Best companies to work for in Colorado 10: Edward Jones, Rally software and Infinity Systems Engineering rate the best among 31 finalists.

• Author: Cote, Mike
• Position: Company overview

These days, defining "best company to work for" might mean any company willing and able to employ you.

If you add to that basic agreement company-paid benefits, employer-contributed 401 (k) plans, job sharing, time off for community service, annual trips--and, say, a kitchen stocked with fresh beer every day--you start envisioning companies everyone longed to work for when business was booming.

For the fortunate employees of the 31 companies profiled on these pages, that vision remains a reality. Most of the 2010 crop of Best Companies to Work For in Colorado have appeared in these rankings previously, and all three of this year's No. 1 finalists in the small, medium and large categories have topped the list before.

These businesses continue to understand that--in good times and bad--appreciating employees, challenging them to succeed and creating workplaces that help them to thrive both in the office and beyond leads to long-term success. That means if you're looking for a recession-proof business, you'll probably find a few here.

For the fifth year, ColoradoBiz has joined with the Colorado State Council of the Society of Human Resource Management and Jobing.com, an online employment advertising service, to produce a list of the best companies to work for in the state. The 11 largest companies have 250 or more employees. The five companies in the medium category have 100 to 249 employees. The 15 companies in the small category include those with work forces of 25 to 99 employees.

To participate in the program, companies paid from $625 to $1,175 to be surveyed by Modern Think, a workplace-excellence consulting firm. All employees are surveyed in the small and medium categories. Up to 400 employees are surveyed in the large category depending on the size of the organization. If the company has more than 400 employees, the participating employees are chosen at random.

LARGE

1 EDWARD JONES

www.edwardjones.com

Edward Jones[R]

MAKING SENSE OF INVESTING[TM]

Scott Wilson started out as a client for Edward Jones, as he entrusted the financial-services firm to manage his college money. He was impressed enough that he joined the firm in 1993 and has been there ever since.

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"I tell people all the time I think there are three reasons to work for Edward Jones," says Wilson, a financial adviser at Edward Jones' Loveland office and regional leader for northeast Colorado and southeast Wyoming, representing 65 Edward Jones offices. "First, you control your time. The ability to schedule around your kids' events or your family's events or your friends' events is such a big thing. Second, to make a difference. The one-on-one, face-to-face relationships we have with our clients over time, that's the most rewarding part for sure. And then obviously you want to be rewarded for the work you do."

These and other qualities are why Edward Jones is No. 1 in the large-firm category of Best Companies to Work For, the third time in five years that the St. Louis-based firm has claimed the award's top spot. The other two years it was No. 2.

Edward Jones is the nation's largest financial-services firm in terms of branch offices, with more than 10,500 locations, including 271 branches and more than 600 associates in Colorado. The firm's financial advisers work directly with clients to understand their personal goals--from college savings to retirement--and create long-term investment solutions that emphasize a well-balanced portfolio and a buy-and-hold strategy.

As Wilson points out, financial advisers do not punch a time clock at Edward Jones. They set their own schedules, which can mean a four-day work week if they choose. In addition, each financial adviser hires his or her own business office administrator and has the freedom to make these hours flexible, or hire two administrators and offer compressed work weeks.

That flexibility is a big selling point to Wilson, 40, who has two daughters.

"My girls are 15 and 12, and I'm able to catch all their sporting events and all that stuff," he says. "I might have to come back to work later, but from a flexible-schedule standpoint, it's great."

Wilson says he has never been as proud of the firm as in the past 18 months of the economic recession. As partners with the firm, Wilson and his financial-adviser cohorts were asked to do their part during the downturn by implementing cost-cutting measures and salary freezes.

As a result, he says, not a single person within the Edward Jones company had to be laid off. And the salary freezes have since been lifted.

"Everybody sacrificed, and I think that says a lot," Wilson says. "In 2010, business is certainly improving. That's pretty cool to me to think not a single person was laid off at our company."

2009 RANK: No. 2

-- Mike Taylor

Scott Wilson of Edward Jones.

Photo by Don Cudney

2 PINNACOL ASSURANCE

www.pinnacol.com

Pinnacol Assurance is Colorado's oldest and largest provider of workers' compensation insurance, with approximately 60,000 policyholders statewide. More than half of all Colorado businesses are Pinnacol customers. It's also Colorado's "safety net" workers' compensation provider. The company must provide coverage to any Colorado business.

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Given this role that's inherent to worker well-being, it makes sense that Pinnacol would strive to set an example with the way it treats its own employees.

A case in point; Pinnacol launched a wellness program in November last year for its own 610 employees in Denver before promoting it among businesses it insures around the state.

"If I'm not going to walk the talk, it's a very difficult sell when we go to a business owner who is trying to keep his doors open, and we're telling him, 'We're here with another program that will reap you benefits,'" says Ken Ross, Pinnacol's president and CEO.

Flex Time is another benefit to Pinnacol employees, as nearly 90 percent of employees participate in some form of a flex-time schedule. While full-time employees work the company's core business hours of Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., there is flexibility within teams to establish start and leave times.

Another workplace-enhancing element Ross cites in explaining Pinnacol's workplace culture is its dedication to volunteer activities. Last year, 93 percent of Pinnacol employees volunteered in the community in some capacity, totaling more than 5,400 hours for 75 different nonprofit entities around the state.

"Our staff really has embraced that," Ross says.

Though Ross describes Pinnacol's business role as that of a "typical insurance company," it's obvious he doesn't want the workplace to be typical.

"We keep looking to reduce rates and give back dividends," Ross says, "but people also really enjoy working at Pinnacol. We get almost all our new employees from references from current employees. Not that we're hiring a lot these days, but when there's an opening, everybody has someone to recommend who might fit in. We keep that culture going.

"I think it's a great place to work."

2009 RANK: No. 1

-- Mike Taylor

3 PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS

www.pwc.com

PricewaterhouseCoopers operates in 151 countries with a network of 163,000 people. But within individual offices--including the Denver location that employs 246--there's a sense of community and shared responsibility for co-workers' well-being.

Case in point: Each new employee at PricewaterhouseCoopers is quickly paired with a "buddy mentor," someone who works in the same service area at the same level who helps the newcomer acclimate, checking in every now and then for the first six months.

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The mentoring doesn't end there for the firm that provides expertise in the fields of assurance, tax, human resources, transactions, performance improvement and crisis management.

"Every employee, whether new or tenured, essentially has a couple of different levels of mentors or relationships," says Kenya Haupt, the firm's human-resources leader for its Denver and Salt Lake City offices.

Haupt describes one of those levels as "essentially a manager or 'above-coach' who meets formally with his or her people at least four times a year to discuss their development plan, their progress from a performance perspective ... really just serving to develop the person professionally and personally."

Then there's the fact that every PricewaterhouseCoopers employee connects with a partner or leader of the firm two or three times a year, one of those occasions being purely social.

"They'll invite all of their connections and their spouses or guests to their homes, and they'll have dinner to just kind of connect with them socially, learn more about their families, learn a little bit more about them on a personal level," Haupt says.

Another indication of PwC's commitment to employees--even those taking a break from the job--is the firm's "Full Circle program," geared toward parents who want to leave the firm for up to five years. While these employees are away, the company provides training for them to maintain their credentials and a mentor to keep them in the loop. The objective is to facilitate that employee's return when he or she is ready.

Haupt says one employee in the Denver office is in the Full Circle Program now: a CPA who had her second child and started taking advantage of the program about a year and a half ago.

"She's someone who wants to stay at home and spend as much quality time as she can with her little ones," Haupt says.

During her time away, PwC will pay for renewal of her CPA license as well as the training required to keep her credentialed or licensed, ensuring a smooth return when she decides to come back.

2009 RANK: No. 4

-- Mike Taylor

4 COBANK

www.cobank.com

FOUNDED: 1916

LOCATION: Headquartered in Greenwood Village with operations in 11 regional offices throughout the U.S.

CEO: Robert B. Engel

2009 REVENUE: $946 million (net interest income)

COLORADO WORKERS: 486

IN A NUTSHELL: CoBank is...