Great Place to Work® and Fortune Announce the 50 Best Workplaces for Flexibility

Research finds that flexibility goes hand in hand with employee commitment

(San Francisco, Calif.) – Leading organizations know it takes more than pay and perks to retain talented people. Committed, productive teams also require an environment where employees know they can balance career demands with their interests and responsibilities off-the-clock.

Research and consulting firm Great Place to Work® has spent 25 years studying just this kind of high-trust company culture. So we're excited to announce our first-ever ranking of the country's 50 Best Workplaces for Flexibility with Fortune magazine. In addition to thousands of answers from Great Place to Work's Trust Index© employee survey, the list also takes into account the availability of balance-focused benefits and policies, as well as co-workers' comments on their effectiveness.

"Creating career flexibility isn't as simple as giving people time off or the chance to adjust their schedules to meet demands at home," said Kim Peters, executive vice president of Great Place to Work®. "These companies have made a real investment in credible, trusting cultures that help employees achieve their goals both inside and outside the workplace."

Among more than 500 leading employers certified by Great Place to Work, the winning companies stood apart for their innovative policies and comprehensive approach to flexibility. Examples include:

• Software creator Hyland helps trim the to-do lists of its employees with on-site childcare and a wellness center offering exams, prescription pickup, physical therapy and even lab tests.
• The paid time off employees enjoy at snack manufacturer Clif Bar includes up to 2.5 hours each week to exercise in the company's fitness center.
• After one year working at Xplane, there's no limit on PTO. This small design consultancy also eschews a 9-to-5 schedule for its team members, trusting that they'll meet their responsibilities at the office or working from home.

Not only do the 50 Best Workplaces for Flexibility allow their people a range of ways to accomplish their jobs, their employees are more likely to make use of non-traditional work arrangements without fearing it will harm their careers. Among the winning companies:

• 77 percent of colleagues have used flex time to help align their personal commitments with work schedules, compared to 52 percent among all companies certified by Great Place to Work
• 26 percent of employees have worked a compressed schedule to facilitate more days off, compared to 19 percent at peer companies
• 49 percent of staffers have taken advantage of a telecommuting policy, compared to 27 percent at peer companies.

"The best workplaces fully incorporate flexibility into the way they manage their teams. These leading businesses communicate expectations clearly, trust their people to meet those expectations and reward employees fairly based on their work, rather than the number of hours they're at a desk," Peters said. "In turn, we've found that people at the Best Workplaces for Flexibility work hard and show less inclination to leave. Among co-workers at companies on the list, 95 percent say their colleagues are willing to give extra to get the job done, and 90 percent say they want to work at their current employer for a long time."

To see the schedule for all the Great Place to Work®-Fortune workplace lists and more information on how to apply, visit Great Place to Work®'s website.

About Great Place to Work®

Great Place to Work® is the global authority on high-trust, high-performance workplace cultures. Through proprietary assessment tools, advisory services, and certification programs, including Best Workplaces lists and workplace reviews, Great Place to Work® provides the benchmarks, framework, and expertise needed to create, sustain, and recognize outstanding workplace cultures. In the United States, Great Place to Work® produces the annual Fortune "100 Best Companies to Work For®" list and a series of Great Place to Work® Best Workplaces lists including lists for Millennials, Women, Diversity, Small and Medium Companies and over a half dozen different industry lists.

Follow Great Place to Work® online at www.greatplacetowork.com and on Twitter at @GPTW_US.