Original Bread

The nation’s biggest labor segment, nearly 13 million strong, is in the restaurant and hospitality industry. Average length of employment for hourly workers: Six months. That projects into an annual turnover rate of 200 percent or more. But not at Original Bread Co., a franchisee of St. Louis-based Panera Bread. It boasts management turnover of less than 30 percent and associate turnover below 90 percent, both far below the industry standards. Why? A big part, says HR manager Christie Glaeser, who doubles as bakery operations manager, is the “Family First” principle that is part of the culture. “Family is a critical part in the success of the organization,” she says. “Original Bread prides itself in having flexible work schedules for hourly associates and a great quality of life for management staff while still meeting guests’ daily needs.” It helps to have an environment free of alcohol (no unruly patrons to address!), grease (if you’ve never experienced the joy of cleaning a grease trap, don’t even ask), and late-night hours. That formulation has helped the company grow from one store with 21 employees into a 30-store chain boasting a work force of nearly 1,100, nearly 600 of them full-time. More traditional factors—what Glaeser calls exceptional benefits, competitive wages and opportunities for personal growth and advancement—also come into play. Those reasons, and more, have made career managers and administrative staffers out of people who started at Original Bread when they were just 16 years old, Glaeser said.

Perceptive Software

We’ve all heard of climbing the corporate ladder, but only at Perceptive Software have we seen success derived through the company slide—literally, a two-story slide that adds a considerable “Whee!” factor to the workday. Add in a “gaming decompression chamber” and a dodgeball court, and you might easily come to the conclusion that not enough work is getting done. You would be wrong. For a solid decade, Perceptive has been cranking out an average annual growth rate of 37 percent. That’s one reason that printer-Godzilla Lexmark was willing to shell out $280 million to buy the Shawnee-based company last year. Perceptive pampers its nearly 650 employees with monthly chair massages, five yoga classes a week and an on-site gym. And to top it all off, a nearly unheard-of package of unlimited time off. That’s right: Employees are entrusted with managing their own workload and coordinating with co-workers. Meet your goals, set your schedule. What happens when you combine all that with a traditional benefits package? “Once good people are in the door, they stay,” says community-relations manager Lindsay Gentry, who offers as evidence an employee retention rate of better than 90 percent. The company also practices what it preaches with giving back, sponsoring a dodgeball tournament that has netted $90,000 for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation over six years. Employees have responded to that difference-making by engaging in volunteer efforts of their own for nearly a dozen local non-profit organizations.

Teva Neuroscience

When you’re looking for the “Gotcha!” element in a Best Companies to Work For candidate, one thing that really sets a company apart, few items jump out quite like this perk at Teva Neuroscience: Meeting-Free Fridays. That may not sound like such a big deal at mid-size and smaller companies, but at a large firm, it’s a mighty nice touch. After all, many a weekend plan has been foiled by the complexities of managing a Friday meeting in a large organization. Of course, there’s a lot more going for employees working at Teva, which has nearly half its 650 employees working from its south Kansas City facility. Summer hours, flexible work schedules and work-from-home opportunities complement a competitive pay and benefits package that includes bonuses for employees at all levels. The company culture incorporates visible and accessible leadership, open communication and a positive environment. Combined, says Greg Westbrook, senior director of human resources and communications, those “people practices” yield “a highly engaged, highly productive work force.” “Our policies, practices, processes and systems all reinforce the idea that when you take care of your people, they will take care of your customers, and that will take care of the business,” Westbrook said. Looking for proof? How about this: The company has recorded average annual growth of more than 20 percent every year for more than a decade.