Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 4, 1993 TAG: 9306040109
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ST. LOUIS LENGTH: Medium
Cutthroat stockbrokers may be right at home at most firms. But at A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc., the trading is done with a smile.
The St. Louis-based securities brokerage, the largest outside of New York, is "Wall Street without the rat race," say the authors of a book that named A.G. Edwards among the nation's 100 best places to work.
Robert Levering and Milton Moskowitz set out 10 years ago to find America's most congenial workplaces. They revised the list for the second edition of "The 100 Best Places to Work in America."
At a time of layoffs, job burnout and soaring employee health costs, they were surprised to find a growing number of "best" companies from which to choose.
"The 100 companies profiled in this book may account for only a small fraction of the total U.S. work force, but as exemplars they represent a growing force," they wrote. "They are magnets for people looking for meaningful work. They are models for companies trying to get it right."
Levering and Moskowitz weighed such factors as pay and benefits, opportunities for advancement, job security, company pride and friendly relations among colleagues.
They reviewed 400 companies, visiting each to interview employees from the assembly line to the chief executive's office. The 100 finalists were not ranked.
When Levering visited A.G. Edwards, he found employees who clearly were having fun - wisecracking and joking - sometimes a foreign concept in the serious world of stockbrokers.
"It seems silly, but if we dedicate our lives and savings to make a company good, we ought to at least enjoy it," said Chairman Ben Edwards, who took over the firm from his father in the late 1960s.
Founded in 1887 by Edwards' great-grandfather, the brokerage employs 9,446 people with 25 percent of the work force based in St. Louis. It has brokers in cities in 48 states, including, of course, Carefree, Ariz.
Some employees of A.G. Edwards' Roanoke office agreed with the book's assessment.
"After all these years with Edwards, I am still amazed how well it works," said Robert H. Kulp, vice president and branch manager.
"The quality of the people in St. Louis headquarters that work for us in the branches, the fact that the profit centers are the branches and not various departments in headquarters are the key to this," he said.
"A.G. Edwards provides a personal service not always found in this day and age," said Drue Cass, a broker sales assistant. "Our customers are almost like family, proving that the customer can still come first.
"In the short time I've been with AGE," Cass added, "I've been made to feel very welcome - from the home office as well as here in Roanoke. Employees are treated with the same courtesies as our clients."
Cass said she has a basis for comparison because she has worked for several major corporations in various parts of the country.
Richard Wertz, a Roanoke investment broker with Edwards since 1974, said he has worked with people in St. Louis from clerks to the head of the company "and I have never met a nicer, more professional group.
Frank S. Hancock, an investment broker in the Roanoke office, said he considers A.G. Edwards "the best firm on the street - because management has complete trust in their brokers, and the brokers completely trust management."
"Management is truly concerned about their brokers," Hancock said.
Hershey Foods Corp., based in Hershey, Pa., and the operator of a chocolate plant at Stuarts Draft and a pasta plant at Winchester, got high marks for fostering community spirit and corporate pride.
One of the first stops on the company tour for new employees is the Milton Hershey School, which cares for 1,150 students who were orphaned or born into troubled homes.
The school is the company's largest stockholder, controlling 77 percent of the voting shares, so employees know the dividends are going directly to care for disadvantaged children.
Patagonia Inc., a sports equipment company in Ventura, Calif., made the list because of its free spirit and dedication to play. Patagonia's 425 employees are encouraged to follow their outdoor obsessions, like rock climbing sabbaticals and surfing lunches.
Company officials say it makes no sense to hire surfers, kayakers and mountain climbers and keep them cooped up indoors.
"It's a great place to work," said employee Jeannie Wall, an Olympic hopeful in Alpine skiing. "There's a lot of flexibility and people who share the same passion and sense of adventure."
Staff writer Mag Poff contributed to this story.
by CNB