies that buck the gloom-and-doom trends of today’s management-by-scythe.

Unfortunately, the stories of these employers whose “job one” is to take care of employees get tossed aside by an increasingly cynical business media scouring the nation for the next biggest corporate failure.

A few of these companies have become so good at this that they carry the distinction of being among the “100 Best Places to Work for in America.” At a recent Seattle forum, four companies outlined specific workplace innovations that contributed to achieving the best-place designation.

First, they are very good at conducting business. Not much else has to be said about Microsoft, REI, Starbucks and the Perkins Coie law firm other than they are extraordinarily successful at achieving business goals.

And they unabashedly assert they would not have achieved their success without the extraordinary efforts of their employees who, the companies say, are the prime cog in executing their business plans.

One way these and other best-places employers keep tightly connected to their employees is by designing benefit programs that fit the type of work force they recruit and hire.

At REI, whether at its Renton headquarters or 76 retail locations throughout the country, “each one of our employees is an outdoor enthusiast, environmentally conscious and highly service-oriented,” Michelle Clements, vice president of REI human resources, told the recent Seattle Chamber of Commerce forum.

“We connect with our employees in many ways, including recognizing those who stand out,” she said. REI’s “Climbing Rock of the Stars” designation goes not only to employees who stand out in the store but also contribute to the greater community.

Like many best places, REI offers paid community-service time to employees. In Detroit, for instance, more than 200 inner-city youngsters were introduced to snowshoeing by a group of REI volunteers, who gave the children a chance to do something they would not normally have experienced, Clements said.

Like REI, Starbucks offers full health care and other benefits to eligible part-timers as well as full-time employees. These include a profit-sharing plan paying up to 14 percent of annual earnings based on company performance, stock options and a stock-purchase plan that many employees have used to help purchase their first house or pay for college.

“We’re growing while staying small – it’s all about people putting people first,” said Sally Eckerts of Starbucks Partner Resources.

Despite the granting of benefits to part-timers, Starbucks still experiences an annual turnover of about 70 percent. Eckerts believes this is normal in retail but reminds observers that people do not normally join Starbucks “looking to work here for the rest of their lives.”

Perkins Coie faces a completely different scenario. Its employee base is considerably older, and the law firm has a different bent.

“Our average employee base (1,600 workers) is 45 years old, so we adjust our benefits accordingly,” said Darren Emerick, managing partner.

As a result, the firm offers professional employees a two-month paid sabbatical after 10 years employment, one month of vacation, an annual 5 percent bonus, a traditional pension payment of 7.3 percent of salary, domestic partner inclusion – plus a matched 401(k) of 50 cents on the dollar, up to 6 percent of annual salary.

Recognizing its aging workforce, the firm halved its educational benefit to $1,200 a year. That allowed continuation of other benefits such as granting flextime schedules, job sharing and part-time employment, a difficult offering for a law firm.

“We also have a lot of celebrations – we really like to have a good time.”

We’ll consider Microsoft’s controversial best places designation in a later column. But like its counterparts, the story is bound to be far different than layoffs to balance budgets, routine outsourcing and the currently popular cut-cut-cut business model that stockholders and executives think is important to the long-term success that proportionately only a few seem to achieve.

Write Eric Zoeckler at The Herald, P.O. Box 930, Everett, WA 98206 or e-mail mrscribe@aol.com.