Edward Jones finished No. 1 in Fortune magazine's annual list of the 100 Best Companies to Work for in America.
This is Jones’ fourth appearance on Fortune’s list, but its first No. 1 ranking.
Fortune’s Feb. 4 issue says 97 percent of Jones employees praise management's honesty and integrity. Moreover, despite difficult economic times, the firm had no layoffs.
John Bachmann, the firm’s managing partner, said that to be on the list of the “100 Best Companies to Work For” is an extraordinary honor, but to be at the top of the list is “beyond anything the firm could have imagined.”
Other financial firms that made the Top 100 include Goldman Sachs (19), Charles Schwab (46) and A.G. Edwards (67).
"Jones is a great place to work,” says a Jones rep in the Midwest. “I believe we’re the best firm out there because of our ethics and the fact that we always put the client first, regardless of the situation.”
“You couldn’t give me a $1 million to move from Jones,” says another Jones broker. “The firm is very supportive of everything you do and everything you want to do. If you need help with a sales idea or research, they’ll bend over backwards to get whatever you need. I've worked for two other firms, Merrill Lynch and Paine Webber, and this is the best of them all.”
Since 1980, Edward Jones has grown from 300 branch offices to nearly 8,000 offices today. The firm is hiring about 200 new reps each month with the goal of having 10,000 offices by 2003, according to the company. Overall, more than 25,000 people are employed by Edward Jones in the United States and its affiliates in Canada and the United Kingdom.
The Fortune 100 Best ranking is employee-driven, with two-thirds of the scoring based upon on how randomly-selected employees respond to an anonymous survey designed to measure the quality of workplace culture, the magazine says. The remainder of the score is based on an in-depth analysis of company culture and human resources practices and evaluates trust in management, pride in work and the company and camaraderie.