"Being a great workplace is far more than a nice to have"

SAN FRANCISCO  (April 25, 2013)– CEOs from companies on the FORTUNE 100 Best Companies to Work For® list affirmed the role of workplace culture as the  driver of business success at the 10th annual Great Place to Work® Conferencelast week in Los Angeles.  More than 900 senior executives attended the Conference, hosted by the leading authority on high-trust, high-performance workplace cultures, Great Place to Work.

Addressing conference delegates, Great Place to Work Co-Founder and CEO, Robert Levering said: “Being a great workplace is far more than a nice to have…Over the next two decades, being a great workplace will become a must have for any company  to succeed.” During keynote speeches, CEOs reiterated this business imperative and touted the role of mission, values, and communications as essential to their success.

Kip Tindell, Chairman and CEO of The Container Store, was applauded for his stance that “leaders have a moral obligation to create a workplace where people love coming to and love what they do.” His notion of a “people first culture” resonated. Tindell and fellow keynote, Chris Van Gorder, President and CEO of Scripps Health, both took task with company leaders whose actions do not match their words. Tindell admonished “You can't run around calling yourself a people first culture and then lay people off when you have an economic downturn.” Van Gorder echoed, “Layoffs are nothing but management failures.”

Marissa Mayer, CEO at Yahoo!, delivered a widely anticipated keynote at the Great Place to Work Conference, sharing her commitment to “amplify not change” Yahoo!’s already strong culture. Mayer addressed “the elephant in the room,” noting that the change in telecommuting practices was not intended as a commentary on the industry standard, but rather what is right for Yahoo! right now. Mayer acknowledged that people are more productive when they are alone, and “more collaborative and innovative when together.”

While productivity is one critical measure of business success, Great Place to Work’s more than 20 years of research has proven that creating a great workplace yields real business benefits. Independent studies have shown that companies who appear on the Great Place to Work lists receive more qualified applicants for every open job position, experience two to four times lower voluntary turnover than their industry peers and consistently outperform major stock indices by a factor or two.

Also keynoting at this year’s conference was Dr. Deborah Dunsire, President and Chief Executive Officer, Millennium: The Takeda Oncology Company, and Scott McNealy, formerly of Sun Microsystems and current founder & CEO of Wayin.  Next year’s Great Place to Work Conference will take place on April 3-4, 2014 in New Orleans.