Great Places to Work

Originally published March 2, 2008

Great Places to Work

Once again, Fortune Magazine has released their annual list of the Best Companies to Work For. And once again, Google leads the list.

Last year the company created over 3,000 new jobs and received almost 800,000 applications. Google has become legendary for their free food and stock options. But they also offer a wide array of other valuable benefits. New mothers, for example, may receive up to 18 weeks of paid maternity leave. New fathers receive up to 7 weeks of paid leave.

My favorite thing about the list is the wide variety of industries represented. The top ten includes a grocery store chain, an online mortgage lender, and Starbucks. Companies from any industry can be great places to work.

The list also includes fourteen companies that have been on the list every year since it began in 1998. The interesting thing about these companies is that they are made great by enduring values instead of by unique perks.

TDIndustries, for example, builds heating, plumbing, and electrical systems for commercial buildings. Based in Texas, the entire company is owned by the employees and no single individual owns more than 3 percent of the stock.

The founder of the company believed very strongly in the concept of servant leadership. Today, every employee is trained in servant leadership so that they can serve others and know what kind of leadership to expect from their leaders.

When Fortune’s list was published last year, I began searching for great companies in the Upper Cumberland. One company kept popping up on my radar: Flexial Corporation.

Coincidentally, I had the pleasure of touring Flexial last week. It was easy to see why the company has been so successful.

Flexial manufactures welded bellows. This doesn’t sound very exciting until you talk with company president, Rick Larsen.

Larsen’s innovative team of engineers and technicians continuously develops new applications. Flexial’s products can be found in US fighter jets, the International Space Station, and the Mars Rover.

Before touring the plant, I received a tour of the company’s management control system. Even though I only received a brief glimpse, two enduring values were obvious.

First, the company strongly believes in making information available to everyone in the company. Every employee has online access to anything they need to perform their job. Beyond this, however, every employee also has access to real-time data regarding the company’s productivity, efficiency, and even sales.

This amazing system has drawn accolades from everyone who interacts with it. But the system itself is the result of an employee’s suggestion several years ago.

Not surprisingly, the system also includes an improvement recommendation process. Larsen describes this as a “suggestion box on steroids.”

Any employee can request an improvement that they think might help the company. The request might be for a new piece of equipment or for access to information. Unlike a traditional suggestion box, every request at Flexial is evaluated by the management team and rated in terms of its costs and benefits. Hundreds of these recommendations have been made over the last few years and the vast majority of them have been implemented by the company.

On my tour of Flexial, I didn’t see any free food, pets at work, or free massages like you find at Google. Instead, I found a culture where employees are truly seen as valuable partners.