Best Companies to Work for in Colorado ’09

Page 3

Best Company winner
Edward Jones
www.edwardjones.com

Scott Wilson, financial adviser and regional leader for Edward Jones in northeast Colorado and southeast Wyoming, works with Charla Compton, senior business office administrator, in Wilson’s Loveland office. Financial advisers enjoy the benefit of running their own offices.

When you’re talking about the Best Companies to Work For, it seems a given that Edward Jones will land somewhere near the top of the discussion. The St. Louis-based investment-services firm was judged No. 1 among large companies in 2006 and was No. 1 again last year. The firm has hardly slipped in the eyes of judges. This year’s runner-up result matches its showing in 2007.

Donna O’Bryant, who has operated an Edward Jones office in Colorado Springs the past 17 years, says the firm’s model has proved especially effective in the current recession. The typical office setup consists of a financial broker/adviser, and an officer administrator who is paid by the Edward Jones company, not by the broker/financial adviser. Also, Edward Jones pays for each branch’s office space.

“What makes Edward Jones a great place to work for is we are a partnership, not a shareholder-owned corporation, so our decisions can be based on the long term,” says O’Bryant, who serves as regional leader of southeastern Colorado representing about 70 Edward Jones offices.

Founded in 1922, Edward Jones is the nation’s largest financial-services firm in terms of branch offices with more than 9,900 U.S. locations, including 271 branches and 565 employees in Colorado. The company had revenues of
$3.5 billion in the U.S. last year.

“At a time when our industry had been in kind of a disarray, we didn’t have to go to the government for any money. We didn’t have anything in the trouble areas that so much of our industry was taken down by,” O’Bryant says. “This year, what’s really on everybody’s mind about what makes Edward Jones a great company to work for is that they’ve stayed solvent and they’ve stayed independent and they’ve stayed forward-thinking.”

O’Bryant points out that a large number of Edward Jones employees are limited partners, so they share in the company’s profits – and in the decision making. When it became evident early this year that the firm needed to cut spending to maintain a positive bottom line, employees came through with a number of ideas such as offering voluntary unpaid time off and reducing the number of annual company meetings, from three to two. In all, Edward Jones cut expenses by $91 million, O’Bryant says.

“There was just an outpouring of recommendations and suggestions from all the employees — ways we could cut down on the budget,” O’Bryant says. “And therefore we’ve remained profitable this year.”

2008 RANK: No. 1
— Mike Taylor

• Page 1
• Page 2
• Page 3
• Page 4
• Page 5
• Page 6
• Page 7
• Page 8
• Page 9
• Page 10

• Email
• Share
 

Enjoy this video? Share it with others.