Secrets of Six Superstar Employers

Cryptography Research Inc.
Year started: 1995
Employees: 25
Employees lost last year: 1
Average length of employment: 4.5 years

Competing for highly talented employees in the tech hub of San Francisco, Cryptography Research accounts only four employees lost in its 13 years of business. President and chief scientist Paul Kocher says it's because the company's technologists focus on solving problems, not on dealing with internal bureaucracy.

The data security company has a flat management structure, where employees can see their contributions, and are continually challenged by Cryptography's fraud-busting projects. With large bonuses, full benefits, public transportation and even occasional company trips to Hawaii and Lake Tahoe, employees are generously rewarded.

	Cryptography Research

Wheeler Interests
Year started: 1999
Employees: 34
Employees lost last year: 1
Average length of employment: 3 years At Wheeler Interests, a real estate management company, employees can work anytime between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m. and have unlimited vacation and sick days. "As long as they get their work done or delegate it out appropriately, we trust them to make the best decision regarding their time off," says CEO Jon Wheeler.

Headquartered in Virginia Beach, the nine-year-old company is designed to keep employees happy, with natural light in each office, ergonomic furniture and free healthy catered lunches twice a week. Wheeler also plans to build a dock behind its building on the Lynnhaven Tributary to provide kayaks for employees anytime they need a break.

Caring for employees is one of the company's core values, and according to Wheeler, being a smaller company has its perks. "We make decisions quickly and implement change easily, which gives us a greater chance of retaining employees by heading off a problem at an early stage."

	Wheeler Interests

Quality Float Works Inc.
Year started: 1915
Employees: 27
Employees lost last year: 1
Average length of employment: 10 years

In business for 93 years, Quality Float Works of Schaumburg, Illinois, has an outstanding record of employee retention. "One of the challenges facing manufacturing is the lack of a skilled work force," says Sandra Westlund-Deenihan, CEO of the hollow metal float ball manufacturer. She offers benefits like health care, a 401(k), summer flex hours, free haircuts once a month and gym memberships.

Westlund-Deenihan also believes in treating employees like family. She provided personal loans to workers who made poor lending decisions, and she's considering paying for summer camp for employees' children as well as setting up an education fund for employees with newborns.

"Larger companies, especially those that are going overseas, have lost the concept of taking care of people," says Westlund-Deenihan. "Lean manufacturing refers to process, not people."

	Quality Float Works