Fortune Names Cisco a “Best Company to Work For"

For the 10th year in a row, Cisco has been named one of The 100 Best Companies to Work For in the U.S by Fortune Magazine. Cisco catapulted up the ranking to number 11 for 2007 from number 25 in 2006, making the company the largest technology employer in the top 20.

Among large companies (with more than 10,000 employees), Cisco placed third among 39, behind the grocery chains Wegmans and Whole Foods Markets.

Cisco Is an All Star

Cisco is one of only three high-tech companies named to Fortune's All Star list, a compilation of 18 companies that have appeared on the 100 Best Companies to Work For list every year since its inception in 1998. Cisco was also one of 10 companies lauded for having the lowest employee turnover during the 12-month period surveyed.

"Our employees are the foundation of the company's innovation. It's clear that Cisco's inclusion on Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For list is a strong indication of the passion our employees feel for their work,” says Brian Schipper, SVP, Human Resources. "The fact that Cisco has been on the list for all 10 years indicates that this is a place to build long, successful careers."

Many factors went into the Fortune ranking. More than 400 Cisco employees were randomly selected to fill out a 57-question survey compiled by the Great Place to Work Institute in San Francisco . Results from the survey, which asked about job satisfaction, attitudes toward management, and camaraderie within the organization, account for two-thirds of the overall score.

The remaining third comes from the Great Place to Work Institute's evaluation of the company's responses to a Culture Audit, which includes detailed questions about demographic makeup, pay, and benefits programs, and open-ended questions about the company's people-management philosophy, internal communications, development opportunities, compensation practices, and diversity programs.

Fortune also credited Cisco's business success as being one reason for its high ranking, specifically mentioning that John Chambers managed the company through the dot-com bubble burst to achieve record sales and a 60 percent increase in stock prices for 2006. The article mentioned that almost all employees are shareholders.

More than 1,500 companies applied for a place on the 2007 list. The Great Place to Work Institute considered m ore than 446 companies for the top 100.