Despite the supposed “generation gap” that exists in the workforce, Gallup research has found that certain factors – such as management quality, compensation, quality team dynamics and career development – are valued equally across generations when it comes to prospective employers. 

For those differences that still exist, however – both in what these groups want and in how they search for jobs – here’s a breakdown of what to keep in mind when branding yourself to these various age groups.

MILLENIALS
Generation Y, or “the Millennials,” are people born roughly between 1982 and 2004.  The strongest defining characteristic of the Gen Y group is their technology-driven lives. 

What to Emphasize When Recruiting These Workers
Millenials get a bad rap for their supposed attitudes of entitlement, but they just want what any other worker wants – to be challenged and to do work they’re proud of. But because they lack the professional experience of their older counterparts, they might find themselves easily frustrated when relegated to menial ‘entry-level’ tasks.  For this reason, opportunities for rapid career advancement are very important for to generation, as well as good pay and benefits and great training programs, all characteristics shared by BusinessWeek’s Best Places to Launch a Career:

• Great pay and benefits: Last year, Deloitte, which boasts the top spot on BusinessWeek’s list, offered hiring bonuses to 90 percent of their new hires, for an average bonus of $5,102.  Additionally, it’s common practice for these ‘best places’ to offer tuition reimbursement, 401(k) options, flex time and paid time off.
• Top-notch training programs. Cisco Sytems’ new hire training program includes a week-long orientation with various managers across 30 departments, enabling new employees to then select which managers they would like as their own as part of a “matching program.” Because of this system, new hires enjoy an immediate sense of ownership in their new roles. It’s also probably why a remarkable 98 percent of new hires are still with Cisco after two years.
• Opportunities for rapid advancement: Every Ernst&Young employee participates in a formal mentoring program – perhaps helping to explain why most entry-level hires are eligible for a promotion and a raise within the first year.

Where to Find Them
Social networking is a part of this generation’s daily routine, so smart companies utilize various social networking sites to get in front of these candidates – using these platforms to post jobs, informational videos, podcasts and content, as well as interact with job seekers.  (Learn about how Deloitte uses social media for both recruiting and retention purposes.)

Offline, these companies make use of their partnerships with college campuses.  In 2008-2009, for example, Teach for America recruited on 471 undergrad campuses and made job offers on 379 of them.

GENERATION X
Born between 1965 and 1980, Gen X tend to be skeptical, pragmatic and practical, self-reliant, independent and individualistic, according to PsychologyToday. Like Gen Y, they are well-versed in technology, but have a few years of professional experience behind them, as well.

What to Emphasize When Recruiting These Workers

• Stability: This generation is attracted to companies with strong portfolios, plans for the future, and proven longevity.
• Corporate culture: Gen X thrives on diversity, responsibility, honesty and creative input. They like a casual, friendly work environment, seek challenge, involvement and flexible learning arrangements.
• Work-life balance and flexible work arrangements: Many are working parents, so they seek assistance from their employers to care for both growing children and aging parents.

Where to Find Them
Generation X is more likely to use job boards, professional or trade association Web sites or visit individual company Web sites to search for jobs than Gen Y, as well as tap into their networks of friends, family and former colleagues. That said, it’s important that you not only communicate the benefits of working at your company clearly, but that you do so continuously, in order to maintain brand awareness.

BABY BOOMERS
Born between 1946 and1964, the Baby Boomer work ethic is characterized by dedication, loyalty and a willingness to stay in the same job for a long time. They have a lot to offer businesses with their work and life experience, skills and knowledge that many younger people can’t offer. They tend to work longer hours – and respect is paramount when managing a Baby Boomer.

What to Emphasize When Recruiting These Workers
Money is not necessarily the most important factor for seniors. Raised with a strong work ethic, these workers enjoy recognition and support for their efforts. Because they’re also thinking toward the end of their career, retirement benefits and flexible work arrangements are important to them. Focus on the following aspects of your company when talking to these workers:

• Recognition programs
• Health and retirement benefits
• Flexible work arrangements (such as flexible scheduling, job-sharing, and phased retirement)

Where to Find Them
Cornell University, AARP’s Best Employer for Workers Over 50, uses placement agencies for older job seekers to successfully target mature workers and retirees.  In addition, Cornell recruits from within its own ranks of retirees through the Cornell Retiree Association and the Cornell Association of Professors Emeriti. First Horizon, another ‘Best Employer’ on AARP’s list, also uses placement agencies for older job seekers and draws on a relationship it has cultivated with Senior Services of Memphis to locate and attract mature workers and retirees.

Keep in mind that, as noted above, certain qualities will always be attractive to job seekers, no matter what age group, and that no matter what, a cross-channel recruiting campaign – one that utilizes both online and offline resources – will give you the best chance for reaching the greatest pool of candidates.

1.  They’re not afraid to relinquish a little control. Despite reports that over half of employers still ban social networking at work, companies who’ve embraced it have found tremendous reward in enabling employees to use social media. Zappos was one of the first companies to embrace social media, giving employees the freedom to use Twitter.  The strategy has worked well for the online shoe retailer: By enabling employees to talk freely about their jobs, new products, or other interesting aspects of company life, they’ve effectively made their employees into brand advocates, and created buzz about being a great place to work. More recently, Whole Foods has taken a similar approach to social media, believing that letting individual employees’ personalities shine through is essential to for social media to work well and engage people.
2. They embrace new media as a recruiting tool. Staffing firm Kelly Services, a 2008 Best Place to Work in Western Pa., created a virtual community in Second Life to provide job seekers with an interactive experience to see what it’s like to work for Kelly. It has also helped to create buzz about Kelly and differentiate the firm from its competitors. For much the same reason, staffing firm Spherion decided to leverage the current popularity of viral video when it created its Web series, “The Temp Life.”  Seems to be working: the 17-episode series is clearly resonating with audiences, with over 1 million views to date.
3. They embrace new media as an engagement tool. IBM did it with Beehive. Best Buy did it with Blue Shirt Nation.  Now, companies of every size are utilizing online social communities for internal purposes - engaging employees and keeping them informed of important company news, events and projects. Over 50,000 companies worldwide, including Fox and Adobe use microblogging site Yammer, while companies like Starbucks and Pepsico have found success with cfactor’s “enterprise social networking” solution.  
4. They think outside the Facebooks. Overwhelmed by the sheer volume of users on Facebook, Twitter and other social media giants? Think “niche.” That’s what Seattle-based Tableau Software did recently when it needed a Web developer with extensive knowledge of Drupal:  the company’s recruiters began surfing social networking sites that catered to Drupal enthusiasts, where they eventually found their new hire.
5. They ask for employee feedback (and actually listen to it).  Feedback from Aetna’s employee surveys – administered regularly to enable employees to voice their thoughts about how the company is doing and where there is room for improvement – led to the establishment of Aetna’s current recognition program, The Aetna Way Excellence Awards, according to CEO Ronald Williams in an interview for our Leadership Series. Leadership recognized that employees wanted more company-wide recognition events, so they delivered. “That whole program came about as a result of employees’ suggestions that came through the survey,” Williams said.
6. They work in partnership with Human Resources. “People decisions are some of the most important decisions I make, so I make those decisions in collaboration with my HR partners,” says Stryker CEO Steve MacMillan in a recent interview with CareerBuilder. “Responsibility for our people may be a human resources function, but we all manage it together.” It’s no accident that Stryker is a three-time winner of the “Gallup Great Place to Work Award,” in addition to other best place to work honors.  
7. They actively encourage learning and development. Smart companies know the power of providing opportunities for professional development and personal growth in helping to retain top talent.  Spectrum Health does both: The company’s relationship with University of Michigan provides opportunities for leadership members to gain experience in project-based work. And its EXCEL Professional Development Model program recognizes and provides monetary awards for nursing staff for academic and professional accomplishments, as well as community service.

What about you? What particular practices make your organization a best place to work?

A strong proponent of meaningful health care reform, Mr. Williams has championed specific solutions in op-ed articles featured in The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and The Financial Times, and he lends his time and expertise to a number of organizations, including the Business Council as vice chairman and the Council for Affordable Quality Healthcare, which he currently chairs. Ron talks to CareerBuilder about the power of employee suggestions, how leaders play a critical role in employee engagement, how he focuses on driving home diversity in the organization, and more.

What is your philosophy as far as the role people play in your organization?

At Aetna, we have a set of values we call The Aetna Way. The values really start with putting the people who use our services at the center of what we do. We maintain an intense focus on employee engagement because it is so fundamental and critical to our success. As a service business, we are what our employees do. You cannot go into any store in America, and buy one Aetna off the shelf – it doesn’t exist. So our employees have to internalize the importance of their role in living our values and meeting our customers’ needs.  One way we measure how we’re doing in this area is through an annual employee survey. This year, 94 percent of our 36,000 employees completed the survey, which is an extraordinary response rate.  Through the survey they are able to tell us what they think is working well and where there is room for improvement.

Can you give an example of an instance where an employee suggested an improvement for the company that you implemented and some effects you saw from that?

One great example is that employees felt we should have company-wide recognition events. So we established The Aetna Way Excellence Awards to recognize employee excellence in living our values and meeting the needs of our customers.  The awards are especially meaningful, because winners are nominated by their peers. Last year we had nearly 4,000 employees nominated for silver awards, the first level of awards. From that group of winners, we selected about 35 to 40 gold award winners, who went onto the Platinum awards or highest level of award, where roughly 10 individuals were recognized as the very best examples of the values of the company. That whole program came about as a result of employees suggestions that came through the survey.

How do you ensure that employee engagement starts from day one and continues through the 10, 15, 20 years they might spend with your company?

Our leaders play a critical role in employee engagement. We have a set of leadership expectations that lays out core behaviors, including the expectation that leaders will communicate, communicate, communicate.  A big part of their regular communication is to help transmit the culture and the values of the company. For example, we put new leaders through a first impressions orientation program where a senior officer, like myself, the president of the company, the CFO or our head of human resources, will go in and talk with them to make certain that they understand the culture at Aetna, how seriously we take our values, and the expectations we have for them as leaders in fostering employee engagement.

What is your set of values composed of?

It has four values. The first is integrity, which is about both what you do and what you don’t do. And we talk a lot about how we honor our commitments, behave ethically and do the right thing for the right reasons.. The second value is employee engagement, which we describe as leading people to success, valuing diversity and building confidence and pride in our company. The third value is excellence and accountability.  It is doing what we say we are going to do when we say we are going to do it. The final value is really about quality service and value. Quality is so important in health care because most members presume that they are going to receive quality, but in reality, they may or may not. So we focus a lot on quality as one of the core values in our organization.

How do you engage different members of your organization?

One of the goals of an executive is to define reality for the organization, and to help the organization confront that reality quickly and effectively, and at the same time inspire managers and employees that these challenges can, in fact, be addressed. To give you an example, as I moved around the business community in the last half of 2008, it became clear that businesses were facing very substantial economic challenges. When our service team met with the benefit executives in our client organizations, they were not yet feeling a lot of that tension in their organization at that level. But when you talk to many executive leaders, they were clearly sharing their anxiety about how they saw the second half shaping up. So as the leader of the organization it is my job to define that reality, bring that reality back into the organization and say, “You may not yet be seeing what will be happening, but it is going to happen.  We have to prepare for it happening,” and develop the next set of products that will be responsive to where our customers are going as opposed to where they are today.

Who or what has made the biggest impact in how you lead or interact with people?

I’ve been fortunate because I’ve worked for a lot of great executives in my career. One of the things I’ve always done is learn from everyone. And you can learn from the people that you work for, you can learn from the people you work with, you can learn from the people who work for you, and you can learn from people who you run into in different walks of life. I think I have always been receptive to learning from others. And I’m fortunate in that I never believed that I had to make every mistake in order to learn. So I’ve been quite willing to take advice and counsel from others, and seek advice and counsel to help me solve important issues.

Do you have any sort of formal mechanism for exchanging dialogue with people of your organization?

I make it a point to send every person who reaches a certain milestone with the company a personal letter of appreciation. We also can find people who have done extraordinary things. Often, we will get letters from customers singling people out and expressing appreciation. Whenever possible, I pay them a visit at their desk and thank them for what they have done.

How do you convey your employment brand, and how attractive it is to be a member of your organization, to those people who aren’t yet members?

As a company, it is important to us to be viewed as a thought leader and organization that is both innovative as well as active in certain public policy debates. I think people want to join organizations they think are leaders, have good values, and value diversity. One of the things that we do as an organization is value diversity, both in the traditional sense of gender, ethnicity, religion, sexual preference, disability, et cetera, as well as diversity of ideas and approaches to solving problems. And I think that makes us an attractive destination for talent.

Aside from actively speaking about how you drive diversity home in all areas within your organization, how else are you getting that message out?

I think it starts with our own internal behavior. For example, we have a diversity committee within the company, and I chair that committee. And that [idea of] diversity is not only about the people who work here; it is about the business partnerships that we have, it’s about the health care delivery systems that we build, and it’s about the business professionals that we do business with, whether they are lawyers or other types of experts. Demonstrating, through the actions we take, that we are an organization that values diversity speaks infinitely louder than words.

Where do you think there is room to grow and improve your current diversity efforts or convey the benefits of your employment brand?

Like many companies, as we grow in different geographies, it is important that our recruitment is reflective of those communities. So as we grow in communities that perhaps have a larger Asian population, it’s important to make certain we are recruiting and developing talent from that community, and as we grow in communities that have more of a Hispanic presence, that we are reflective of those communities as well. Our goal is to be reflective of the communities that we serve at all levels of the organization. And to make certain that as we develop the next generation of leaders in the company, we continue to make progress on developing a very diverse group of executives.

Answer: Jon and Kate, “exclusive” Today Show interviews with Jackson family members, skinny jeans, and the recession.

Thankfully, with both Susan Boyle and the U.S. economy showing signs of recovery, we might be able to knock one of these annoyances off the list soon.  (Maybe even two…if Matt Lauer would ever read his e-mail…) 

According to the latest report from New York-based Conference Board, U.S. economic activity was higher than expected last month, marking the third straight monthly increase for the Board’s index of economic indicators.   Americans can “expect a slow recovery this autumn” if these conditions continue, Conference Board economist Ken Goldstein told the AP.

By slow, of course, he means that while the economy is certainly stabilizing and may see slight growth in Q4, employers who have had to freeze or slow down their hiring over the past several months may not find themselves in a position to hire again or create new positions until 2010. 

…Which is cool, because employers and hiring managers have plenty to keep them busy in the meantime. After all, even during a downturn, recruiters and hiring managers still need to think about recruiting and employment branding.  Or, more specifically:

• Focusing on strengthening your employment brand - The efforts organizations make now to build their brand and market themselves as employers of choice will determine their success for recruiting and retaining top talent later on.  With fewer businesses recruiting, employers enjoy greater opportunity to increase their visibility with candidates, giving them a competitive edge when they need to quickly attract talent later on.  
• Focusing on strengthening your internal employment brand – With research showing that 54 percent of employed American plan to look for a new job once the economy rebounds, you want to make sure you do everything you can to make sure you’re part of that other 46 percent, and hold on to the talent you have. Take a cue from the best companies to work for in America and work to build trust with your employees, who – let’s be honest – are ultimately the reason your organization has weathered this recession.
• Looking for opportunities to make your recruiting process more efficient - Now more than ever, the pressure is on for staffing and human resource professionals to create and maintain the most efficient recruiting strategy. You want to be sure you’re putting your recruiting dollars to the most efficient use possible to acquire talent. This means not just looking at your own metrics, but comparing your recruiting process to that of your competitors (a task you can outsource) – which will help you identify which stage of your process you need to work on in order to increase your ROI.

Recruitment will play a major part in any organization’s ability to keep up once the economy begins to recover and business picks up again.  While the U.S. economy still has a long road ahead of it on the way to full recovery, it becomes more important that companies consider their long-term strategies for growth.  Organizations will find themselves with the need to staff up quickly to meet increasing demands, and those who prepare now to recruit the best candidates in the industry will have the greatest competitive edge.

Similarly, hiring isn’t simply posting a job and accepting the first person who comes along. Successful employers view hiring as a multi-faceted process — stemming from attraction all the way to retention, with several aspects in between. As an employer in today’s economy, you must be cognizant of changing job seeker practices, communicative during your candidate engagement efforts, active in encouraging employee satisfaction and retention — all while establishing and building a strong and recognizable brand and fostering a thriving internal company culture. (Whew!) There’s a lot involved in being a successful business with the best employees on board, and sometimes, you need a hand to help you brush up on those areas which you’ve neglected — or simply haven’t thought about before.

That’s why we’re happy to report that CareerBuilder’s Small Business Hiring Guide is now available for you to download (for FREE… we must be crazy, right?!).

What is it?

The Small Business Hiring Guide is a how-to guide full of advice, tips, and trends, compiled  by CareerBuilder’s team of small business experts. It is designed to keep you up-to-date and armed with the latest on hiring so that you can make your most successful hires now — or whenever you’re ready.

In the guide, you will learn:

• How to improve your internal company culture
• Tips to strengthen your employment brand
• The importance of employee recognition
• The six essential steps of the Talent Supply Chain: Brand Establishment, Candidate Attraction, Application Management, Onboarding, Retention, and Succession Management
• …and more.

You can download the full guide here.

1. Motivate - Ultimate Software (ranked #1) CEO Scott Scherr motivates the team with frequent company and department get-togethers, where he highlights various team successes. He’s also known for using sports imagery to communicate his belief that a unified team is a powerful one:  All of his employees have a copy of former NBA coach Pat Riley’s book Winner Within: A Life Plan for Team Players, and former MLB pitcher Leiter is an official company spokesperson, often attending employee meetings to share his techniques for handling high-pressure situations.
2. Empower - Rothstein Kass’ (#23) Alumni Program is evidence of its dedication to providing support to employees even after they’ve left the company.  Employees have instant access to resources meant to facilitate their career development both during and after their experience at the company.  The company’s specially created career-building opportunities for employees and our alumni include networking events, social activities, career guidance, technical training and access to firm publications and other resources.
3. Listen – At Robins & Morton (#17), all employees have a say in their day-to-day and long-term goals and responsibilities.  Each employee works with his or her manager to develop a set of jointly agreed upon Performance Standards, reflecting the job responsibilities of their specific assignment, to be reviewed at the end of a given evaluation period.
4. Thank - Advanced Financial Services (#19) shows its employees appreciation during a special breakfast ceremony twice a year, where the company honors those employees celebrating 10-, 15- and 20-year milestones with customized gifts, which in the past have included: a kayak, a high-powered laptop, a flat screen television, and a fantasy day at Fenway Park, a trip to Paradise Island in the Bahamas, and a John Deere lawn tractor.
5. Develop – Hoar Construction, LLC (#8) proved its commitment to its employees’ professional and personal development when it established Hoar University, where instructors are experienced experts from outside the company, and each employee follows a custom job-related curriculum to develop their skills and work smarter.  Employees also build personal skills through electives such as stress management, time management, negotiation, public speaking and presentation skills.
6. Care – Meanwhile, Hilcorp Energy Company (#15) encourages a culture of giving by supporting our employees’ charitable efforts by initially funding their giving with $2,500, allowing them the freedom to direct their donations to the organizations they choose, and increasing their giving power by providing on-going matching gifts up to $1,000 per year. We’ve designed this program to promote each individual employee’s ideals.
7. Celebrate - At Triage Consulting Group (#11), no personal milestone goes unrecognized. That includes baby showers, engagement parties, home purchases, anniversaries and athletic feats in addition to birthdays, all of which are recorded in company newsletters.  Personal and professional accomplishments are also recognized every year through song and video at the annual company meeting, State of Triage. 
8. Share –ACUITY (#2) puts an emphasis on internal communication. Parts of the its “all-out effort to keep every employee informed and up to date,” (as stated in its online brochure) effort include publishing an employee newsletter, an Open Door policy, town hall meetings, lunches with executives and an employee self-service Web site.

Of course, these are just a handful of the things companies – of every size – are doing to give their employees meaningful experiences and make their companies best places to work. 

What about you? What are some of the things you’re doing to make your company a best place to work? Feel free to share in the comments section below!

While talking about how a company becomes a best place to work is not a new topic to The Hiring Site, Burchell was able to share some enlightening tips.

Burchell started his presentation saying that any company could be a best place to work – regardless of industry, employee demographics or work status. Through his company’s 20 years of research on this topic, Burchell found the one thing all these companies have in common: Trust…These companies are all places where employees “trust the people they work for, have pride in what they do, and enjoy the people they work with.”

The Three Components of Trust:

1. The relationship between employees and management.
2. The relationship between employees and their jobs/company (pride).
3. The relationship between employees and other employees (camaraderie).

Building this kind of trust enables companies to reap positive business benefits and increased productivity through increased caliber of employees, increased quality of products and increased levels of risk taking and innovation.  It’s an investment, but a worthwhile one.

Having this kind of trust also decreases costs by lowering turnover (best companies typically have a voluntary turnover of 9% or less) and lowering  resistance to change.  Surprisingly, it also lowers health care costs: Employees who feel trusted – and trust their companies in return – tend to have healthier lives outside of work because they leave work at work, leaving them with more to give to their personal life (family and community). This also means that when they are at work, they show up because they want to and are ready to contribute. (Bonus!)

Building Trust
Trust between employee and company (and vice versa) begins during the pre-hire stage; although the treatment employees get on their first day of work really sets the stage for future trust. Employees who feel welcomed and appreciated generally foster a genuine level of trust much faster than those employees who are just shown to a desk to begin working right away. Makes sense, right? You’d be surprised how many companies overlook these little details. Burchell continued by saying that employees who have the opportunity to interact with senior leadership very close to their hire date are better informed and feel true value and connection immediately.

Best Companies to Work For also…

• Motivate
• Empower
• Listen
• Thank
• Develop
• Care
• Celebrate  
• Share

Common Benefits that Best Companies to Work For Offer:

• Job sharing
• Telecommuting
• Compressed work weeks
• Flexible scheduling
• Phased retirement
• Paid sabbaticals
• Child services
• Dry cleaning
• On-site mailing
• Free beverages or snacks
• Personal travel experience

And while this list of perks is impressive in and of itself, what truly makes the difference is how the company communicates these employee benefits, supports them and enables employees to take advantage of them.

The Hidden Benefit to Being  a Best Place to Work
Earlier, I mentioned the benefits a company gains by striving to be a best place to work – such as higher productivity and profitability - but there’s also this other (kind of huge) perk: Once word gets out that your company is a great place to work, you’ll really start to see more qualified applicants applying to your open positions.  I’m talking about people who understand your company’s unique culture and want to be a part of it because they feel a connection to your values. 

2009’s Best Small Company to Work for in America, Badger Mining, was also present at today’s session and commented on how “they hire for potential and character based upon a match with their company’s culture. People are trainable, but soft skills are the true foundation.” Go here to learn even more about what makes Badger Mining the 2009 Best Small Company to Work for in America.

Managing Trust in Today’s Challenging Economy
Burchell wrapped up his session by with the following insights into becoming a best place to work in our present economic situation:

• Layoffs need to be a company’s last resort.
• Survivor guilt lowers company productivity.
• If your company does have layoffs, turnover will be higher when the economy turns around. You must plan ahead for this.
• Continually communicate about the state of the business.
• Focus on team building and community building.
• Manage talent wisely.
• Now is the time to start recruiting and building a qualified bench of talent again.
• Pay attention to your high performers.

While much of this information may not seem new, it is wonderful to see so many companies really trying to step up their game to become a best place to work. To see the full list of the 50 Best Small and Medium Employers to Work for in America, revealed today and SHRM, and the details around this contest, go here.

Remember, employees are your greatest asset. If you build around this model, everyone benefits. Hiring gets easier. Top talent is retained. Production increases. Profits grow. Build a best place to work and you build a foundation for ongoing success.

Explore our previous Building the Best Place to Work article series to gain insights on our five basic building blocks and other tips for creating the best working place. As always, we welcome your feedback in the comments section of this post. Tell us more about your own hiring and employee engagement experiences.

With this in mind, Apartments.com and CBcampus have provided results for the second annual Top Ten Best Cities for Recent College Graduates.

“Given the current economy, new grads looking to relocate are becoming increasingly concerned with the cost of living as they are faced with more competition for jobs than seen in previous years,” said Tammy Kotula, public relations and promotions manager at Apartments.com.

The results were based on three criteria:

1. Number of entry-level job openings
2. Cost of rent
3. Population of young adults

As it’s important for job seekers to understand their best living options, it is also important for employers to know where their city stacks up in the job atmosphere — and be aware of their competition in attracting top job seekers not only to their city, but to their company as well.

So… did your city make the list?

See the full list here.

What is it about your company that makes you stand apart in today’s workplace? A creative and nurturing environment? Pingpong tables? An amazing health plan? Unlimited coffee refills? Diversity initiatives? Lunchtime yoga sessions? We want to know.

Threadless, a community-based apparel store, was recently named one of Chicago’s coolest offices by Crain’s Chicago Business. In the video below, Bob Nanna, promotions coordinator for Threadless/skinnyCorp, talks about what makes the Threadless office a little bit different. See the video

Amid changes in our economy, plenty of innovative companies are pushing forward and staying one giant step ahead of their competition by dreaming up new and exciting ways to attract – and keep – employees.

And we think that’s pretty cool

With all of this in mind, I looked at Fortune’s separate list of the Most Admirable Companies for managing talent to see what they’re doing right with regards to these elements, and how the combination invariably leads to continued success.

Medco Health Solutions – With a true commitment to diversity, Medco pledges to “hire the best people; foster a work environment that allows them to achieve their full potential; support them through training and job flexibility; and treat everyone with dignity and respect,” according to its Web site.  Medco even employs a Diversity Lead, its vice president of human resources, to oversee its diversity program, which includes a mentoring program and women’s leadership initiative.   Add to all that a work-at-home program and employee training and development offerings, and it’s easy to see how this company topped Fortune’s list.

Walt Disney – Any company that recognizes that its employees are the ones who “make the magic happen” is alright in my book.  And Disney seeks to create an employee experience that mimics its brands: “innovative, entertaining and inviting.”  Disney’s commitment to its employees is evidenced by its vast array of perks, which range from practical – such as health benefits, tuition reimbursement, childcare centers, credit unions, and a stock purchase program – to more playful – including complimentary theme park passports, contests, product discounts, and service awards. 

Herman Miller – Consistently and widely honored for its commitment to environmental and social responsibility, innovation and performance, Herman Miller seems to excel at everything it undertakes, and talent management is no exception. Both Fortune and the Great Place to Work Institute have honored Herman Miller with “Best Place to Work” and “Great Place to Work” distinctions, respectively.  In addition to offering a suh-weet benefits package and competitive compensation, the company recognizes the importance of integrity and trust within each and every employee, so much so that it lists these qualities first among the “core skills and behaviors” it looks for in candidates.

General Electric – Recognizing that “imagination at work” isn’t possible without the contribution of ideas from all walks of life, GE makes no small effort to recruit and retain a diversified workforce. The company has various career development networks in place to cultivate the advancement of women and the African American, Asian Pacific American, Hispanic, and gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities. And with an innovative program that supports employees deployed overseas with the military, GE sets itself apart as a company truly committed to leadership development among its employees.  In addition to these and the volunteer and philanthropic opportunities it affords its workforce, GE also makes known the pride the company takes in individual employees’ accomplishments outside of work as well.

Procter & Gamble – The first indication that P&G wants its employees to succeed?  Look at the time and energy the company puts into its Web site’s careers section, which contains everything one needs to know about working there, from a career advice center, to a step-by-step guide to its unique hiring process, to virtual company tours and employee testimonials.  P&G strives to ensure that would-be employees understand the company structure, culture and cause so they can align their own interests, skills and experience with those elements when they apply for positions.