Volume 78, Number 40
CENEAR 78 40 pp.
ISSN 0009-2347
Companies that hire chemists make the lists of the best places to work
C&EN Washington
People spend many of their waking hours at work. It makes sense that they would want to spend that large chunk of time in a place that they enjoy, working for an employer that supports their needs.
Popular magazines such as Fortune and Working Mother recognize standout employers each year. Fortune's honor rolls include the 100 Best Companies To Work For (Jan. 10, 2000) and America's 50 Best Companies For Minorities (July 10, 2000). Working Mother publishes its list of the 100 Best Companies For Working Mothers in its October issue, which became available Sept. 5.
These lists cut across many industries, but a substantial number of the companies are relevant to C&EN's readers. C&EN spoke with a selection of these companies to try to find out just what makes them employee friendly. The firms place much emphasis on helping their employees strike a balance between personal and work life.
The Fortune 100 best companies list is compiled by the Great Place To Work Institute, located in San Francisco. According to Ann M. Nadeau, the institute's project manager, both the institute and the list focus on workplaces that are not just good but great.
"Great workplaces have a strong people philosophy where senior management has made it a top objective to create and foster a work environment that is a superior workplace for their employees," she says. "The great workplaces are ones that have a high level of trust between employees and managers, and the employees are enjoying what they do in their job as well as the other people they work with."
The emphasis is on "knowing if the employees are paid fairly and feel they are receiving a fair share of the company's profits," Nadeau says. "In the end, a company that only offers a full plate of perks to its employees can't make up for a workplace that may have poor communication, unapproachable managers, and no opportunities for advancement."
People first
Several of the companies on these lists emphasize their commitment to people. For example, Kathleen A. Donovan, vice president of employee resources at Pfizer , New York City, says: "Pfizer's view is that people drive everything we do. Pfizer is known for its incredible products and incredible processes, but we understand that it is people who drive the discovery of those products and people who drive those processes. If you believe that it is people who are the drivers, you have to be affirmative in taking steps to increase people's commitment to the organization."
Linda Cardillo, vice president of strategic human resources management at Schering-Plough in Kenilworth, N.J., expresses a similar sentiment: "People are really critical to our success. We have a large employee population who work in challenging jobs. By having this support for them, we're helping them balance their work lives and their professional lives more effectively."
One hallmark of an employee-friendly company is open lines of communication. For example, Pfizer takes pride in the communication during its recent merger with Warner-Lambert, Donovan says. The company opened an e-mail box to which the sales force could post questions that were answered on a weekly basis. "We heard from our people that this made a big difference in their understanding of events and their increased commitment to the organization," she says.
When Bristol-Myers Squibb developed a strategy in 1997 to improve its work/life program, communication was a major component of the program. "It's fine for me--sitting here in New York developing the work/life programs and services--to know that we're doing great things as a company," says Stacey Gibson, the company's director of work/life diversity. "It's much more important for my employees to know that and to appreciate it, so they don't get recruited away by my competition."
The retooling of Bristol-Myers' work/life program involved a culture change, Gibson says. "We have a culture that is much more open. It's much more candid." Part of the company's performance management system includes a "career dialogue" in which employees and their managers discuss candidly the professional and personal issues that are important to them. They also look at how conflicts between the personal and professional can be resolved.
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| Groups such as the DuPont Hispanic Network help support employees. | |
At Eli Lilly & Co. , Indianapolis, the strategy is to treat an employee as a "whole" person. "We recognize that people don't just leave their families at the door when they come in [to work]," says Candice P. Lange, director of work/life development. "We've developed very specific programs, policies, and work environment changes that address the employee as the whole person." Lilly is the only chemistry-related company to appear on all three best workplace lists.
Lange says Lilly has a long "history of being a great place to work." As far back as the 1930s, employees voted on their working hours (7:30 AM to 4:15 PM at the time). "The dads who were in the workforce wanted to get home early to their families," she says.
"The more modern approach to work/life began in the late '80s and early '90s. We looked at the workforce and realized it wasn't just Dad anymore," Lange says. "The policies that seemed so great back in the '50s and '60s no longer fit the existing workforce." In the early 1990s, Lilly reassessed its work/life programs and dedicated a department to them in 1992.
Lange also believes that communication is very important. "We based our early strategy directly on feedback from employees in a needs assessment. Employees need to know that they have a voice, that they're communicating with the support of management, and that we're listening to their needs," she asserts.
DuPont first started surveying its employees about work/life issues 15 years ago. Richard A. Vintigni, work/life consultant at DuPont, says the company noticed a change in its demographic profile. "What we thought we saw was a trend that women were coming into the workplace, and women must have work/life issues. When we did our first survey, we found that not only did women have work/life issues but that men did too. It really didn't matter what ethnic background you were from or what race you were. Everybody had the same kind of problems." At DuPont, a benefit program isn't implemented unless the employees say it's something they want and need.
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| Pfizer offers on-site fitness centers. | |
In practical terms, Vintigni says that means DuPont believes that no one should be treated unfairly, differently, or disrespectfully for any reason. "Employees should come to work as a whole human being and leave feeling as if they were treated as a whole human being," he says.
Generous benefits
Generous benefits help make an attractive workplace. The companies on these lists offer a vast array of benefits.
Child care is a major concern, and the companies approach it in different ways. Some of them provide their own child care centers. Others offer subsidies for child care.
Lilly has two child care centers at its corporate headquarters. Before its second center opened, the firm had a 400-child waiting list. Some of Lilly's sites are in small towns where a company-run child care center isn't feasible. Instead, the staff from the corporate centers have "adopted" child care providers in these small communities, according to Lange. "If we can't build the center there, we'll at least invite [community child care providers] to participate in all the learning opportunities our teachers have," she says.
In the summer, Lilly offers a day camp that includes a science curriculum with a different theme each week. The company has brought in astronauts, zoologists, balloonists, and members of the Indianapolis Symphony, Lange says.
At Pfizer, employees played a major role in establishing a backup child care center at corporate headquarters. Donovan was involved with the formation when she was a lawyer in the legal department. "It started with a group of working parents talking about child care. I was speaking with my colleagues--other lawyers, paralegals, and support staff--about the challenges of being a working parent," she says. A team was set up that collaborated with Pfizer's pediatric health care group to develop the center.
Other interesting benefits are offered by firms on the best workplace lists. Genentech, for example, gives each employee a six-week sabbatical after six years of service. Several organizations offer concierge services to cut down the amount of running around their employees need to do. At some sites, Merck employees can get their automobiles serviced. Novartis reimburses employees up to $100 a year for a health club membership in addition to having an on-site fitness center. Schering-Plough offers hair and nail care on-site.
Several companies help pay adoption expenses. Schering-Plough's Cardillo is especially proud of the company's program, which kicked off at the beginning of this year. "We've already had five people take advantage of it," she says.
Flexibility
All of the companies that were cited among the best employers incorporate a great deal of flexibility into their working arrangements, both in terms of hours and location. Flexibility decisions are made with the business' needs as the paramount concern. However, it's usually possible to devise something that's both best for the company and beneficial to the employee. Such arrangements include flexible start times, part-time employment, telecommuting, compressed (or expanded) workweeks, and job sharing.
"We believe that what working mothers value most of all is flexibility, a great deal of which costs the employer nothing," says Sharman Stein, the senior editor in charge of the 100 best employers project at Working Mother. "The ability to work at home, to make your own hours, to job share, are all highly prized by working mothers because it helps them to manage the balancing act of home and work."
At Lilly, Lange says, "we base all our flexibility on the needs of the business. The issue is looking at how work gets done, looking at the needs of the employees and then matching the two to see what works." For example, Lilly employs a cell biologist and a molecular biologist who share a job. "We could never recruit somebody who was half one discipline and half the other," she says.
Although chemists may not be as able as administrative personnel to telecommute, they still have many options, Merck's Beattie says. For example, someone might run assays four days a week and then need to fill out paperwork, which could provide an opportunity to work at home one day, where they might be more productive and focused.
"We help provide employees and managers with tools to build a business case for flexibility," Beattie says. "The reason why someone wants flexible work arrangements doesn't matter." Instead, maintaining or even improving performance is most important. Merck doesn't want to put managers in the position of making judgment calls about employees' reasons for wanting flexibility. In addition, flexible work arrangements force managers to manage and evaluate employees based on their contribution rather than on how many hours they see employees in the office, Beattie says.
Flexibility is even managing to find its way into the production environment--scaled back, of course. Lange says that when Lilly was first considering offering flexible work arrangements, the company just didn't see how it could provide flexibility for production workers. "The employees themselves came up with ways that it would work," she says. For example, if someone on a day shift needs to leave early to attend a child's school function, he or she could arrange for someone from the next shift to come in early and pay that person back within the same pay period. "Even though that is not the level of flexibility we would have in administrative areas, production employees were absolutely thrilled, because that was much more than they'd ever had before," Lange comments.
Novartis Pharmaceuticals, East Hanover, N.J., has perhaps one of the most generous flexible work arrangement programs. For example, an employee needs to be scheduled for only 975 hours a year (an average of 18.75 hours a week) to be eligible for full benefits, according to RoseAnn Schwerdt, manager of employee benefits planning.
Bristol-Myers is preparing to roll out a process for employees to work with their managers to assess whether a nontraditional schedule would work for them. Gibson says there is already a lot of "informal flexibility," with employees working compressed workweeks, job sharing, and telecommuting. With the new process, scheduled to be implemented in January, employees will submit a business plan that analyzes their job responsibilities and assesses how those responsibilities could be fulfilled under nontraditional work arrangements. "What we're trying to do is put an equitable process around something that is happening right now. I don't think we're getting all the business leverage that we could," she says.
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| Children enjoy the splashground at Lilly's summer day camp. | |
Lilly encourages its managers to participate in any flexible arrangements, Lange says. For example, the company is initiating a pilot program in compressed workweeks. "One of the requirements for participating in the pilot is that management has to participate also. Otherwise, it looks like something that employees can do but never managers. The minute you do that, you don't get uptake from employees either," she says.
What's in it for the company?
These companies are businesses just like any other. They don't provide generous benefits packages and flexibility just to be nice guys. There's something in it for them.
In 1995, DuPont surveyed its employees about its work/life programs. According to Vintigni, employees who knew about or had used the work/life programs said that they felt more supported by the company, were less stressed and less burned out, were less likely to leave the company, were more likely to recommend the company as a place to work, and were willing to go the extra mile for the company.
Bristol-Myers' Gibson admits that the company had a very pointed business reason for developing many of its work/life initiatives--the recruitment and retention of employees. One of the stated goals of the company's 1997 strategic plan was to gain recognition on theWorking Mother list. "We think that's really important to our bottom-line business," Gibson says.
Novartis, the result of the 1997 merger of Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz, has put its programs together more recently than some older firms. "The philosophy was that Novartis wanted to be an employer of choice and we should put our work/life program together to reach out and help employees balance their work and family life," Schwerdt says. "Not just because it's the right thing to do. There's a business reason for it. It helps employees focus on work. It helps employees save time in doing the legwork in finding child care or picking up dinner on the way home. Novartis started out three years ago with a philosophy of helping employees improve their lives."
Many of the companies highlighted on these lists are large. Does the size of these companies help them to be employee friendly?
Most of the human resources representatives don't think there is much correlation between a company's size and the quality of its workplace. "Often you can do more with resources," Pfizer's Donovan says. "But it's not our resources that effect our philosophy. Whatever resources we had as an organization, I'm confident that we would use them to effect our philosophy."
Merck's Beattie suggests that a large company has more resources in terms of human capital. "I draw on the expertise from a lot of different groups within Merck, and I have immediate access to them," she says.
Yet one company that has consistently made the Working Mother list shows that being large isn't a prerequisite to being employee friendly. Lancaster Laboratories, Lancaster, Pa., an analytical lab with just more than 650 employees, made its 11th consecutive appearance on the magazine's 100 best list this year. The company started its on-site child care center in 1986, when the company had only about 150 employees.
The senior management at Lancaster recognizes the value of these benefits, according to Margaret Stoltzfus, group leader of human resources, benefits, compensation, and safety. "You can't afford to be without [generous benefits] in this competitive labor market today. They are a huge recruiting and retention tool. We've been able to demonstrate that small companies can make it work," she says.
Stoltzfus says Lancaster offered many benefits "long before their time." She remembers when the company started its on-site day care center. "I remember people looking at us and thinking we were crazy. Only a few years later, those same companies were coming back, saying 'Okay, I need you to share information about how you did this,' because they recognized how important it was," Stoltzfus says. She estimates the company has sent out 3,000 copies of a brochure explaining how it set up its program, the program's benefits to the company, and the steps for setting up a day care center.
Lancaster established its day care center because of its young, mostly female workforce--65% women, with an average age of 31. "We had people starting their families that we couldn't afford to lose," Stoltzfus says. The center was "easy to start because we were going through an expansion of our company. As we were building and adding on to our building, we just reserved former office space and had it licensed for 29 children." That first on-site center now has grown to accommodate 166 children. In addition, an annex exists at a vacated local elementary school for kindergarten and summer day camp.
Minorities
The criteria for determining if a company is among the best for minorities depend more on the working environment and the corporate culture than do the other two lists. Minority employees naturally want the same things as everybody else--good pay, interesting work, and the opportunity to advance. Jonathan Hickman, a research associate at the Council on Economic Priorities , New York City, the organization that assembles Fortune's minorities list, adds that minorities want "a level playing field, where these payoffs are available equally to all and where equal work pays off in equal rewards."
The companies that consistently rank among the best for minorities share several characteristics, Hickman says. They have a commitment from senior management, accountability, and a corporate culture that fosters a diverse workforce. "Creating a healthy corporate culture is the challenge that faces all these companies," he says.
Of the 50 top companies for minorities, 76% link managers' bonuses to diversity goals, compared with 25% of the Fortune 500 companies, according to Hickman. "If someone is being measured on his/her ability to accomplish something," he says, "it sends a clear message that those accomplishments are important."
DuPont focuses on training for both its managers and its employees. Every employee must attend a one-time multicultural awareness program. They can then take additional courses. Vintigni says the company just spent a year conducting training sessions designed to create a more respectful working environment. He says DuPont also has minority representation in its upper echelon, which gives minority employees role models. DuPont has about 100 employee network groups, such as a black employees' network, a Hispanic network, and an Asian network. "Part of the effort is to have networks in place that provide support for the people that we bring in," Vintigni says.
Lilly's "diversity strategy encompasses a wide range of initiatives," Lange says. The company tries to make sure it recruits at the best schools, and it brings minorities students in for internships. Although Lange doesn't know exactly how many interns later return as regular employees, she says that is certainly one of the objectives. "By offering internships to these talented students, we certainly do hope they will come back and join us as employees," she comments.
Cardillo attributes some of Schering-Plough's success with minorities to recruiting. "We're going to more diverse job fairs and universities. We're building relationships with schools where we can [find] very talented minorities for our entry-level positions. Some of our recruiting efforts have brought minorities into very senior levels," she says.
Something about that industry
The presence of so many pharmaceutical companies on the lists leads to the question of whether there is something about the pharmaceutical industry that lends itself to being employee friendly. Most of the human resources representatives don't have a ready answer for that, but a few still hazard a guess.
Pfizer's Donovan says she can't speak about the industry, only about Pfizer. "Our core mission is improving the quality of people's lives. We are very focused on the alignment of our messages both inside and outside our organization. If, for example, Pfizer is a leader in pediatric health care, Pfizer has to make sure they're taking care of Pfizer kids, too," she says.
Maureen Truluck, a benefits manager at Genentech , South San Francisco, suggests that perhaps the awareness of health issues in the pharmaceutical industry spurs companies to offer excellent benefits. For example, at Genentech there is no cost-sharing--the company picks up the entire tab for health benefits.
Novartis' Schwerdt believes that "competing for the best and the brightest and the top talent" makes the pharmaceutical industry a good candidate for attractive workplaces. At Novartis, she says, "we have a large employee base, and we're a global corporation. We need to attract and maintain that diverse, talented workforce and therefore have the opportunity and resources to structure programs that are going to achieve that result for us."
Merck's Beattie agrees that pharmaceutical companies must compete for talented employees. "We have to offer what they need to want to stay here, including developmental opportunities and working on exciting projects." In addition, she points out that pharmaceutical companies tend to have the financial wherewithal to invest in employees.
Bristol-Myers' Gibson agrees that pharmaceutical companies have resources, but she emphasizes that the resources are not unlimited. "We always have to talk about the return on investment." She says that from Bristol-Myers' perspective, even expensive initiatives such as on-site child care centers have an excellent return on investment.
Working Mother's Stein puts it this way: "The pharmaceutical industry is highly competitive, highly profitable, and constantly in need of highly skilled employees. In order to recruit and retain skilled employees, pharmaceutical companies seem to have raised the bar for policies and benefits that are good for working mothers."
Steps to take
Companies need to demonstrate a real commitment to being a diverse company, Hickman says. "The commitment has to come from the top down and has to be articulated as more than lip service. The most successful companies are those companies where diversity is a real part of their identity, something the company is inherently committed to, and a source of real pride," he says.
Companies should start by finding out what employees think about their workplace, Nadeau suggests. "The employees are the ones that can most accurately reflect on what it means to work for a particular company. The employees know what works and what could stand for some improvement. Ask them," she says. Senior management has the responsibility to create a productive workplace that employees enjoy coming to every day. Ultimately, she says, the workplace deserves as much commitment as the attention paid to the bottom line.
Chemistry-related companies make the 'best' lists
100 Best Companies To Work For (as ranked in Fortune, Jan. 10, 2000)
20. Pfizer, New York City
27. Amgen, Thousand Oaks, Calif.
32. Genentech, South San Francisco
34. Alcon Laboratories, Fort Worth, Texas
38. Merck, Whitehouse Station, N.J.
44. Lucent Technologies, Murray Hill, N.J.
55. Eli Lilly & Co., Indianapolis
68. Johnson & Johnson, New Brunswick, N.J.
America's 50 Best Companies For Minorities (Fortune, July 10, 2000)
16. S. C. Johnson & Son, Racine, Wis.
25. Lucent Technologies 33. DuPont, Wilmington, Del.
38. Abbott Laboratories, Abbott Park, Ill.
40. Eli Lilly
44. Schering-Plough, Madison, N.J.
48. Colgate-Palmolive, New York City
50. Shell Oil, Houston
100 Best Companies For Working Mothers (Working Mother, October 2000)a
American Home Products, Madison, N.J.
Bristol-Myers Squibb, New York City
DuPont
Eastman Kodak, Rochester, N.Y.
Eli Lilly (in Top 10)
Glaxo Wellcome, Research Triangle Park, N.C.
Hoffmann-La Roche, Nutley, N.J.
IBM Corp., Armonk, N.Y. (in Top 10)
Imation, Oakdale, Minn.
Johnson & Johnson, New Brunswick, N.J.
Lancaster Laboratories, Lancaster, Pa.
Life Technologies, Rockville, Md. (in Top 10)
Merck Millipore, Bedford, Mass.
Novartis Pharmaceuticals, East Hanover, N.J.
Pfizer Procter & Gamble, Cincinnati
Schering-Plough
SmithKline Beecham, Philadelphia
Warner-Lambert (now part of Pfizer), Morris Plains, N.J.
a Working Mother notes only which companies are in the Top 10.
Chemical & Engineering News
Copyright © 2000 American Chemical Society
