BEST PLACES TO WORK

At Google in Mountain View, Sathya Smith sees the HP Way business principle of the Golden Rule applied every day. She believes Google is a textbook example of how treating people well creates a successful business. Its people-centered corporate culture—as well as its philosophy of improving the world—makes Smith feel her job, although demanding, is a worthwhile challenge. “A lot of the time, you really don’t have a chance to slow down because there are so many exciting things that are happening,” the 32-year-old sales engineer says. “You’re just so eager to learn things.”

Google and other great companies to work for in Silicon Valley have several factors in common. But their success boils down to one important idea. Studies have found these businesses generate a healthy level of employee job satisfaction by maintaining an honest and respectful communication style throughout the entire corporate infrastructure. From her experience working at Google during the last three years, Smith agrees. “I have a very open relationship with my manager,” she says. “There’s constant feedback on the good and bad. You’re also always given opportunities to improve.”

Putting these human principles in practice enabled Google to reach the No. 1 ranking in this year’s Fortune list of the “100 Best Companies to Work For.” It has also stimulated Google’s rapid multi-billion dollar growth since its founding only nine years ago. Google’s nearly 14,000 employees, such as Smith, find that no matter what their job description they truly feel they have a huge responsibility in manifesting a much bigger picture. They benefit from a high level of sociability in Google’s corporate culture. The company encourages workers to participate in various team-building efforts, creating a family atmosphere in which everyone is expected to contribute. “People get to know each other well,” Smith says. “You create relationships. It makes my work definitely better because we’re able to talk with each other freely and share opinions. Google has a lot of smart people, so there’s always an exchange of great ideas and opinions.”

Like Google, Sunnyvale-based Network Appliance (NetApp) also encourages a people-centered corporate culture for its nearly 7,000 workers. Its leaders intentionally try to make sure employees feel they’re a vital part of the organization and not merely cogs in a corporate machine. “We’re really clear that our people are really our foundation to make our success happen,” says Gwen McDonald, NetApp’s senior vice president of human resources. “It’s communicated by our leaders both in terms of what we say and do.”

To build this solid employee foundation, NetApp encourages all its new hires to attend a monthly session called “TOAST,” which stands for topics on all special things. At this team-building meeting, CEO Dan Warmenhoven and other company leaders give the employees a warm welcome and then relate to them a brief history of the firm. Customers are also invited to come to the TOAST session and describe how NetApp’s products and services make a major difference to their success. Then NetApp employees are encouraged to ask their top bosses questions—no holds barred. The executives make a policy of responding to any employee concerns with honesty. “They’re building up teamwork,” McDonald says. “We are open and candid in terms of good news and bad news, and they appreciate that we treat them as adults.”

Another way NetApp uses the human factor to build a spirit of teamwork is by encouraging its employees to give back to the bigger Silicon Valley community. The company started its NetApp Volunteer Benefit Program to allow employees to give up to five days of their time each year helping a non-profit organization of their choice.

NetApp continues to pay their salary during this volunteer workweek. “It’s a win for the employees and a win for the community, and it reinforces that this is a great place to work,” McDonald says. “It’s a part of who we are as a company that we ensure that our shareholders and our employees feel good about the company.”

San Jose-based Cisco Systems also encourages its more than 54,000 employees to build leadership skills and a sense of camaraderie by actively volunteering both locally and globally. One example of this is when employees team up to help the Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties supply food to Silicon Valley’s needy. Employees also work together often as a team building new homes with Habitat for Humanity both in the Bay Area and in developing countries.

“Cisco employees are enthusiastic about including volunteer events as part of their team-building activities, and although many employees volunteer as individuals, team fundraising events are the most popular,” says Brian Schipper, Cisco’s senior vice president of human resources.

The spirit of doing good for others translates across the company’s entire culture to building relationships with fellow workers and customers. “It’s the opportunity for innovation and the impact we can have on the world around us,” Schipper says. “I was struck by this myself after joining the organization. We know the work we do is truly life-changing—for our customers, our local and global communities, and even for our families.”

Cisco’s company culture also encourages a sense of caring for one another as if everyone were members of an extended family. “If an employee or his or her family is affected by a critical health issue or crisis, they receive personal and immediate attention,” Schipper says. “It’s not unusual for all of us—including [CEO] John Chambers—to reach out to an employee who is sick or affected by a crisis. Cisco walks the talk in terms of being there. This is extremely unique for a company of Cisco’s size.”

This caring also translates to special perks offered to Cisco’s employees. One of the most unusual is an on-site childcare facility for children 6 weeks to 12 years old called the Cisco Family Connection. Using Cisco’s Internet Protocol TV, parents at Cisco can view their children’s activities throughout the day from their computers at their desks. Cisco also offers its workers other on-site amenities, such as cafeterias, fitness centers, dry-cleaning drop off, and banking services.

Sunnyvale’s Palm, Inc., is yet another Silicon Valley company focused on providing its employees with a happy working environment. The personal digital assistant (PDA) device manufacturer looks out for its more than 1,100 workers by giving them a plethora of perks. These include an onsite cafeteria (which offers a barbeque menu during the summer); free Treo Smartphones to increase productivity; free shuttle service to and from nearby ACE, Caltrain, and light rail stations; and a regularly scheduled Community Bootcamp fitness class to keep physically fit.

The company also puts tremendous effort into building a creative and socially dynamic workplace environment to stimulate new ideas and teamwork. “People build friendships for life with their colleagues at Palm,” says Rena Lane, Palm’s senior vice president of human resources. “The specific teams and people I work with every day make my job a joy. Even when times are challenging, we are in it together, sharing in the responsibility and always with great camaraderie.”

Lane describes Palm’s corporate culture as “a fast-paced, fun, and open environment” where people work as one team and act with integrity to simplify customers’ lives. Leaders such as CEO Ed Colligan make time to interact with employees on both a professional and more personal level, such as when Colligan pitches for Palm’s inter-departmental softball league. “There’s nothing about Palm which is boring,” Lane exclaims.

Looking at how Silicon Valley companies such as Google, NetApp, Cisco, and Palm go the extra mile in taking care of employee needs, Pat Dando, president of the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce, thinks Silicon Valley offers a unique job environment, compared with much of the rest of America.

This has helped the region to weather many of the economic ups and downs over the last several years. “It never ceases to amaze me that the people that make up the workforce here are always so positive and have a can-do attitude,” Dando says. “Every decade sees declines in the economy, but the resilience continues to be there. I think that’s part of the magic of Silicon Valley. We have a gathering of people who are confident and energetic about creating the next new widget that will improve our economy and change the world.”

Another difference in Silicon Valley is how extensively companies encourage risk-taking among their workers. Dando says that people from other regions tell her that Silicon Valley is a special area for that corporate quality. Unlike any other place in the world, they say, companies in the Valley encourage their workers to “think outside the box” and be adventurous in coming up with exciting new ideas and products to survive in a competitive market. People are not criticized for their failures, and this sense of worker trust helps stimulate a much richer environment for innovation. “This is something that’s not tangible, but there’s some kind of synergy that occurs in this valley, and it encourages people to climb out from under their security blankets and try new things,”Dando says. “In Silicon Valley, it’s not shameful to try something and fail. In many cases, it’s a badge of honor.”

Amy Lyman, chair of the board of directors and cofounder of the Great Place to Work Institute agrees this atmosphere of employee trust to risk failure in the pursuit of creativity tends to make workers much more productive.

The San Francisco-based institute puts out Fortune’s annual list. It chooses the companies by doing extensive employee surveys that measure the level of trust and respect they hold for their place of employment. Companies that score high on the “Trust Index” consistently foster cultures that value credibility, respect, and fairness in their organization.

“They do quite an amazing job in creating a culture in which everyone feels like a valued contributor regardless of their position in the company,” Lyman says. “They are better able to weather the ups and downs of the economies. When the economy is strong, they build up a reservoir of trust that helps them make it through the periods when the economy is down.”

Employee perks—such as free snacks and beverages and childcare centers—also play their part in creating happy and productive employees. But Lyman stresses that executives and managers need to be careful to tailor these special benefits to what specifically works for the overall business organization. “Perks are important to the degree that they reflect the culture of the organization,” she says. “Where the perks are seen as gratuitous or as a foil to make people work longer and harder, then perks don’t work.”

Each company has its own unique culture, but the ones that create an atmosphere where workers feel they are truly wanted do a number of special activities. Lyman describes Google as an excellent example of a Silicon Valley firm that focuses on fostering employee trust. One popular activity is its “TGIF” (Thank Goodness It’s Friday) get-togethers in which executives meet weekly with workers to address concerns and also present awards and exchange pats on the back. Another is how department managers actively listen to their employees’ feedback and suggestions for improvement. A third is the sharing of information broadly through the company’s entire infrastructure.

Lyman points out Google also builds a sense of camaraderie by encouraging department “off-sites,” where its people learn more about fellow coworkers in an atmosphere that’s fun and socially stimulating. Google also gives a number of personal benefits to its employees such as an education reimbursement to workers seeking additional training, subsidized massages, free food in the company cafeteria, an exercise center with personal trainers to help workers burn off the calories, and a family childcare facility for employees with young children.

All these practices build pride and teamwork in the workforce of a company. This in turn builds that all-essential foundation of employee trust, the key indicator that a company is a great place to go to work each morning. “When you have a high level of trust, you have a high level of commitment, and you have a high level of cooperation,” Lyman says.

When it comes to creating a great place to work, successful companies follow the HP Way because their leaders understand how human psychology operates. As Lyman has found by surveying America’s workers, they need to feel needed every day in our office; they want to know they are there not just to earn a paycheck but to contribute something of significance to the world; and they need to feel they’re part of a group of people working as a dedicated team to achieve a worthwhile goal. By focusing on these human factors, many companies in Silicon Valley have made themselves into some of the nation’s best places to work.

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