Human Resources: 2009 FORTUNE 100 Best Companies to Work For® list

San Francisco, January 30, 2008 –San Francisco-based Great Place to Work® Institute is accepting nominations online for the 2009 FORTUNE 100 Best Companies to Work For® list until March 31, 2008. As the largest annual study of American workplaces, the “Best 100” list is the most widely recognized national ranking of best workplaces. The Institute, which has produced the list since 1998, will partner with FORTUNE to publish the next “100 Best” list in January 2009.

The FORTUNE “100 Best” list is unique among workplace surveys in that two-thirds of the weight for the review is based on employee survey data. “The best way to find out if a company is a good employer is to ask the employees who work there,” said Milton Moskowitz who, along with Institute co-founder Robert Levering, co-authored all the lists since 1998.

Application and Selection Process
Securing and maintaining a ranking on FORTUNE’s competitive “100 Best” list is intensive. There is no cost to submit a nomination, although companies must have at least 1,000 US employees and be at least seven years old to be eligible to apply.

The process starts with a five-minute online nomination. Then the Best Companies Team at the Institute reviews all the nominations and notifies companies in late April as to whether or not they are invited to participate in this year’s survey and selection process.
Companies that accept the Institute’s invitation to move forward in the survey and selection process then must administer an employee survey called the Great Place to Work® Trust Index© to at least 400 randomly selected employees. This proprietary employee survey developed by the Institute measures levels of trust, pride, and camaraderie and takes employees about 15 minutes to complete.

The management also must complete the Great Place to Work® Culture Audit© questionnaire, which asks detailed questions about the company’s demographic makeup, pay and benefits programs as well as open-ended questions about the company’s people-management philosophy, internal communications, professional development opportunities, compensation practices, diversity programs, etc.
Applicants are encouraged to submit relevant supplementary materials to further convey why their company is an outstanding place to work. For example, employee handbooks, orientation and recruiting materials, employee newsletters, recruiting videos/DVDs, etc. are helpful for the Institute during its evaluation of the company's culture.

Benefits to Applying
The Institute underscores that the process of committing to become a great workplace is as important as making the list. All companies who apply receive a complementary confidential report on their employee survey results, allowing them to benchmark against the “100 Best” and further improve their workplaces.

“Any company can be a great place to work – they don’t have to be a Google or a Goldman Sachs. It all starts with involving and listening to their employees,” said Levering.

Companies find a number of other benefits to submitting an application:

* Companies that earn a spot on this list receive substantial positive national and local publicity.

* Recognized companies secure a competitive edge in recruiting talented employees and attracting clients and customers that value doing business with great companies.

* Companies participating in the process gain unparalleled insight into the strengths and weaknesses of their workplace practices.

* Plus, being a world-class employer is good for business. FORTUNE’s 100 Best have done exceptionally well for their shareholders. Portfolios of FORTUNE 100 Best stocks have outperformed the S&P 500 by a wide margin since the first list was published in 1998.

“Having great workplaces is becoming a more central part of the corporate agenda. This is not just a feel good thing – it’s a bottom line thing,” said Levering, who noted that more companies have committed to becoming great places to work in the past 10 years. In 1998, 167 companies applied for the FORTUNE list, compared to more than 400 for 2008.

With competition for talent expected to increase in the next 10 years as baby boomers retire, “Great places to work will be the ones that attract and retain the top talent,” said Levering.

About the Great Place to Work® Institute

Dedicated for 26 years to “building a better society by helping companies transform their workplaces,” the Great Place to Work® Institute is a global research and consulting firm headquartered in San Francisco, with 30 affiliates in Europe, the Americas, Asia and Oceana. The Institute uses its Trust Index© employee survey and Culture Audit© to produce the FORTUNE 100 Best Companies to Work For® and the “Best Small & Medium Companies to Work for in America” lists in addition to best companies lists in 30 countries. The Institute recognizes the world’s best workplaces and provides conferences, workshops and advisory and consulting services to those who seek to create great workplaces of their own. For more information, visit www.greatplacetowork.com.