Everyone has their own idea of what makes a great place to work. For some, it may be the benefits. For others, coworkers often have turned into friends.
Dr. Wally Johnson says that what it boils down to are good bosses. Johnson, a Richmonder, holds a doctorate in business administration and is a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist and radio commentator on workplace issues. He’s also the author of Speaking of Work and co-author of What Every Boss Needs to Know. “Companies are always looking for good people,” Johnson says. “And good people are always looking for good bosses.”
Around Richmond, Johnson says, there are many small companies with longtime employees who have been there for years. But that’s not due to providing perks such as childcare or profit sharing, he says. “It’s because they are treated well, with respect. They aren’t a number.”
As a result of talking to local business experts, including the Greater Richmond Chamber of Commerce, past and present editors of local business publications, and directors of area economic-development authorities, Richmond magazine developed this list of 15 companies with reputations for treating employees well, providing good perks and fostering personal growth. In an unscientific survey, we asked more than 50 local companies, from large Fortune 500 companies such as Owens & Minor with 3,000 employees to mid-sized companies like Luck Stone Corp., with 900 employees, to smaller companies like Pleasants Hardware, with 214 workers, about employee benefits (such as childcare), policies (such as personal leave) and practices (such as career mobility and communication). From the responding companies, we winnowed the list to 15 in the Richmond area. This alphabetical list doesn’t include every great company to work at in Richmond, obviously, but these innovative workplaces are known for keeping their employees happy.
Companies with strong reputations, like those on our list, pay a decent wage, allow flexibility, and offer harassment-free, equal-opportunity workplaces, says Jim Dunn, Chesterfield County’s director of economic development. “Successful companies allow employees more empowerment and have respect for their opinions,” he says. “They incorporate their ideas into company plans and policies.” Bon Secours Richmond Health System
Not-for-profit health system

Eighty-five percent of Bon Secours’ work force is made up of women, and it’s easy to see why Working Mother magazine named it one of its 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers. The company offers childcare, at about market cost, at two of its locations, as well as backup childcare for employees who have child-care arrangements elsewhere but may need to use company facilities during inclement weather. Bon Secours’ employee infant-care program has such a strong reputation, employees get on the list before they even become pregnant. Before- and after-school care and holiday and summer programs are also available. Through Bon Secours’ Well for Life program, which focuses on improving health, exercise and eating habits, employees can earn a variety of rewards, such as a free consultation with a registered dietician or time off. And for those striving for the program’s top level, employees can receive $600 plus $20 a month toward a full-year gym membership.
“Human resources works hard to keep in mind the balance of work and family life,” says Courtney Cook, administrative director for patient access. Cook, whose three children have been in the child-care center since they were infants, says she doesn’t mind putting in a few extra work hours at home. “I can get on the computer after I put them to bed, so I’m still able to function as a mother and able to complete deadlines as a professional by just working at odd hours.”
The company also offers subsidized home health care for any employee with a spouse, parent or in-law age 55 or older who requires regular care, and Bon Secours discounts home medical equipment for employees or their family members. Lactation rooms are available at most work sites. Bon Secours also offers tuition assistance for nursing and nonnursing employees who earn $9 or less per hour. Employees can also take paid personal leaves of absence to volunteer overseas with medical Christian missionary teams.
Bon Secours Richmond Health System, 764-6389; www.bshsi.com

Capital One Financial Corp.
Financial Services

It’s Thursday evening and your best friend just called to tell you she’s going to the beach for the weekend. Care to join her? You don’t feel comfortable taking a sick day, since everyone just saw you hours earlier at work. Fortunately for you, you work at Capital One and have emergency vacation days that you can take with as little as 30 minutes’ notice.
Full-time employees at the financial giant are eligible for medical and dental insurance from their dates of hire; associates receive paid family-care days and bereavement leave. Managers receive $80 per quarter per associate to celebrate and have fun, and associates are involved with choosing how the fun unfolds. Some associates have used the money toward the construction costs of building Habitat for Humanity homes.
Employees are encouraged to provide feedback and ideas through a company intranet site; they’ll receive an update within 21 days of submittal. They also have access to on-site banking, a car-rental agency, nail salons and a car wash. The company’s West Creek campus features basketball and volleyball courts, a horseshoe pit, walking trails, and a fitness center. Capital One also provides lactation rooms for nursing mothers.
Capital One Financial Corporation, 15000 Capital One Drive, 747-7200; www.capitalone.com

Carter Ryley Thomas
Employee-owned public-relations firm

Located approximately a half-mile from downtown Richmond in Manchester, the old Spaghetti Warehouse building is home to CRT’s 40 staffers, who enjoy weekly Friday afternoon happy hours, or “Belly-Ups,” near the old trolley in the center of CRT’s “family room.”
On some days, you’ll even find the gang hosting their own karaoke contests — one of the staffers owns a karaoke machine. Each employee is an owner of the company; every quarter, profits (after retained income) are distributed to owners. “Because each employee is an owner, each person’s voice is heard and feels a part of the decision-making process,” says Jeff Wilson, a member of CRT’s technology team. “What’s best for the group comes first, and we keep a balance between work and family.” And for $20 per night, they even have access to an Outer Banks beach house throughout the year for visits with co-workers, families and friends.
To say the company is family friendly is an understatement. Throughout the year, they host Easter-egg hunts and take-your-child-to-work-day activities. The Family Friendly Fund offers subsidies for childcare, elder care and home care; working parents can “job share,” sharing an office, business cards and a phone number. In one case, one mom worked Monday through Wednesday; the other worked Wednesday through Friday on the same account. An employee-recognition program allows employees to recognize their co-workers with prizes ranging from cash bonuses to maid services. And every other Friday during the summer, CRT closes at 3 p.m. — perhaps to get a head start on that drive to the beach.
Carter Ryley Thomas, 101 W. Commerce Road, Richmond; 675-8100; www.crtpr.com

Cobb Technologies
Comprehensive solutions for document needs

Freddy Cobb’s door is always open to his employees.
Cobb, who owns Richmond-based Cobb Technologies, says that employees are the most important part of a business, and the people who work at Cobb see that in action every day. Cobb believes that the employee is No. 1, and it shows: The company’s philosophy helped earn the business a 2003 Better Business Bureau Torch Award for Marketplace Activity.
Although his family-owned company is young, more than 40 percent of Cobb’s employees have been there for more than five years. The business, a provider and servicer of digital copiers, network printers, digital facsimile machines, scanning technologies, and electronic storage and retrieval systems, has approximately 100 employees in its Richmond, Lynchburg, Roanoke, Charlottesville and Newport News offices.
Cobb is a growing concern with opportunities for advancement. Most of its supervisory and management personnel were promoted from within the organization. The company pays for life insurance as well as short-term and long-term disability insurance. Cobb provides discounted gym initiation fees and refunds a portion of monthly dues when the employee attends eight times per month. Cobb will refund up to $100 for stop-smoking programs or stop-smoking aids following 90 days of total smoking cessation.
They also sponsor employee outings. For the Richmond Braves’ opening day, employees had the option of attending the game while Cobb picked up the lunch tab. For the company holiday party, Cobb provides the option of letting employees spend the night at the hotel where the dinner takes place.
The company, which hasn’t had any layoffs in its 13-year history, established a room where parents can bring a child with them to work on occasion; a lactation room for nursing mothers is also on site.
Cobb Technologies, 8827 Staples Mill Road, Richmond; 515-5700; www.cobbtechnologies.com

Collegiate School
Independent, K-12 coeducational school

For most people, the last thing they want to do after graduating from school is go back, let alone on a regular basis. But 41 Collegiate School alumni couldn’t wait to get back in those classrooms.
“Thirteen years as a student, 15 years as a parent and in my 16th year as an employee pretty much tell you how I feel about Collegiate,” says Collegiate’s middle-school secretary, Trygve Garter.
The school provides subsidized on-site childcare and an after-school program for school-age children. (Collegiate also offers a dependent-care flexible-benefits plan that allows employees to pay child-care expenses in pre-tax dollars.) It pays 100 percent of tuition for employees studying toward graduate degrees. More importantly, the school offers employees a 50 percent reduction in tuition per child for their children enrolled at Collegiate.
Collegiate employees also receive surveys three times a year to ascertain feedback about progress and any pending issues. A staff-mentoring program supports new faculty and staffers throughout their first year.
When they aren’t walking near the stream that serves as a natural boundary between the Lower School and the Middle and Upper schools, employees can take advantage of the on-site fitness facility; employees who choose healthy selections can eat lunch for free.
Collegiate School, 103 N. Mooreland Road, 740-7077; www.collegiate-va.org

HCA Richmond Hospitals
Health Care

“Hospitals are among the most unique working environments imaginable — high-energy, 24/7 operations where drama, poignant moments and significant emotional events abound,” says Mark Foust, the chief marketing officer for CJW Medical Center.
Full- and part-time HCA employees have access to medical, dental and life insurance as well as long-term care insurance and disability insurance. Whenever possible, employees can choose flexible schedules. Some nurses work either three 12-hour days a week or weekends only; employees need to work only 64 hours during a two-week period, rather than the typical 80, to be counted as full-time employees in terms of receiving benefits. HCA has a corporate scholarship program for employees’ college-age children, awarding $500 or more to recipients. Some of HCA’s six facilities hold regular lunch meetings between the CEO and employees. Throughout the year, for a nominal fee, employees can take bus trips to Potomac Mills on the weekend and can get free or reduced price tickets to NASCAR events. Employees receive discounted rates at area child-care companies, as well as discounts for several local gyms.
HCA Richmond Hospitals; www.hcarichmond.com

Luck Stone Corp.
Producers of crushed stone

The largest family-owned and -operated aggregates supplier in the nation and the 12th largest producer of crushed stone nationwide, this Richmond-based company has built its reputation on core values of honesty, integrity and fairness. The culture embraces associate development and rewards good performance.
Of course, the perks don’t hurt, either. The company matches dollar-for-dollar on its 401(k) plan, up to five percent of salary, and that match is immediately vested. Luck Stone’s turnover rate is less than 12 percent, and they pride themselves on never having had a layoff.
And though the 900-member company is large, the individual employee’s voice is not lost. Employees can request a review at any time, soliciting confidential feedback from a wide range of associates. A diversity committee also meets regularly, and the company translates a plethora of employee information into Spanish, since they have native-Spanish-speaking employees.
Employees at Luck Stone’s headquarters often take advantage of its parklike setting by walking during lunch; others enjoy the on-site fitness facility.
Luck Stone Corp., 515 Stone Mill Drive, Manakin, 784-6300; www.luckstone.com

McGuireWoods LLP
Full-service law firm

“I often say that the only reason I have stayed here for 31 years is because I haven’t had time to find another job,” jokes Deborah Angora, a legal secretary at McGuire Woods. “It has to do with the fact that even to staff, it is truly our firm, even though the actual ownership lies with others.”
McGuireWoods, which traces its beginnings to 1834, instills a culture of collegiality, mutual respect, fairness and teamwork among its lawyers and staff. In 2003, the firm named a new multimedia conference room in its Richmond headquarters after a secretary who retired after 55 years of service.
Employees have access to a 24-hour help desk, and staff and administrative positions enjoy 37.5-hour workweeks. This year, the firm gave employees up to three passes each, as well as catered lunches and parking passes, to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg. Partners serve breakfast to staff during Staff Appreciation Week. And there’s no need to bring breakfast on Friday, because the firm treats everyone to bagels with cream cheese, Danishes and muffins.
“Although [the firm’s] client-driven practice requires excellent work and a professional representation, within the firm, you can breathe and be yourself,” says attorney Donald W. Martin Jr.
McGuireWoods LLP, One James Center, 901 E. Cary St., 775-1000; www.mcguirewoods.com

The Martin Agency
Advertising and integrated marketing

Those who don’t know what lies behind the doors of One Shockoe Plaza may think it’s an art museum, with the strategically displayed advertisements from past campaigns hanging on the walls.
When you step inside, you can feel the energy throughout the brightly painted offices, where drink machines dispense 25-cent Vanilla Cokes.
Whether working for national clients like UPS or Nick at Nite, the 289 staffers at The Martin Agency find their work captivating and challenging.
Each December, the company rolls in bleachers for its annual staff meeting, during which staffers have displayed their talents in parodies of The Tonight Show and Whose Line Is It Anyway?
It’s not unusual for a department to disappear for an afternoon of team building, such as a white-water rafting trip on the James or a bowling outing. The agency also offers a discounted gym membership, on-site dry cleaning, a shoe-repair service and an employee-assistance program offering confidential emotional support. Men also can take paid paternity leave, up to two weeks.
The Martin Agency, One Shockoe Plaza, 698-8000; www.martinagency.com

Nesbit Salon
Salon and Spa

Last January, while the rest of the city was waking up to brisk winds and frosty windshields, the staff at Nesbit Salon spent three days being pampered in Duck, N.C. The company rented a beach house and treated groups of four to five employees to massages, manicures, pedicures and shirodhara, an ancient therapy used for restoring inner calm.
In an industry that typically has a fair amount of turnover, Nesbit Salon knows how to treat its employees right. The salon has kept many of its employees for at least five years. After a year of employment, employees receive approximately 80 hours of paid time off in anticipation that they’ll remain employed throughout the second year. The company pays half the cost of health insurance for employees, which includes optical benefits.
Employees who express a desire to become service providers can become apprentices in cosmetology or as a nail technician or esthetician, and receive on-the-job training. Nesbit also has a state-approved in-house apprenticeship program for hairstylists. Diversity thrives at Nesbit, as the company strives to create a racially diverse atmosphere where everyone is welcome. Industrious employees receive, at the least, 10 percent pay increases on a yearly basis, if not more frequently.
“We recruit staff who have a passion for providing exceptional customer service, and we continually involve all staff members in growing and defining our unique culture,” says facilitation manager Bill Henry.
Nesbit Salon, 2311 W. Main St., 355-8775; www.nesbitsalon.net

Owens & Minor Inc.
Distributor of name-brand medical/surgical supplies

Ask the staff what makes this medical-supply company unusual, and you’d think there’s an echo in the room. “It’s the people,” says senior learning facilitator Barbara Hulcher. “People know your name around here. There’s no pretentiousness.”
The company serves more than 4,000 customers nationwide with 3,000 “teammates” nationwide.
“Nobody works for anybody,” says O&M’s “head cheerleader,” spokesperson and vice president of quality and communications Hugh Gouldthorpe Jr. “We are a team.”
This 121-year-old, Fortune 500 company holds monthly employee-recognition ceremonies, rewarding exemplary performance with cash and other rewards, such as Star*Bucks, which are used to purchase products from the company store, like flannel boxers or binoculars. The company also recently opened Owens & Minor University, offering teammates a variety of free classes — everything from how to balance a checkbook to how to write a résumé. Teammates also receive free cholesterol checks, blood-pressure checks, flu shots and professional advice on managing healthy lifestyles.
O&M officers removed a doormat with the company logo from the front entryway after a teammate said he didn’t want to step on his own company’s logo.
Owens & Minor Inc., 4800 Cox Road, 747-9794; www.owens-minor.com

Pleasants Hardware
Retail corporation

With national competitors popping up all over Richmond, this 88-year-old local hardware company stays ahead of the game by providing its customers with a high level of service.
Pleasants’ 214 employees have flexibility in scheduling. If an employee has to take her child to the doctor, they can make up those hours at the end of their normally scheduled shift or at another time in the week. Seventy percent of Pleasants’ employees are full-time. Pleasants also offers a liberal sick-leave program — if an employee’s spouse is sick, for example, the employee can take paid leave.
“It sounds trite and cliché, but in our organization the fundamental truth is that the employees are an asset,” says president and treasurer James Hatcher III, who grew up working for the company that his grandfather and father owned before it was sold to C.F. Sauer Co. in 1989.
Employees are involved directly in decision-making at each of Pleasants’ five stores. C. F. Sauer Co. believes that the best people to solve workplace problems are those who deal with them hands-on. Committees meet regularly to discuss work issues; a “fun committee” comprised of employees decides how manufacturer-rebate money will be spent, whether it’s for a Christmas party, a cookout, or coffee and donuts.
The majority of promotions come from within, and most of the store and area managers and officers have been with Pleasants for at least 15 years.
Pleasants Hardware, 2024 W. Broad St., 359-9381; www.pleasantshardware.com

Ukrop’s
Grocers

Since 1937, this family-owned supermarket chain has been keeping customers — and employees — satisfied and coming back for more.
The company is an evolving chain that maintains its core values and specialty grocer touch. Ukrop’s offers tuition-reimbursement for full-time employees and a tuition-savings program for part-time associates. High-school associates have the option of deducting a set amount from their paychecks, which the company matches dollar per dollar, up to $200 per quarter for tuition. Associates also have the option of saving money for their own educations, as well as for their children and grandchildren. Ukrop’s utilizes market study and other analysis tools to ensure that it’s offering competitive pay to its associates, who are known regionally as some of the best-paid grocery store workers, whether part- or full-time.
The company works hard at being flexible with scheduling, accommodating students’ sports and academic commitments. Through the company’s insurance provider, associates receive free flu shots in the fall.
“Every great organization that survives has figured out a way to build good strategies and get their associates to build on them,” says Ukrop’s vice president of operations, Bob Kelley. “If you can’t make them a reality, then they are for naught.”
Ukrop’s, 600 Southlake Blvd., 379-7300; www.ukrops.com

The University of Richmond
Private university

It’s a no-brainer that working for a university has loads of benefits for those wanting to further their education. But The University of Richmond offers so much more. The university pays 100 percent of its employees’ costs (and 50 percent of their dependents’ costs) for its HMO plan. U of R also makes a 5 percent contribution, based on an employee’s salary, to a retirement account and matches each additional percent the employee contributes, up to an additional 5 percent.
Eligible employees can take undergraduate, graduate and personal-enrichment classes for free, and qualifying dependents of full-time employees can receive free tuition. Employees can also use the university’s recreational center for free. In addition, U of R conducts an annual professional-enrichment conference for all clerical support staff as well as supervisory training classes and online training in all the Microsoft Office software packages. Four outstanding employees also have a chance at earning an annual $500 cash bonus.
“The university has afforded me an opportunity to grow in a professional capacity in a way that encourages and supports all of my interests,” says Dr. Hugh A. West, associate professor of History & International Studies. “I will forever be grateful for that.”
The University of Richmond, 28 Westhampton Way, 289-8640; www.richmond.edu

Wachovia Securities
U.S. bank and brokerage firm

This is a company you can be proud to be part of, says Anthony Mattera, corporate communications director for Wachovia Securities. Headquartered in Richmond, Wachovia Securities, the brokerage subsidiary of Wachovia Corp., offers a slew of attractive benefits for employees. In some cases, employees have flexible work options, such as working 9-6 rather than 8-5, or telecommuting (though this is the exception and not the rule). Wachovia also offers referral services to assist employees with personal and professional issues, including disaster-relief programs. Tuition reimbursement is available for both undergraduate and graduate coursework, with a yearly limit of $5,000 per person. Employees get four paid hours each month for community and volunteer service. Associates can unwind at company-sponsored gatherings such as an Octoberfest celebration after hours at the company’s Innsbrook or Riverfront Towers locations during lunch.
Through the Wachovia Securities Wellness Challenge, the company encouraged and supported its associates in their efforts to improve their health by, for example, losing weight, exercising or quitting smoking.
Wachovia Securities, Riverfront Towers, West Tower, 901 E. Byrd St., 782-3533; www.wachoviasec.com