What Makes a Great Place to Work Each year, Fortune magazine publishes its list of best companies to work for using a standard set of criteria that includes factors such as the quality of their leadership and perceived credibility based primarily on employee feedback. Three companies that have received this award over the past 5 years include Quicken Loans, Methodist LeBonheur Healthcare and AFLAC. This paper examines how these three companies achieved this noteworthy status by first reviewing the relevant literature to describe the methodology used by Fortune magazine to select recipients of this award, followed by an analysis of their specific and unique company benefits, culture, and human resource management (HRM) practices. Finally, a description of this author’s personal philosophy of HRM and corresponding relevant biblical principles is followed by a summary of the research and key findings concerning these three companies and their HRM practices in the conclusion.

Review and Analysis

Background and overview

The winning organizations of each year’s “Great Place to Work U.S.” award offered by Fortune magazine are evaluated on a number of factors, including the level of trust, credibility and respectful leadership as well as measures such as employees’ level of pride in their word and camaraderie (Award methodology, 2018). Besides other sources of industry information, Fortune interviews and surveys more than 300,000 employees to develop their list of annual award winners. In this regard, Fortune reports that, “Each company is scored on our analysis of anonymous employee responses to more than 50 survey questions on our Trust Index Survey, together with our evaluation of company programs and practices as measured through our Culture Audit assessment” (Award methodology, 2018, para. 2).

In order to be considered for the Best Places to Work award, organizations must have at least one thousand employees and receive a sufficient number of survey responses to provide a 95% confidence level with a maximum 5% margin of error rate (Award methodology, 2018). In sum, Fortune magazine evaluates and compares the manner in which people are actually treated on the job using irrefutable primary data provided by their employees, making the Fortune magazine award highly prestigious, timely and noteworthy. As noted above, three companies that have achieved this lofty status include Quicken Loans, Methodist LeBonheur Healthcare and AFLAC which are discussed below.

Quicken Loans

Although many consumers struggled with Quicken software, the overwhelming majority of Quicken Loan customers report high levels of satisfaction due primarily to the company’s dedicated workforce. Founded in 1985, this Detroit-based company has approximately twelve thousand employees and competes in the banking and credit services sector, generating more than $3.6 billion in annual revenues (Phillips & Phillips, 2015). The designation as one of the best places to work is based on Quicken Loan’s unwavering commitment to engaging its employees at every opportunity. In this regard, Phillips and Phillips (2015) advises that, “At Quicken Loans, employee engagement is not a process,...

Engagement is part of the business strategy and culture of this intentionally flat organization” (p. 100). All employees at Quicken Loans are called “team members” and everyone in the organization is tasked with identifying problems and developing appropriate solutions. This responsibility extends from the company’s CEO to its newly hired team members, and is one of the reasons for Quicken Loans designation as one of Fortune’s best places to work.
Indeed, team members at Quicken Loans are provided with an annual update of a book of so-called “Quicken Loan-isms” that represent the essential elements of the organization’s corporate culture. According to the description provided by Phillips and Phillips (2015), “The Quicken Loans ‘ISMs’ booklet is a physical embodiment of team member engagement at the company. ISMs are simple, easy-to-digest principles that form every business decision at Quicken Loans” (p. 100). A sample page from this booklet is depicted in Figure 1 below.

Figure 1. Page 14 from Quicken Loan’s “ism’s” booklet

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The booklet specifically describes acceptable behaviors and practices at the company as well as the lofty expectations that are in place for all team members. The essential point made throughout this guidance is that Quicken Loan team members are expected to “hit the ground running” from their first day on the job and should not wait on approval or a specific process in order to do what needs to be done or to resolve what needs resolution, including returning every email and telephone call every time (Phillips & Phillips, 2015). Although the “isms” list is updated each year, the 2015 version featured the following list:

· Always raising our level of awareness.

· The inches we need are everywhere around us.

· Responding with a sense of urgency is the ante to play.

· Every client. Every time. No exception. No excuses.

· Obsessed with finding a better way.

· Ignore the noise.

· It’s not about WHO is right, but WHAT is right.

· We are the “they.”

· You have to take the roast out of the oven.

· You will see it when you believe it.

· We will figure it out.

· Numbers and money follow, they do not lead.

· A penny saved is a penny.

· We eat our own dog food.

· Simplicity is genius.

· Innovation is rewarded. Execution is worshipped.

· Do the right thing.

· Every second counts.

· Yes before no (as cited in Phillips & Phillips, 2015, p. 100).

In order to help all new hires become proficient as quickly as possible, the company conducts an 8-hour orientation session that includes presentations by the CEO and chairman of the board of directors concerning the importance of the organizational culture. Moreover, it is especially noteworthy that each…