Fortune magazine's annual list of the "Top 100 Companies to Work
For" offers ample evidence that corporate
America and its worker
bees value more than fat checks and cushy corner offices. In fact,
the top 30 companies showed numerous examples of employers who
sought to enact policies and procedures that reward employees on a
personally gratifying level.
Frank Russell, a pension-fund advisor headquartered in Tacoma,
Washington, pays employees up to 80 hours per year to volunteer for
their favorite causes. Last year's total: 30,000 volunteer
hours.
Beck Group, an architecture,
real estate, and construction services
company in
Dallas, includes assessment of workers' community
involvement in performance reviews.
At MBNA, a
bank and credit-card company, 95 percent of the
employees say they feel good about the company's commitment to the
community.
The number-one company on the list,
Edward Jones, a St. Louis
stockbroker that has been described as having "small-town values,"
earned praise because 97 percent of its employees say management is
honest.
A reflective, satisfied employee can create a spiritual domino
effect that benefits the bottom line. "Unmet want produces anger,
and unmet need produces pain," Crupi says. Whether on the other end
of the customer service line or in the cubicle across the shared
divider, Holmes likes to point out that we've all happened upon
workers whose festering unhappiness makes them miserable
beasts.
But people can identify what they are uniquely qualified to do,
learn to see patterns in their lives, and align themselves - and
their jobs - with a greater purpose. Companies can learn to
identify employees whose desire for personal satisfaction fits
within their corporate culture. "If you increase employee
satisfaction, you increase employee retention," Holmes says, "and
that increases customer satisfaction, which increases profit and
increases shareholder wealth."