MARCH 2009: THE 2009 100 BEST COMPANIES TO WORK FOR IN OREGON

What makes a great place to work? This year’s winners of our 16th annual 100 Best Companies show the way.

Oregon companies are indomitable. With the economy crashing and burning all around us, this was a record-breaking year for the 100 Best Companies to Work For in Oregon project: 372 organizations and nearly 30,000 employees took part in our 16th annual ranking of the 100 Best.

Even in the worst of times, companies value being a great place to work.

To improve our company focus, this year we introduced a new medium-size category so the 100 Best is now composed of the Top 33 Large, the Top 34 Medium and the Top 33 Small Companies. Participating companies had to have at least 20% of their Oregon workforce complete the confidential employee survey as well as fill out an employer survey of benefits.

The No. 1 Small Company		The Winning Perks
The No. 1 Medium Company		The 100 Best List
No. 1 Large Company		Category winners

Sectors prominent among the 100 Best this year include professional services, with a strong showing from law and staffing firms, finance, construction, technology and marketing/communications. The Portland metro area continues to dominate 100 Best geographically with 69 companies, followed by the Willamette Valley (17), Central Oregon (six) and Southern Oregon (six). The 30,000 employees who completed the survey equal about 1.6% of those employed in the state.

The average overall score of 100 Best Companies inched up 2.1%. Twenty companies are new to the list and 31 more weren’t listed in 2008, so half the list changed since last year. The competition gets tougher and best practices get better. Congratulations to this year’s winners.

THE EDITORS

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