What makes a company a “best place to work”?
For the AJC
Sunday, February 22, 2009
What makes a company a “best place to work”? Trends in benefits, life/work balance and organizational structure change over time, but the one constant in a well-known list is trust.
“Our model is based on trust between employees and management,” said Molly Webb, a member of the best companies team at the Great Place to Work Institute. The institute selects Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For list each year. The institute believes a great place to work is where employees trust the people they work for, have pride in what they do and enjoy the people they work with, Webb said.
Photos by Leita Cowart / AJC Special
Cathy Benton, Chief Human Resources officer and Richard Hays, Managing Partner at Alston & Bird, a law firm.
Cathy Benton, chief HR officer at Alston & Bird, displays 10 years of Fortune magazines listing the firm as one of the best to work for.
More great Atlanta companies to work for
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In this economy, corporations are more interested in staying afloat than polishing their cultures, but the two aren’t mutually exclusive.
“In tough times, it’s challenging to keep that trust, but the best companies manage to do it because of their policies and practices,” she said.
Ten years ago, Alston & Bird LLP wanted to become an employer of choice in order to compete for top talent.
“We had been an Atlanta institution for over 100 years. We were growing and needed IT, marketing and HR people, as well as attorneys,” said Cathy Benton, chief human resource officer.
“We came across Fortune’s best companies list and wondered why we weren’t on it,” she said.
After contacting the institute and learning that two-thirds of the basis for selection came from employee surveys, they decided to engage in the process.
“We knew we would get good feedback. We could see how we compared with other companies on the list and share best practice ideas,” Benton said.
This year, Alston & Bird celebrated 10 consecutive years on the list.
“It’s not about the list,” Benton said. “It’s about doing the right thing and creating an environment where people can succeed. It’s about knowing that if we take care of our people, they’ll take care of our clients.”
Key in the process has been keeping the communication lines open.
“People tell us the problems and help us find solutions,” Benton said.
While issues change over the years, the willingness to listen and try new approaches has not. Firm meetings are open to everyone.
“In the beginning, a lot of the issues revolved around working women,” Benton said.
The firm opened a child care center for employees in 2001 and recently expanded it to accommodate 70 more children. In 2007, it created a Back-Up Care Advantage plan to provide low-cost backup care for employees’ children and family members nationwide.
“We thought it would be used mostly for child care, but in the first year, over 600 days were used for elder care. That’s a big need in the workplace — we know because we started a support group for caregivers 10 years ago,” Benton said.
Other benefits that help with work/life balance are a concierge service, telecommuting or condensed workweeks, and a family referral service that assists with everything from summer camps to pet care.
“About six years ago, we started hearing about workplace diversity, so we created a firmwide committee with representatives from partners, lawyers and staff. One of the issues raised was that our dining room, which was established to build camaraderie between attorneys in different locations, be opened to everyone. That was a no-brainer. It’s now a firm dining room,” Benton said.
Alternative career paths are open to attorneys who want or need to come off partner track for personal reasons — or who want to stay on track but reduce their hours. “People take advantage of that flexibility for various reasons. One attorney is writing a book,” Benton said. “The path is no longer ‘up or out’ as it was for lawyers in years past.”
Through a program called 975, two secretaries can team up to work 75 hours in nine days. Each cover’s the other’s work one day every two weeks, giving the other a day off. “They take full responsibility for making the arrangement work and everyone wins,” she said.
“Being a great place to work is all about people. People are looking for organizations that support them as individuals, not just employees. We have great depth in our value system and belief in our people. The consistency of what we do helps sustain us in good times and bad.”
