At HRwisdom, we always recommend being proactive and having standard employment contracts, employee letters and Human Resources policies and procedures ready so that you can manage your staff properly in the eyes of the law.

We also know that managing staff can take up so much of your time.

So, HRwisdom has done three things to make things a little easier for you:

We have found for you a free part-time permanent employment contract template.

You can download the employment contract instantly for free and without any registration required. More on this below.

We have discovered an excellent service which gives you all the staff management policy and procedure templates you need. To learn more, click here.

Looking for a part-time contract of employment template to use for an employee within your business?

Just visit the following page on the main HRwisdom site to get the download link (no registration required) for a full-time employment contract template produced by the Australian Government, click here.

HRwisdom

At HRwisdom, we always recommend being proactive and having standard employment contracts, employee letters and Human Resources policies and procedures ready so that you can manage your staff properly in the eyes of the law.

We also know that managing staff can take up so much of your time.

So, HRwisdom has done three things to make things a little easier for you:

We have found for you a free template full-time permanent employment contract.

You can download the employment contract instantly for free and without any registration required. More on this below.

We have discovered an excellent service which gives you all the staff management policy and procedure templates you need. To learn more, click here.

Looking for a full-time contract of employment template to use for an employee within your business?

Just visit the following page on the main HRwisdom site to get the download link (no registration required) for a full-time employment contract template produced by the Australian Government, click here.

HRwisdom

At HRwisdom, we always recommend being proactive and having standard employment contracts, employee letters and Human Resources policies and procedures ready so that you can manage your staff properly in the eyes of the law.

We also know that managing staff can take up so much of your time.

So, HRwisdom has done three things to make things a little easier for you:

We have found for you a free template casual employment contract.

You can download the employment contract instantly for free and without any registration required. More on this below.

We have discovered an excellent service which gives you all the staff management policy and procedure templates you need. To learn more, click here.

Looking for a casual contract of employment template to use for an employee within your business?

Just visit the following page on the main HRwisdom site to get the download link (no registration required) for a casual employment contract template produced by the Australian Government, click here.

HRwisdom

Avoiding unnecessary staff turnover is a deliberate strategy used by the top companies in the workd. They do this to keep their skills, knowledge and expertise in-house without having to constantly slow down to bring new people up to speed.

Fortune Magazine in the US has recently produced its latest list of the 100 Best Companies To Work For In America and it makes for very interesting reading.

NOTE: You’ll pick up many great ideas to help you become on of the Best Companies To Work For in the new HRwisdom Community Employee Attraction & Retention Guide. The Guide has sixteen employee management expert practitioners from all areas of the human resources field offering their best employee attraction & retention advice. For instant download of the comprehensive free “HRwisdom Community Employee Attraction & Retention Guide,” click on Reduce Staff Turnover now.

In this HRwisdom post we’re bringing you the rankings 1 - 10 of the Fortune Magazine 100 Best Companies To Work For In America.

1 SOUTHWEST AIRLINES Dallas Why is Southwest No. 1? Listen to a typical comment from the more than 100 we received from enthusiastic employees: “Working here is truly an unbelievable experience. They treat you with respect, pay you well, and empower you. They use your ideas to solve problems. They encourage you to be yourself. I love going to work!!”

2 KINGSTON TECHNOLOGY Fountain Valley, Calif. Nearly everyone in the U.S. wanted to work at this manufacturer of computer memory devices after last year’s stories about its year-end bonus averaging $75,000 per employee. The largesse was in line with company policies: free soft drinks and cups of noodles at all times and a golf driving range in the back of the plant.

3 SAS INSTITUTE Cary, N.C. The world’s largest privately held computer software company. Superb on-site child care for $200 a month. An on-site clinic that offers primary medical care at zero cost to employees. An award-winning cafeteria, where a pianist plays during lunch. No surprise that turnover, at 4% a year, is among the lowest in the software industry.

4 FEL-PRO Skokie, Ill. They make auto, truck, and motorcycle gaskets in a sprawling plant just north of Chicago. Ultra-family-friendly: $1,000 savings bond at child’s birth, affordable on-site child care, summer camp on company’s 200-acre recreation area, summer jobs for employees’ kids, and $3,500 annual college scholarships.

5 TDINDUSTRIES Dallas TDI installs and services air-conditioning and plumbing systems in six Texas cities. All stock is in the hands of employees, with no one owning more than 9%. A monthly meeting fills in all employees on financial results. Employees are wildly upbeat. One said, “This company makes you feel like a human being again.”

6 MBNA Wilmington, Del. This house of plastic, the second-largest issuer of credit cards, pampers employees so they will be nice to customers. The coddling includes four on-site child-care centers, one-week paid leave for new fathers and adoptive parents, adoption aid of up to $10,000. No. 1 hiring criterion: “People who like other people.”

7 W.L. GORE Newark, Del. Makers of Gore-Tex waterproof fabrics, Glide dental floss, and dozens of other high-tech materials. Employs avant-garde management theories that seem to work. Instead of a traditional hierarchy topped by bosses and managers, the company uses an organization in which dozens of so-called sponsors set the pace.

8 MICROSOFT Redmond, Wash. Remarkably challenging atmosphere for the brainy. Everybody gets stock options, and most professionals hired before 1992 have thus become millionaires; six became billionaires. All-company picnics with a rodeo and five bands. And Bill (never Mr. Gates) personally answers all E-mail from employees.

9 MERCK Whitehouse Station, N.J. The corporate credo is to put patients before profits, and that sense of mission permeates this drug company’s culture. Employees take obvious pride in the fact that Merck provides a low-cost anti-AIDS drug and gives away a medicine in developing countries that prevents river blindness. Some 31% of managers are women.

10 HEWLETT-PACKARD Palo Alto The godfather of Silicon Valley, still a trailblazer in people practices. Recently added domestic-partner benefits and nursing-home-care insurance for spouses, parents, and grandparents to an already lush benefits package. “They ‘walk the talk’ when they say their people are their most important asset,” one worker told us.

Remember, you’ll pick up many great ideas to help you become on of the Best Companies To Work For in the new HRwisdom Community Employee Attraction & Retention Guide. The Guide has sixteen employee management expert practitioners from all areas of the human resources field offering their best employee attraction & retention advice. For instant download of the comprehensive free “HRwisdom Community Employee Attraction & Retention Guide,” click on Reduce Staff Turnover now.

HRwisdom

Avoiding unnecessary staff turnover is a deliberate strategy used by the top companies in the workd. They do this to keep their skills, knowledge and expertise in-house without having to constantly slow down to bring new people up to speed.

Fortune Magazine in the US has recently produced its latest list of the 100 Best Companies To Work For In America and it makes for very interesting reading.

NOTE: You’ll pick up many great ideas to help you become on of the Best Companies To Work For in the new HRwisdom Community Employee Attraction & Retention Guide. The Guide has sixteen employee management expert practitioners from all areas of the human resources field offering their best employee attraction & retention advice. For instant download of the comprehensive free “HRwisdom Community Employee Attraction & Retention Guide,” click on Reduce Staff Turnover now.

In this HRwisdom post we’re bringing you the rankings 11 - 20 of the Fortune Magazine 100 Best Companies To Work For In America.

11 SYNOVUS FINANCIAL Columbus, Ga. Strange sighting in the southeast: bank employees who love their jobs. Synovus owns 34 banks in four states, and employees, wherever they are, recite chapter and verse on how good they feel about being able to learn, grow, and have fun. Employees are paid $50 to take annual physical, receive $200 if results show they are healthy.

12 GOLDMAN SACHS New York One of the planet’s most profitable enterprises, chalking up $260,000 pretax profit per employee last year. Employees love the excitement of working with people they consider the best and the brightest of Wall Street. “Teamwork here is better than on any professional sports team I’ve ever seen,” according to one professional.

13 MOOG East Aurora, N.Y. No time clocks, no strict work rules at this aerospace company on outskirts of Buffalo. Plus, through retirement plans, employees own nearly half the stock. They also benefit from unusual vacation plan: on tenth year of service and every fifth anniversary after that, an extra 35 paid days off, in addition to regular three-week vacation.

14 DELOITTE & TOUCHE Wilton, Conn. Launched a cultural revolution five years ago with Women’s Initiative, aimed to stem the flow of departing female professionals. Program’s success as seen by one young D&T man: “The initiative has dramatically changed the environment from work/work to one that is very sensitive about balancing work and family needs.”

15 CORNING Corning, N.Y. Inventor of the TV picture tube and optical-fiber cables keeps technological edge by expecting all employees to spend at least 5% of their time in training. Open, informal environment. Extra ten days of vacation every five years. Free rides on the company plane to New York City from upstate headquarters.

16 WEGMANS FOOD MARKETS Rochester, N.Y. Family-owned Wegmans prides itself on being first with new features, whether it’s optical scanning at the cash registers or ready-to-serve gourmet food. Fun aspect of stores rubs off on employees. Said one: “They bend over backward for their employees.” Said another: “I feel as though it’s my second family.”

17 HARLEY-DAVIDSON Milwaukee Employees exude their pride for this company. One assembly-line worker asks: “What other company has employees who tattoo the company name on their bodies? Or offers not just a job but a lifestyle?” Harley has a 12-week paid maternity leave, a no-layoff policy, and unlimited sick days for salaried staffers.

18 FEDERAL EXPRESS Memphis Last summer, after employees worked their tails off during the UPS strike, management came through with a $20 million thank-you bonus–10% of pay, including overtime, over that three-week patch. Good profit-sharing plan and one of the best grievance processes in U.S. business. Still adheres to a no-layoff policy.

19 PROCTER & GAMBLE Cincinnati More than a marketing powerhouse, P&G also has some 1,250 Ph.D. scientists trying to come up with the next Pampers or Pringles. P&G believes in growing its own talent: Of the 32 top execs, 31 started at the bottom. Oldest profit-sharing plan in U.S. is also one of the richest: P&G contributes up to 25% of pay to retirement fund.

20 PEOPLESOFT Pleasanton, Calif. Exponential growth selling software for corporate HR, accounting, and manufacturing. Easygoing work environment with free bagels and pastries, gourmet coffee, no executives-only perks, casual dress. Dave Duffield called by one employee “the coolest CEO any company ever had.” The corporate rock band plays at pep rallies.

Remember, you’ll pick up many great ideas to help you become on of the Best Companies To Work For in the new HRwisdom Community Employee Attraction & Retention Guide. The Guide has sixteen employee management expert practitioners from all areas of the human resources field offering their best employee attraction & retention advice. For instant download of the comprehensive free “HRwisdom Community Employee Attraction & Retention Guide,” click on Reduce Staff Turnover now.

HRwisdom

Avoiding unnecessary staff turnover is a deliberate strategy used by the top companies in the workd. They do this to keep their skills, knowledge and expertise in-house without having to constantly slow down to bring new people up to speed.

Fortune Magazine in the US has recently produced its latest list of the 100 Best Companies To Work For In America and it makes for very interesting reading.

NOTE: You’ll pick up many great ideas to help you become on of the Best Companies To Work For in the new HRwisdom Community Employee Attraction & Retention Guide. The Guide has sixteen employee management expert practitioners from all areas of the human resources field offering their best employee attraction & retention advice. For instant download of the comprehensive free “HRwisdom Community Employee Attraction & Retention Guide,” click on Reduce Staff Turnover now.

In this HRwisdom post we’re bringing you the rankings 21 - 30 of the Fortune Magazine 100 Best Companies To Work For In America.

21 FIRST TENNESSEE BANK Memphis In 1996, Tennessee’s largest bank formally declared that employees come first, followed by customers, then shareholders. Plethora of family-friendly programs such as child-care subsidies and a sick-child center. Shareholders aren’t left out either, as the bank’s stock has shot up 100% in the past two years.

22 J.M. SMUCKER Orrville, Ohio Small-town American values flourish at this jams-and-jellies producer, still under the benevolent direction of the founding Smucker family. Employees cite the close-knit family feeling as the best feature of working here. More than 40% have been at Smucker longer than ten years.

23 GRANITE ROCK Watsonville, Calif. Imagine an operator of rock, sand, and gravel quarries winning a Baldrige National Quality Award. Granite Rock did it in 1992. Entry-level employees start at $15.90 an hour and progress to such positions as accomplished job owner and improvement champion (base pay: $25.90 an hour). Has no-layoff policy.

24 PATAGONIA Ventura, Calif. When the surf is up in the Pacific near Patagonia’s home office, employees grab a board and wet suit. A seller of rugged outerwear, Patagonia maintains two on-site child-care centers and contributes 1% of sales or 10% of profits (whichever is greater) to environmental groups. Women hold more than half of the top jobs.

25 CISCO SYSTEMS San Jose Cisco is king of networked computer systems, and the lure is working for a hot company and getting your hands on possibly lucrative stock options ($10,000 put into Cisco stock in 1993 would now be worth around $80,000). Pumped-up atmosphere. Every day begins with Cisco Boot Camp at 7 a.m.: one hour of calisthenics.

26 ERIE INSURANCE Erie, Pa. People come to work at the nation’s 12th-largest auto insurer and never leave. Erie has a no-layoff policy and is one of a small minority of companies offering a pension plan, profit-sharing bonuses, and a 401(k) savings plan with a company match. It also pays 100% of the health insurance premium.

27 MARRIOTT INTERNATIONAL Bethesda, Md. Mormon-led company maintains strong ethical tone and rose to top of hospitality industry without operating a casino. Set up 24-hour hotline to answer questions from employees having family and personal problems. Spearheaded establishment of 24-hour child-care center for children of low-income hotel workers in Atlanta.

28 FOUR SEASONS HOTELS Don Mills, Ontario “I’m treated like a five-diamond hotel guest” is how one employee described the congenial working environment at this chain of luxury hotels and resorts. Special perks include free meals in the company cafeteria, tailored uniforms cleaned and pressed daily, and free nights at any Four Seasons in the world.

29 ROSENBLUTH INTL. Philadelphia Corporate travel agent, now ranked third in its industry in sales volume, emphasizes hiring “nice people.” Great travel perks include two free domestic plane tickets after the first year and two international tickets after the sixth year. Huge, all-expenses-paid companywide bash every five years in Philadelphia.

30 AMERICAN MGMT. SYSTEMS Fairfax, Va. Flexibility is the hallmark of this consulting company, where revenues and labor rolls have doubled in past five years. A quarter of the staff telecommute from home, part-time schedules can be chosen, and employees on long business trips can have their husbands or wives join them for the weekend at company expense.

Remember, you’ll pick up many great ideas to help you become on of the Best Companies To Work For in the new HRwisdom Community Employee Attraction & Retention Guide. The Guide has sixteen employee management expert practitioners from all areas of the human resources field offering their best employee attraction & retention advice. For instant download of the comprehensive free “HRwisdom Community Employee Attraction & Retention Guide,” click on Reduce Staff Turnover now.

HRwisdom

Avoiding unnecessary staff turnover is a deliberate strategy used by the top companies in the workd. They do this to keep their skills, knowledge and expertise in-house without having to constantly slow down to bring new people up to speed.

Fortune Magazine in the US has recently produced its latest list of the 100 Best Companies To Work For In America and it makes for very interesting reading.

NOTE: You’ll pick up many great ideas to help you become on of the Best Companies To Work For in the new HRwisdom Community Employee Attraction & Retention Guide. The Guide has sixteen employee management expert practitioners from all areas of the human resources field offering their best employee attraction & retention advice. For instant download of the comprehensive free “HRwisdom Community Employee Attraction & Retention Guide,” click on Reduce Staff Turnover now.

In this HRwisdom post we’re bringing you the rankings 31 - 40 of the Fortune Magazine 100 Best Companies To Work For In America.

31 S.C. JOHNSON WAX Racine, Wis Family that founded company in 1886 still owns and runs extraordinarily benevolent enterprise: no-layoff policy, rich profit-sharing plan, 146-acre employee park, vacation resort in northern Wisconsin, superlative child-care center, knockout fitness center that includes lap pool, full-length basketball court, squash courts.

32 INTEL Santa Clara, Calif. If you like having your ideas challenged, Intel is the place for you. The king of the PC chipmakers values directness in its relentless quest to come up with new ideas to stay ahead of the pack. Very egalitarian; CEO Andy Grove works in a cubicle. Great stock-option plan has turned more than 1,000 employees into millionaires.

33 UNUM Portland, Me. Largest writer of long-term-disability insurance. Stock options for everyone, profit-sharing bonuses that pay out between 10% and 30% of pay, a wellness program that reimburses employees who work out regularly, and an annual chairman’s award that rewards outstanding workers with $5,000 in cash and $2,500 in travel expenses.

34 WHOLE FOODS MARKET Austin, Texas You don’t simply get hired at the country’s biggest natural-foods supermarket chain. You have to be voted in by a team of fellow employees in order to achieve permanent status. The very model of an egalitarian corporation; CEO’s compensation capped at ten times the average team member’s pay.

35 MINN. MINING & MFG. St. Paul “A young company that’s 90-plus years old” is how one 3Mer described the culture of innovation and risk taking. All technical employees encouraged to devote 15% of their time to their own projects. Went through its biggest restructuring ever in 1996, eliminating over 7,000 positions–but laid off fewer than 100.

36 L.L. BEAN Freeport, Me. Intense focus on service animates this family-owned seller of outdoor apparel and equipment. Employees sing the praises of company for vacation campsites (available by lottery), one-third discount on merchandise (even more on returned items), paid outdoor wilderness days (hiking, rafting, fly-fishing, cross-country skiing).

37 REI Kent, Wash. Growing chain of stores that sells equipment needed for outdoor adventures is organized as a Rochdale cooperative (consumer-members own the enterprise). But unlike some utopian enterprises, it is an extremely well-run business. Number of stores–and employees–doubled in the past decade.

38 ACXIOM Conway, Ark. Highly charged employees–called associates here–process data about American consumers to help companies sell their products and services. Associates talk about no one looking over their shoulders. On-site child-care center and fitness center. Plenty of small-town Arkansas goodies: floats, cookouts, pizza parties.

39 USAA San Antonio Pride of San Antonio, where this auto and life insurer occupies world’s largest private office building. On-site areas for softball, soccer, tennis, golf, and two fitness centers. Some 80% of employees work a four-day week. Best in-house education and training programs in its industry. Five on-site child-care centers.

40 CMP MEDIA Manhasset, N.Y. Leading publisher of technology magazines went public in 1997–and made owners out of employees. Each employee received ten shares of stock, plus 30 more for each year of service. First company on Long Island with on-site child-care center. Founding Leeds family widely admired by employees for its extensive philanthropy.

Remember, you’ll pick up many great ideas to help you become on of the Best Companies To Work For in the new HRwisdom Community Employee Attraction & Retention Guide. The Guide has sixteen employee management expert practitioners from all areas of the human resources field offering their best employee attraction & retention advice. For instant download of the comprehensive free “HRwisdom Community Employee Attraction & Retention Guide,” click on Reduce Staff Turnover now.

HRwisdom

Avoiding unnecessary staff turnover is a deliberate strategy used by the top companies in the workd. They do this to keep their skills, knowledge and expertise in-house without having to constantly slow down to bring new people up to speed.

Fortune Magazine in the US has recently produced its latest list of the 100 Best Companies To Work For In America and it makes for very interesting reading.

NOTE: You’ll pick up many great ideas to help you become on of the Best Companies To Work For in the new HRwisdom Community Employee Attraction & Retention Guide. The Guide has sixteen employee management expert practitioners from all areas of the human resources field offering their best employee attraction & retention advice. For instant download of the comprehensive free “HRwisdom Community Employee Attraction & Retention Guide,” click on Reduce Staff Turnover now.

In this HRwisdom post we’re bringing you the rankings 41 - 50 of the Fortune Magazine 100 Best Companies To Work For In America.

41 EDDIE BAUER Redmond, Wash. This Spiegel division helps employees balance career and family with two weeks’ leave at full pay for all new parents, flexible work schedules, adoption aid of $2,000, postpartum care that will send a nurse to an employee’s home in the three days following delivery. On-site massage available twice a week at headquarters.

42 LIFE TECHNOLOGIES Gaithersburg, Md. Supplier to biotechnology industry in strong growth pattern, with sales up more than 50% in past five years. Casual dress every day and flexible workplace for employees with family obligations. Paid leave for new fathers and adoptive parents. Unlimited time off to care for sick child. Turnover is half the industry average.

43 LANDS’ END Dodgeville, Wis. Bucolic Wisconsin atmosphere, where policies include no layoffs, full benefits for part-timers, 40% discount on catalogue merchandise, and scheme enabling employees to try out new jobs in the company. State-of-the-art fitness center with Olympic-size swimming pool.

44 J.P. MORGAN New York Yes, there is a free lunch. And it’s a good one too, if you work at this pillar of Wall Street. Employees appreciate the high ethical standards, a top-flight training program, and a “hassle-free atmosphere” where they feel that the company genuinely cares about them. First (and so far only) Wall Street firm to offer domestic-partner benefits.

45 PUBLIX SUPER MARKETS Lakeland, Fla. Expanding Florida-based supermarket chain, with over 500 stores, is entirely owned by employees. Aside from a sex-discrimination case, which it settled for $81.5 million in 1997, the company has a good reputation. Quarterly bonus tied to profits. Rich savings and retirement plan. No layoffs. Never hires managers from outside.

46 GILLETTE Boston A Brahmin of the Boston business community. Most of the U.S. employees work in New England, but potential managers must be willing to be mobile. Some 500 managers are based outside their home country. Stresses promotion from within; 85% of employees in our survey said they hope to stay with Gillette till retirement.

47 MEDTRONIC Minneapolis Makes half the world’s heart pacemakers, as well as other implantable medical devices. Each new hire receives a bronze medallion inscribed with the company’s mission: “to alleviate pain, restore health, and extend life.” Patients come to annual holiday party to tell employees how Medtronic saved their lives.

48 WORTHINGTON INDUSTRIES Columbus, Ohio Steel processor maintains no-layoff policy. Employee councils vote to admit workers as permanent employees. Profit sharing accounts for a large share of pay. On-site medical clinic saw 14,000 patients in 1996. On an acquisition binge recently, Worthington maintains 56 facilities in 22 states.

49 BE&K Birmingham, Ala. Alabama construction company, specializing in heavy-duty jobs like building pulp and paper mills, has taken heat from labor for its resistance to unions. But company sticks by its people, and the workplace abounds with stories of employees who have been supported by BE&K during periods of personal trauma.

50 BALDOR ELECTRIC Fort Smith, Ark. Employees cite over and over how clean the plants are, the heavy commitment to continuing education, and top management’s open-door policy. Stock options are offered to everyone after five years’ service. Profit sharing pays out close to 10% of pay annually. Never had a layoff.

Remember, you’ll pick up many great ideas to help you become on of the Best Companies To Work For in the new HRwisdom Community Employee Attraction & Retention Guide. The Guide has sixteen employee management expert practitioners from all areas of the human resources field offering their best employee attraction & retention advice. For instant download of the comprehensive free “HRwisdom Community Employee Attraction & Retention Guide,” click on Reduce Staff Turnover now.

HRwisdom

How to manage staff to get the best business results?

This is one of the key issues addressed in the new free guide available for instant download at HRwisdom: Employee Engagement.

In the new “The HRwisdom Community Employee Attraction & Retention Guide,” sixteen expert employee management practitioners from all areas of the human resources field offer their best employee attraction & retention advice.

How to manage staff?

Much of the information in the comprehensive free guide goes towards answering questions around how to manage employee engagement to get the best business results?.

In the wider context, the free guide has been developed to help business owners and Human Resources professionals who want to fast-track their staff management success.

One such expert contributor is Nicole Underwood.

Nicole Underwood is a leading expert in recruiting and retaining top talent. As the founding General Manager of a major recruitment firm in Adelaide, Nicole established and successfully grew the business to become a market leader over a 10 year period.

Nicole enjoys bringing together her passions for recruiting great people, delivering unbeatable service and coaching others to attract and retain top performers. Nicole’s leadership and achievements have been formally recognised by the Telstra Business Women Award’s as a dual Finalist. She has recently established her own consulting practice assisting corporate organisations achieve their own success through hiring and keeping the right people.

When you are busy doing your regular employee turnover calculation, it is easy to forget that the employee turnover rate can be dramatically reduced by improving the quality of your new hires.

Nicole shares the guidelines that she follows in her highly successful recruitment process to increase the odds of hiring the right person for the right role.

For instant download of the comprehensive free “HRwisdom Community Employee Attraction & Retention Guide,” click on Employee Engagement now.

HRwisdom

Avoiding unnecessary staff turnover is a deliberate strategy used by the top companies in the workd. They do this to keep their skills, knowledge and expertise in-house without having to constantly slow down to bring new people up to speed.

Fortune Magazine in the US has recently produced its latest list of the 100 Best Companies To Work For In America and it makes for very interesting reading.

NOTE: You’ll pick up many great ideas to help you become on of the Best Companies To Work For in the new HRwisdom Community Employee Attraction & Retention Guide. The Guide has sixteen employee management expert practitioners from all areas of the human resources field offering their best employee attraction & retention advice. For instant download of the comprehensive free “HRwisdom Community Employee Attraction & Retention Guide,” click on Reduce Staff Turnover now.

In this HRwisdom post we’re bringing you the rankings 51 - 60 of the Fortune Magazine 100 Best Companies To Work For In America.

51 HERMAN MILLER Zeeland, Mich. A furniture maker, celebrated for pioneering work teams, Scanlon Plan gain sharing, and fuzzy-wuzzy feelings, doesn’t repudiate the past but has new focus on making money for shareholders. Management incentive pay now tied to profits and sales, which have shot up.

52 MORRISON & FOERSTER San Francisco Only law firm on this list, San Francisco-based MOFO is a magnet for women and minorities. Same-sex partners get health insurance and other benefits. Every year two college-bound children of staff members are eligible for scholarships paying $8,000 a year for four years.

53 GREAT PLAINS SOFTWARE Fargo, N.D. North Dakota company has become a leading supplier of accounting software for small businesses. Employees have strong feelings of belonging to a family. One told us: “Work feels a lot more like hanging out with your friends than going to work.” When Great Plains went public last year, stock options were granted to all employees.

54 TIMBERLAND Stratham, N.H. Employees express pride in working for a company where community responsibility is a major focus. Every employee is encouraged to devote 40 paid hours a year to volunteer activities, and Timberland contributes $5 million annually to City Year, an urban Peace Corps active in eight U.S. cities.

55 COMPAQ COMPUTER Houston On a tear. Work force at the world’s largest maker of personal computers has increased by 50% in past two years. Remote setting in pine forest outside Houston masks hard-work ethic and long hours. Profit-sharing checks passed out each quarter. Generous match of employee contributions to 401(k) savings plan.

56 ADOBE SYSTEMS San Jose Ever hear employees raving about the company cafeteria? They do at Adobe, the software developer whose products helped make desktop publishing what it is today. Everyone has her or his own office. Free refreshments all the time. Child-care subsidy is $100 a month. Extra three-week vacation every five years.

57 A.G. EDWARDS St. Louis Brokerage employees unstinting in praise for CEO Ben Edwards, citing his ethics, his concerns for clients and employees, his mandate that people have fun working here. Eschews Wall Street star system. Spectacular retirement and profit-sharing package, called the best in industry. Nearly 20% of employees here more than 11 years.

58 LOS ANGELES DODGERS Los Angeles Office employees revel in the classy atmosphere at this professional baseball club under the leadership of owner Peter O’Malley. Perks include four tickets to every game, free ice cream whenever the Dodgers are in first place and increase their lead. Big question: Will this culture survive Rupert Murdoch’s impending acquisition?

59 XEROX Stamford, Conn. World class in everything it touches. Second-to-none benefits include $10,000 per employee to use during career for anything from a down payment on a house to college tuition for the kids. Active caucuses of women, blacks, Hispanics, gays, and lesbians. Annual Teamwork Day a companywide celebration.

60 LUCAS DIGITAL San Rafael, Calif. Producer-director George Lucas, working from his ranch north of San Francisco, gives employees spectacular benefits: on-site child care, profit sharing, paid leave for new fathers and adoptive parents. But the main attraction is work on cutting-edge film technology like creating the dinosaurs for Jurassic Park.

Remember, you’ll pick up many great ideas to help you become on of the Best Companies To Work For in the new HRwisdom Community Employee Attraction & Retention Guide. The Guide has sixteen employee management expert practitioners from all areas of the human resources field offering their best employee attraction & retention advice. For instant download of the comprehensive free “HRwisdom Community Employee Attraction & Retention Guide,” click on Reduce Staff Turnover now.

HRwisdom