WestEd Named One of the Best Places to Work in Bay Area
WestEd has been named one of the Best Places to Work in the Greater Bay Area. The award recognizes the agency's achievements in creating a positive work environment that attracts and retains high-quality staff.
(PRWEB) April 10, 2005
WestEd, a nonprofit research, development, and service agency, has been selected as one of the top 100 Best Places to Work in the Greater Bay Area in 2005 by the San Francisco Business Times, the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal, and Deloitte. This is the second consecutive year that WestEd has been so honored. The prestigious award recognizes that the agency attracts, retains, and engages high-quality employees through positive working conditions, benefits, and corporate culture.
“I am pleased and honored that WestEd has again been recognized as an outstanding place to work,” says Glen H. Harvey, WestEd’s Chief Executive Officer. “To meet our organization’s goals delivering high-quality work that makes an impact on education and human development requires exceptional commitment by a highly-talented staff. We recognize our employees’ talents and contributions by offering good benefits, implementing sound but flexible policies, and fostering supportive working conditions. WestEd’s organizational culture rewards creativity, hard work, collaboration, and mutual respect.”
This yearÂ’s awards program for the Bay Area attracted about 400 entries. Nonprofit organizations contended with for-profit corporations in this year's competition, making WestEd's high ranking an even more significant achievement.
Companies were evaluated on two types of information gathered. First, each company completed a questionnaire about their retirement plans, health insurance, performance-based reviews, employee training, tuition and transportation reimbursement, management communication with employees, and other benefits and policies.
All Bay Area-based employees of participating companies were then given an opportunity to respond online and anonymously to questions about the company. Employees responded to questions addressing pride in the company; whether and how the company encourages, supports, and recognizes achievement; open communications; fairness of compensation; and relationships with coworkers and immediate supervisors. To be eligible for the Best Places to Work list, at least 50 percent of a companyÂ’s employees had to respond to the survey. Thousands of employees took part in the survey, and their responses carried more than 60% of the weight in the final tally of scores.
"Even in the most challenging times, there were some companies that never took their eyes off the importance of investing in their most valuable assets — the ones that walk out the door at 5 o'clock (or later) every evening,” says Mary Huss, Publisher of the San Francisco Business Times. "These companies know that an engaged workforce is a productive workforce, and ultimately that has a positive impact on the bottom line. [They] exemplify why the Bay Area is such an outstanding and sought-after place to live and work."
About WestEd
WestEd, a national nonprofit research, development, and service agency, works with education and other communities to promote excellence, achieve equity, and improve learning for children, youth, and adults. WestEd has 16 offices nationwide, from Washington and Boston to Arizona and California. Its corporate headquarters are in San Francisco. More information about WestEd is available at WestEd. org.
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