Best workplaces: Outside magazine says 23 of top 50 are in Colorado. »
Nearly half the businesses on Outside magazine’s latest list of the 50 best places in the country to work, and five of the top 10, are in Colorado.
Of the 23 Colorado companies, many aren’t the sort traditionally considered outdoorsy: financial advisers, public relations and marketing, and digital advertising. In fact, the top Colorado business that comes in at No. 3 is an accounting firm. That’s right, these aren’t your parents’ accountants.
The magazine released “The 50 Best Places to Work in 2018” on Thursday. In addition to the 23 businesses that made the cut, another 21 Colorado workplaces received honorable mentions.
California was a distant second on the list with seven businesses. The only other states with multiple representatives were Minnesota with three, and Indiana and Florida with two each.
Outside looks at a company’s culture, including whether it helps employees strike a good balance between work and taking time to enjoy the outdoors and the company’s commitment to the environment and giving back to the community. This is the 11th year the magazine has compiled the list.
“Companies from across the country entered a rigorous twopart survey process to make the winning list,” Abigail Wise, Outside online managing editor, said in a statement. “Employees took part in a survey to measure personal experience, while The Best Companies Group evaluated each company’s workplace policies, practices, philosophy, systems and demographics.”
Colorado’s bestranked business was Whipplewood CPAs in Littleton. Whipplewood, No. 3 overall on the list, says it has a private room for meditation and power naps, access to a private trail system and massages by professionals for all employees during tax season. The staff’s posttaxseason activities have included ax throwing and gocart racing.
“Last year we were No. 4, so we moved up, which we’re super excited about,” said Steve Grimes, Whipplewood’s administrator.
When Whipplewood entered Outside’s competition, the staff wasn’t sure what the reception would be.
“There weren’t any other CPA firms on the list. We weren’t sure (Outside) would even consider it,” Grimes said.
But then the company is like a lot of others on the list in terms of the benefits and perks it offers to find and keep good employees in a tight labor market.
And the staffers are pretty outdoorsy, Grimes said. Rick Whipple, the firm’s founder and CEO, is an accomplished mountaineer, he added.
The eighthranked business is GroundFloor Media, a Denver communications firm. This is the sixth year in a row it has made the top 10. Some of the company’s perks noted by the magazine are unlimited paid time off after a year, $600 each year toward gym memberships and an annual Outward Bound teambuilding event in the mountains.
In 2015, the firm established the Get Grounded Foundation, which provides oneyear grants for new programs or projects within an existing nonprofit that directly supports atrisk youth in the Denver area.
“Our goal is to provide each of our team members the opportunity and flexibility needed to seamlessly ‘blend’ the responsibilities of both work life and personal life,” Ramonna Robinson, GroundFloor Media president, said in a statement. “We are proud of the benefits we offer that empower our team members to do great work while achieving that ‘work/life’ blend.”
Turner, a national communications agency specializing in travel and lifestyle brands with an office in Denver, made the list at No. 34.
The firm has paid volunteer days for all employees, fitness classes, dogfriendly digs, craft brews on tap and a philanthropic program that supports a variety of nonprofit organizations.
“It’s an incredible honor to be included on Outside’s list again this year, and we’re proud to share the distinction with so many other companies who are reshaping workplace culture,” said Christine Turner, the company’s founder and president.