Now in its 18th year, Fortune has teamed up with Great Place to Work Institute to produce the annual 100 Best Companies to Work For list. The results stem from employee surveys and responses on the Great Place to Work Institute’s Culture Audit. The deciding factors include associates’ attitudes, management’s credibility, job satisfaction, camaraderie, pay and benefit programs, hiring practices, methods of internal communication, training, recognition programs, social responsibility, and diversity efforts.
Out of 14 industries, the food industry locked in six spots on the list, including one in the top 10. Other food industry-related businesses made the cut as well, including QuikTrip convenience stores at No. 54 and The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated at No. 88. Let's take a look at Fortune’s selection of best places to work in the food industry, specifically in retail and manufacturing.
Wegmans (No. 7)
For the 18th consecutive year, Wegmans has found itself a place on Fortune’s list. This means the family-owned supermarket chain has ranked every year since the list’s inception in 1998, making it one of only 12 companies to do so. Wegmans climbed this year into the top 10 from its ranking at No. 12 last year. Just a few of the perks its 43,211 U.S. employees enjoy include six paid holidays, five paid vacation days, compressed work weeks, discounted gym memberships, and college tuition reimbursement. Consumer Reports rated Wegmans as America’s top grocery store in 2014.
Nugget Markets (No. 26)
Nugget Markets just misses out on the top 25 this year, but makes impressive 10-spot jump from being ranked No. 36 last year. The supermarket chain, also family-owned, can pride itself in this being its 10th year recognized as a great place to work. With another award to add to its trophy case, Nugget Markets proves that it still takes care of its employees nearly 90 years after the company’s founding. Like Wegmans, it too offers paid holidays and vacation time and its “high-energy culture” led to the creation of “Nugget High,” which sent managers back to school in an actual classroom setting to reinvigorate their leadership skills—and enjoy pizzas delivered to class.
Whole Foods Market (No. 55)
Whole Foods Market actually fell in rank from No. 44 last year, but, like Wegmans, it is also celebrating its 18th year on Fortune’s list. Whole Foods also offers compressed work weeks and discounted gym memberships as well as more than two weeks of general paid time off and a 20% discount on store purchases. That discount jumps to 30% if employees take part in a healthy lifestyles program with features like voluntary biometric screening. The health foods market chain employs nearly 77,000 people and received about 1,000,000 job applications last year. Clearly it’s no secret that Whole Foods is a great place to work.
General Mills (No. 80)
After nearly 150 years of business, General Mills isn’t dated in its strategies for employee retention, as the company keeps its full-time employee turnover at an impressively low 3% annually. More than half of its employees have worked for the company for a decade. What’s more, 3,500 employees out of a total 16,200 have been working for General Mills for more than two decades. General Mills’ secret sauce is in its promotion methods, which have been to find 80% of managers from its own employee pool. The company also offers every perk on Fortune’s list, from fully-paid sabbaticals and paid time off for volunteering to onsite fitness centers and medical care facilities.
Publix Super Markets (No. 81)
Publix Super Markets is yet another company from the food industry to be included for the 18th consecutive year. Publix has only a 5% turnover rate and filled just over 40% of its jobs internally last year. The company rewards its employees with thousands of service and performance awards, including recognizing 92 of its associates for service of 40 years or more in 2014.
Mars Inc. (No. 85)
For the third year in a row, Mars Inc. has been named to Fortune’s list thanks to high ratings from its “chocolate production team members,” as it calls the most common job position the company employs. In addition to enjoying coming to work, Mars employees enjoy 11 paid holidays, 15 paid vacation days and unlimited paid sick days — a huge perk and clear motivator for employees to play their part. Mars has proven to be a great company for employees throughout the world. Over the last year, Mars has received the Great Place to Work recognition in more than 20 countries, and it found a place on the Top 25 World’s Best Multinational Workplaces list for the fourth consecutive year.
While professional services and information technology companies commanded good portion of the list, the food industry proved it has plenty of companies that are great places to work.