How to Make Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For List

One thing that all of the employees who made it onto Fortune Magazine’s 2014 Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For have in common, is a management team that’s committed to creating a great company culture that employees love and are proud of.
This year’s list of winners are typified by having coveted benefits and perks that are designed to support employees’ needs and desire for work-life balance; many of which are innovative or unique. Many make their employees feel like family and all work to maintain a friendly work environment. The top companies also give back to the communities where they do business and encourage their employees to volunteer and contribute to charitable causes.
Don’t lose heart thinking about the big budgets behind all these perks.  Any company can create a great company culture with senior management passion and commitment.  There are lots of low or no cost ways to engage employees and make them feel valued.  These recognized “best companies to work for” offer great inspiration and are full of ideas for building employee appreciation, engagement and a great company culture.
Google
Google’s employer brand is well-known thanks to terrific coverage and reach in the news, on the web, and in the movies. Have you seen Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson in “The Internship?”
Google’s tagline “Do cool things that matter” is just one more reason everyone wants to work there and why they made the top of Fortune’s List of 100 Best Companies to Work for two years in a row.
Maybe your business doesn’t have the budget to provide free food all day every day to employees like Google, but is there a budget for pizza lunch once a month to celebrate top achievements and performers? If you can’t sell the concept of “nap pods”, how about prework yoga twice a week? If yoga works for Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks, it might work for your company too. Start doing “cool things that matter” and you’ll start to see Google’s results: a workplace where people want to work.
DPR Construction
What’s your industry? Does your company stand out as an industry leader? National commercial construction company DPR Construction does. They stand out for their superb safety practices and records in an industry known for injuries and even work site fatalities. An obsession with safety drives DPR’s rapid growth and fuels profits, and they generously reward their employees for it.
DPR’s safety rewards aren’t plaques to hang on the office wall. They include prizes of thousands of dollars, paid time off, and even new trucks. DPR celebrates employees monthly and rewards them with things such as wine bars at work. The company provides and easy way to solicit employee feedback via a custom website. They focus equally on safety and quality and don’t skimp to pad the bottom line.
What is your industry’s biggest challenge? Give your employees the incentives and resources to meet and exceed them, and you’ll see the same kind of growth and employee loyalty that got DPR on Fortune’s list.
Wegman’s Food Markets
With more than 80 grocery stores, Wegman’s could have sprawled into a corporate conglomerate. But it is owned and still operated by the original family that started in 1916 with a fruit and vegetable cart. Wegman’s works hard to create a respectful work community that feels like family. They send employees gift baskets when they have new babies and host on-site weddings for employees who meet at work. They give health care benefits to hourly employees working at least 30 hours a week and celebrate employee efforts by sharing customer compliments. Wegman’s actively supports the communities they do business in with charitable work like feeding the hungry and contributing to United Way.
These companies made it onto Fortune’s list of the best companies to work for because of the management commitment to developing and maintaining a culture of employee appreciation and gratitude. You can do the same in your company too. For more inspiration, read the details on all the winners.
Get started building your culture of appreciation today by downloading our free guide to “Workplace Gratitude”.










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