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And the winners are
 (FORTUNE Magazine) - [The following article contains the first portion of a table -- For the remainder please see hardcopy of magazine or PDF] You have to be pretty darn strange to make this list. We mean that in a good way, of course. At Whole Foods (No. 15), any employee can look up anyone else's salary. At law firm Arnold & Porter (No. 54), senior partner Jim Sandman invites everyone who has nowhere to go to celebrate Christmas with his family. W.L. Gore (No. 5) eschews official job titles entirely. To winnow down the 466 companies that competed for a spot on our ninth annual list, we primarily relied on employees to tell us who belongs. And believe us, it takes more than a great 401(k) to impress your human capital. Just look at our new No. 1, Genentech. Few companies in our experience celebrate success better, from Friday afternoon "ho-hos" to companywide blowouts (one featured Elton John). Unusual? You bet. But neither Genentech nor any of the other companies on this list are striving to be ordinary. >>> For Companies #11-100, and their ranking, see INDEX below. N.A. Not available. *Yearly pay rate plus additional cash compensation for the largest classification of salaried and hourly employees. BEST LARGE COMPANIES 10,000+ U.S. employees BEST MEDIUM COMPANIES 2,500 to 10,000 U.S. employees BEST SMALL COMPANIES 1,000 to 2,500 U.S. employees INDEX COMPANY RANK Aflac 47 Alcon Laboratories 32 Alston & Bird 19 American Century Investments 22 American Express 37 American Fidelity Assurance 35 Amgen 39 Arnold & Porter 54 Autodesk 81 Baird (Robert W.) 31 Baptist Health Care 18 Baptist Health South Florida 59 Bingham McCutchen 82 Booz Allen Hamilton 72 Boston Consulting Group 11 Bright Horizons 94 Bronson Healthcare Group 68 CarMax 93 CDW 34 Children's Healthcare of Atlanta 76 CH2M Hill 80 Cisco Systems 25 Container Store 6 East Penn Manufacturing 79 Edwards (A.G.) 70 Ernst & Young 67 FedEx 64 First Horizon National 85 Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts 28 Genentech 1 General Mills 98 Genzyme 51 Goldman Sachs 26 Gore (W.L.) & Associates 5 Granite Construction 91 Griffin Hospital 4 HomeBanc Mortgage 14 Hot Topic 53 IKEA (U.S.) 96 Intel 97 Intuit 43 JM Family Enterprises 40 Johnson (S.C.) 10 Jones (Edward) 16 Kimley-Horn & Associates 20 Leonard's (Stew) 58 Lilly (Eli) 52 Marriott International 99 Mayo Clinic 89 Memorial Health 62 Men's Wearhouse 92 Methodist Hospital System 78 Microsoft 42 Milliken 38 MITRE 66 Morrison & Foerster 88 National Instruments 77 Network Appliance 27 Nike 100 Nixon Peabody 49 Nordstrom 46 Northwest Community Hospital 50 Nugget Markets 33 PCL Construction 65 Pella 44 Perkins Coie 48 Plante & Moran 12 PricewaterhouseCoopers 71 Principal Financial Group 86 Publix Super Markets 56 Quad/Graphics 75 Qualcomm 23 Quicken Loans 13 QuikTrip 21 Recreational Equipment (REI) 9 Republic Bancorp 17 Russell Investment Group 63 SAS Institute 30 Sherwin-Williams 61 Smucker (J.M.) 8 SRA International 45 Standard Pacific 74 Starbucks 29 Station Casinos 55 Synovus 57 TDIndustries 36 Texas Instruments 83 Timberland 41 Valassis 69 Valero Energy 3 Vanguard Group 60 Vision Service Plan 7 Washington Mutual 87 Weekley (David) Homes 24 Wegmans Food Markets 2 Whole Foods Market 15 Wiley (John) & Sons 90 Worthington Industries 84 Wrigley (Wm.) Jr. 95 Yahoo 73 HOW WE PICK THE 100 BEST To choose the 100 Best Companies to Work for, we rely on two things: our evaluation of the policies and culture of each company and the opinions of the company's own employees. We give the latter more weight: Two-thirds of the total score comes from employee responses to a 57-question survey created by the Great Place to Work Institute in San Francisco. The survey goes to a minimum of 400 randomly selected employees from each company and asks about things such as attitudes toward management, job satisfaction, and camaraderie. The remaining third of the score comes from our evaluation of each company's demographic makeup, pay and benefits programs, and the like. We score companies in four areas: credibility (communication to employees), respect (opportunities and benefits), fairness (compensation, diversity), and pride/camaraderie (philanthropy, celebrations). After evaluations are completed, if news about a company comes to light that may significantly damage employees' faith in management, we may exclude that company from the list. About 1,500 companies contacted us or were recruited to participate; of them, 466 finished the exhaustive survey process. (Any company that is at least seven years old with more than 1,000 U.S. employees is eligible.) The deadline for applying for next year's list is March 31, 2006; for an online nomination form, go to www.greatplacetowork.com. -- R.L. and M.M. NOTES N.A. Not available. U.S. employees includes part-timers as of time of survey. Job growth, new jobs, and voluntary turnover are full-time only. Average annual pay: yearly pay rate plus additional cash compensation for the largest classification of salaried and hourly employees. Revenues are for 2004 or latest fiscal year. All data based on U.S. employees. |
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