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Fortune Magazine always comes up with its own list of “The 100 Best Comnpanies to Work for” every year. I always read this special issue with interest given the fact that I run a Human Resource Services company. I would check on organizations on the list which have already set up offices in the Philippines and explore the possibility of offering them our services. It always ends up a win-win situation if I end up approaching them at the right place and time.

Instead of giving you a long list of 100 companies who are ideal employers, let us focus on the Top 10 so that you will get a pretty good idea why they reached that level of global recognition.

1. SAS tops the list. Its average tenure is 10 years, and annual turnover is just 2% compared with the industry average of 22%. It is highly profitable and ranks as the world’s largest privately owned software company.

2. Edward Jones weathered the recession without closing one of its 12,615 offices or laying off a single employee (the British division was sold in October). Salaries were frozen, but profit sharing continued.

3. Wegmans Food Markets is rated one of the best groceries in the US. It has never had a layoff in its 94-year history. More than 4,000 employees, 11% of the workforce have been here more than 15 years.

4. Google, the search engine king, is hiring again. It plans to add thousands of employees to its payroll in 2010. Though a few perks have been cut in recent years, Google engineers still get to devote 20% of their time to projects of their choosing.

5. Nugget Market has been prompted by the tough economy by giving them cards good for 10% discounts on US$500 of groceries every month. At one employee-appreciation event, the executive team surprised everyone by washing the cars of all associates.

6. Dreamworks Animation SKG is where animators love the culture of collaboration and openness. Studio has upped releases from two-a-year to five every two years.

7. NETAPP execs increased efforts to take care of employees during a tough year, including an employee stock-option exchange and updates to incentive compensation.

8. Boston Consulting Group is tops in pay and benefits: new consultants are able to earn up to US$184,000 (counting salary and all bonuses).

9. Qualcomm works hard to provide an environment where “good people can do their best work.” Some elements: stock options on hire, baseball games, surfing lessons, kayaking tours, white-water rafting, bonfires, bowling, and volunteering opportunities.

10. After stock of Camden Property Trust tanked from a high of US$80 in 2006 to a low of US$17 in 2009, founders Ric Campo and Keith Oden rallied workers across 13 states with messages such as “Turn off CNBC –the moderators know less than you do about the way forward.” By year’s end, the stock had rebounded to US$42.

I must admit that none of these ten organizations have direct operations in the Philippines (although there are some in the Top 100 like Starbucks, Accenture, Colgate-Palmolive, Microsoft and S.C. Johnson who are) but who knows what kind of international expansions some of them may have in the offing.

But if you’re based in the US, it won’t hurt checking them out and the remaining 90 in the Top 100 so you can widen your career options for 2010.

Here is the link to the complete list of “Top 100 Best Companies to Work for”

Happy job hunting! 😉

source: Fortune Magazine