Secrets of Six Superstar Employers

Written by Francine Kizner

Finding and keeping top-notch employees is a challenge for any business, but smaller-sized companies have the advantage of treating employees like family, offering innovative perks and maintaining a workplace where each employee feels he or she contributes to the bottom line.

These six companies go way beyond the free snacks in the office to show that whether your employees are factory workers or computer coders, you can become a superstar employer who offers competitive company perks.

PreEmptive Solutions
Year started: 1996
Employees: 26
Employees lost last year: 2
Average length of employment: 3 years

PreEmptive Solutions, a Cleveland, Ohio-based software developer, recruits top tech talent from Silicon Valley. But the company isn't all business all the time. CEO Gabriel Torok hosts "Microbrew Fridays," where employees can sample different beers and play Guitar Hero video game challenges.

Torok keeps his employees challenged daily and recognizes their contributions in monthly supervisory meetings. Employees also participate in "forum groups," tackling specific projects like improving the office environment.

"Talented employees have many options," says Gabriel Torok, CEO of the fast-growing company. "They must feel like they contribute to a larger vision [and] enjoy the quick pace of an entrepreneurial venture."

	PreEmptive Solutions

Shazaaam! LLC
Year started: 2001
Employees: 11 full-time and 7 part-time employees
Employees lost last year: 1
Average length of employment: 5 years

Adrienne Lenhoff Wise started her Southfield, Michigan-based marketing communications firm to surround herself with people she wanted to work with on a daily basis. Almost seven years after founding Shazaaam! LLC, she's built a team-oriented company where employees have an ownership mentality and a solid work ethic.

Taking on cross-training, multiple disciplines and brainstorming, employees feel integrated into the company's success. Lenhoff Wise supports them with benefits like child day care, company outings and a fully stocked kitchen where employees create the shopping list. Bonus accounts are also reserved for fun perks like manicures and concert tickets, or basic necessities like oil changes.

Says Lenhoff Wise, "We try to be as creative as possible and offer perks that will excite our employees and create an environment they'll love working in."

	Shazaaam!

Skyline Construction
Year started: 1996
Employees: 65
Employees lost last year: 2
Average length of employment: 5 years

Skyline Construction is one of the few companies in the U.S. that uses a 100% employee stock ownership program, according to David Hayes, CEO of the construction firm that focuses on green building. The San Francisco-based company also has an open-book management style, in which employees have full access to the company's numbers and information, including personal and group performance and customer feedback -- an unusual practice for a construction company.

From gym memberships, car allowances, performance bonuses and paid education plans to letting sales and project management staff set their own salaries -- between $100,000 and $150,000 -- Hayes says his competitive advantage is creating the company's ownership culture.

"Great pride takes over knowing you are responsible for what happens here, not just the CEO, president or CFO," Hayes says. "It creates tremendous peer pressure to perform on all levels."

	Skyline Construction