Great Place to Work® releases 12th annual list of the Best Small and Medium Workplaces in the U.S.

Work-life Balance, Fairness, Hiring on the Rise at the Best Small and Medium Workplaces

Great Place to Work® releases 12th annual list of the Best Small and Medium Workplaces in the U.S.

Intuitive Research and Technology Corporation and Radio Flyer take top spots

SAN FRANCISCO, October 21, 2015 – Great Place to Work®, the global authority on high-trust, high-performance workplace cultures, today released its 12th annual list of the nation’s Best Small & Medium Workplaces. In addition to the list, Great Place to Work® announced new, hopeful research findings: Employees at the country’s best small and medium-size workplaces say their companies are treating people fairly and making it easier to integrate work and personal lives. What’s more, these top workplaces are hiring at a fast clip—nearly seven times faster than U.S. companies overall.

Aerospace engineering firm Intuitive Research and Technology Corporation ranked as the top medium-size workplace, and iconic wagon maker Radio Flyer took the top spot in the small workplace category.

“Congratulations to this year’s Best Small and Medium Workplaces,” said Michael C. Bush, CEO of Great Place to Work. “These companies are on the cutting edge of fair, more human-centered workplaces, and their strong business growth is the latest sign that a high-trust culture is a competitive advantage.”

Great Place to Work® recognizes the top 50 small and medium-size workplaces based primarily on employee responses to its 58-statement Trust Index© survey. Research into the survey data reveals that the statements that have seen the greatest improvement in the past five years concern work-life balance and fair treatment. Positive employee responses to the statement “People are encouraged to balance their work life and their personal life” have risen 2.8 percentage points, to 89.4 percent in 2015 from 86.6 percent in 2011. Positive employee responses to the statement “Managers avoid playing favorites” also have increased 2.8 percentage points during this period, up to 83.3 percent from 80.5 percent.

A growing amount of research from Great Place to Work and other researchers has shown that high-trust cultures boost business results. This year’s list of the Best Small and Medium Workplaces adds to that evidence. These 50 companies are growing quickly, hiring employees at a rate nearly seven times that of U.S. companies overall (see Figure 1).

Figure 1

The 50 Best Small and Medium Workplaces are among the Best Workplaces around the world leading the way into a more hopeful economic era, in which all employees can expect to work at an organization where they trust their leaders, take pride in their jobs and enjoy their colleagues.

“Every day feels more like an adventure than work,” one Radio Flyer employee told us. “I truly come in each day excited to see what is in store and how we are going to improve ourselves now.”

“Ethics are a strong part of the DNA of this company,” an employee from Intuitive Research and Technology told us. “They truly strive to treat their employees well and with dignity and respect. They always work towards a better company tomorrow than the one they were today.”

See the full list of the 2015 Best Small & Medium Workplaces.

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 employer branding programs, including Best Companies 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, the 50 Best Small & Medium Workplaces, the 100 Best Workplaces for Women, 100 Best Workplaces for Millennials and a series of industry Best Workplaces lists. Follow Great Place to Work® online atwww.greatplacetowork.com and on Twitter at @GPTW_US.

Media contact: Kim Peters, Vice President, Great Place to Work® Recognition Program, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., 415-844-2574.