Spartanburg, SC, Dec. 31--Spartanburg-based Milliken & Company ranks as the 16th best company in FORTUNE Magazine's annual "100 Best Companies to Work For" listing which hits news stands on Monday, January 5. The full list and details are available at www.fortune.com.
"We are pleased that those who have made this company great, our associates, are receiving this public recognition," stated Dr. Ashley Allen, president and COO of Milliken. "It really is an affirmation of what they have known all along, but it is nice for them to be able to see it in print."
Milliken has long been a fierce advocate for preserving American jobs. The company has faced tough Asian competition in recent years as part of the embattled textile industry. Still, it has resisted the lure of offshoring and moving jobs to low-wage countries.
"It's been a rough couple of years for jobs. But lots of companies still want to be good places to work--and 59 of the companies on the list actually added to their payrolls last year," write Robert Levering and Milton Moskowitz of the Great Place to Work Institute, which researches and compiles the list.
"Milliken is all about American jobs," stated Richard Dillard, director of public affairs. "America first. It is a culture ingrained throughout the organization and one that our associates appreciate and embrace."
To create the list, Levering and Moskowitz surveyed 46,526 randomly selected employees from 304 candidate companies who filled out an employee opinion survey. Nearly half also gave written comments about their workplaces. Each candidate company also filled out a questionnaire detailing its people policies, practices, and philosophies. Companies were evaluated on both the employee surveys and the company questionnaires, with the employees' opinions being given two-thirds of the total score.
"The most important factor in selecting companies for this list is what employees themselves have to say about their workplaces," write Levering and Moskowitz.
"Overall," conclude Levering and Moskowitz, "Today's lesson is that perks are nice, but employees are looking for something more basic. They want to be told the truth, especially if the news is bad. They also want, corny as it sounds, to feel they make a difference and to be given a chance to grow."
Milliken has attributed much of its success to a quality process with associate involvement at all levels and its continuous education process, creating an environment that allows every associate to reach his or her full potential.
