Technology-related companies accounted for three of the top 10 great employers and—surprise!—Google was number one, shooting to the top in its very first appearance in Fortune Magazines annual list of the 100 best places to work, released Jan. 8.
Google “sets the standard for Silicon Valley” with its free meals, swimming spa, free onsite doctors and allowance of engineers to spend 20 percent of their time on independent projects, according to the report.
This leaves little doubt why Google gets over 1,300 resumes a day and employs over 9,500, adding 2,229 jobs last year alone. Google would not disclose its most popular positions or the average salaries therein.
Genentech, a biotech leader headquartered in South San Francisco, came in second. With nearly 10,000 employees, 25 percent job growth in the last year and 537 employees who took six-week paid sabbatical last year, a perk available for every six years of service, the company round-up even included this blurb from an employee: “Wild horses couldnt drag me away.”
Genentechs most common salaried job is a $76,000 per year research associate and its most common hourly position is a bioprocess manufacturing technician, averaging $54,900.
Network Appliance, a data storage company based in Sunnyvale, Calif., came in sixth place in Fortunes annual list, climbing 21 spots from the year before on practically its benefits, which include widely-used flexible schedules (used by 95 percent of employees), enhanced benefits for parents and a stock up 50 percent in 2006.
Its most common salaried job is a $129,000 MTS Software 4 position, and in its most common hourly job, administrative assistants, average $56,200 per year.
Cisco Systems, the San Jose-based network equipment provider, just missed the top 10, coming in 11th place for a 60 percent stock price jump in 2006 when virtually all employees are stockholders.
Its most common salaried job is a Software Engineer IV with an average annual pay of $123,021 and its most common hourly job is a $58,069 sales administrator.
The best-touted benefits in these top companies include health care, with 16 companies out of 100 on the list paying 100 percent of their employees health care premiums. Another praised benefit is child care, with almost one-third of these companies offering on-site day care centers.
Telecommuting was high on the favored benefits list as well, with 82 out of 100 of these companies allowing workers to telecommute at least some of the time.
Among the top companies for job growth, Google yet again held onto first place with a 67 percent bump in 2006. But other tech companies held their own, owning six of the top 10 spots.
Network Appliance had 33 percent job growth in 2006; Adobe Systems (number 31 on the main list) also had 33 percent job growth; Yahoo (number 44 on the main list) had 26 percent job growth; Genentech had 25 percent and Kimley-Horn and Associates, of Cary, N.C., an engineering consultancy and number 28 on the main list, boasted 23 percent job growth.