Posted 08.01.2010

Best Companies to Work For in Colorado 2010: Large

Edward Jones comes out on top

By Mike Taylor

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Edward Jones
www.edwardjones.com
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.
"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

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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.
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

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