The customer is always right ? but sometimes the employee can win, too. In Maryland, IKEA of North America?s Baltimore location and W.L. Gore & Associates, based in Elkton, have been selected as the best two places to work in the state by Fortune magazine. The businesses were ranked on Fortune?s 10th annual “100 Best Companies to Work For” list. At IKEA, the employees attribute their 96th national ranking to a supportive atmosphere.
“There is a good sense of team and camaraderie,” said Tricia Mingioni-Butt, a public relations specialist at the IKEA Baltimore location who works with both her daughter and her husband. “I like IKEA because to me it seems like family. We are such a small store; there aren?t many this size anymore.”
IKEA appears in Fortune?s report for the third consecutive year, and the magazine lists IKEA as earning more than $18 billion in yearly revenue, while employing 11,150 workers in the United States.
IKEA stresses professional development by offering training and mentoring programs and provides discounts for weight loss and smoking-cessation services. Diversity is also important to IKEA, as its employees are 49 percent minorities and 50 percent women.
“I?ve been here myself 15 years and ? as a working mom ? IKEA has helped me with flexible work arrangements and job sharing,” Mingioni-Butt said.
Up north in Elkton, W.L. Gore & Associates, an innovative production company with about 5,000 workers nationwide and an average revenue of slightly less than $2 billion, was the other top business to work for in Maryland ranked by Fortune. It finished an impressive 10th nationally.
To help create educated, diverse workers, the company works to foster the development of networking, education and outreach initiatives to other professionals and local universities.
“We have what we call a team-based structure, no bosses,” said Ed Schneider, communications team leader at W.L. Gore. “The environment is about responsibility, fostering personal initiative and encouraging innovation.”
The annual report by Fortune ranks the businesses based on an evaluation of the policies and culture of the company and the opinions of the company?s employees.
