General Mills, ING, Graco round out diverse group

The oldest is General Mills, a food company founded after the Civil War. The youngest is online bank ING, launched a decade ago amid the dot-com boom.

Four are medical companies -- Medtronic, Gillette Children's Specialty Healthcare, HealthPartners and Express Scripts, underscoring Minnesota's strength in the field. Four are financial services firms, another of the state's strongest sectors: Securian Financial, Allianz Life Insurance, Thrivent Financial and ING. Two are homegrown national discount retailers -- Target and Best Buy.

The top large company employers in the Twin Cities are a diverse group. Rounding out their ranks are an industrial equipment maker (Graco), a cable company (Comcast), a restaurant chain (Caribou Coffee), a senior-living organization (Ebenezer Society), an educational testing firm (Pearson), a college (Northwestern College), a real estate brokerage (Keller Williams Realty), a casino operator (SMSC Gaming Enterprise, owner of Mystic Lake) and a baseball team (the Minnesota Twins). Ten are publicly held and 10 are private firms or nonprofits.

What do they have in common? Their employees think they rock. They said so in response to a survey conducted by the Pennsylvania research firm WorkplaceDynamics in partnership with the Star Tribune to select the Top 100 Workplaces in the Twin Cities in 2010. Companies chose whether to participate.

"Human intelligence and ability is trusted," wrote one Minnesota Twins employee in the confidential survey. "If any fan needs something that is a touch out of the ordinary, I don't have to stand on my head and make the fan wait for someone in charge. I can go ahead and help them."

Feeling appreciated and trusted, and having confidence in the direction of the company as well as its senior leadership ranked among the most important factors for employees -- more so than pay and benefits.

Some of the winners in the large company category were expected. General Mills, which ranked first among the large publicly held companies and second overall, is a perennial winner of workplace awards from national publications such as Fortune, Bloomberg Business Week and Working Mother magazine.

Target, Best Buy and Medtronic also made our 2010 list as well as Fortune's Most Admired list this year.

Others were a surprise. Who would have expected, in the midst of the worst housing market in decades, that a real estate brokerage (Keller Williams) would rank No. 1?

Employees of the Minnesota Twins gave their company the highest marks for "going in the right direction." The opening of the team's long-awaited new stadium, which debuted as the survey was in the field, no doubt contributed to the company's high score. (Only employees were surveyed, not the players.)

Dave Horsman, senior director of ballpark operations for the Twins, explained the philosophy of the Pohlad family, which has holdings in banking and real estate in addition to the Twins: "They always have believed in going out and finding the right people to run the business and letting them run it .... It really does trickle down."

Horsman coordinated training for the 700 employees, most of them part-timers, who got 10 hours of orientation on the new facility before the April 12 home opener. Others got additional training, depending on their jobs. What did they learn?

"They should not be afraid to use their common sense," Horsman said. "If something seems wrong, it probably is.... We make it very clear that if they make decisions in the best interests of the customers, we will support them."

Preparing for the opener at Target Field "is one of the coolest things I'm ever going to do," said Horsman, a 15-year Twins employee. "And let's state the obvious here: People get to come to work at the ballpark."

General Mills, a major league global food company, inspires similar enthusiasm among its employees. CEO Ken Powell says cultivating a top workplace is one of the company's strategic goals.

"We are a company that almost entirely hires kids out of school and develops talent over a very long period of time," Powell said. "We're very committed to training and developing people and giving them different opportunities so they can stretch themselves over the course of their career. So it's just crucial for us to know we are getting the best people and then retaining them."

Jeff Bellairs, 51, is director of the General Mills World Wide Innovation Network, a unit created to help speed collaboration among the company's divisions and global partners to get new products introduced quickly.

When his boss gave him the assignment to "make this stuff happen" five years ago, Bellairs said he was given three things: "Money, time and air cover ... in case you screw up."

Having spent a couple of years at another company before returning to General Mills about nine years ago, Bellairs has a special appreciation for what he calls "the Disneyland of R&D." General Mills spent $208 million on research and development in fiscal 2009, or about 1.4 percent of sales.

Notable recent successes, Bellairs said, include Yoplait's new frozen yogurt and fruit smoothie kits (Just add milk and blend!). Success required sourcing special yogurt and fresh fruit ingredients from a longtime supplier, borrowing expertise from the company's Meals Division, which includes Green Giant, and introducing Yoplait products into the freezer section.

"I look at the quality of the products that are going into the marketplace," he said. "If we deliver on the innovation, the stock will move."

Jennifer Jorgensen, 40, is marketing manager for the Pillsbury Co., a unit of General Mills. She cites three traits that make the company a top workplace: They hire the best of the best; they have strong national brands, and they provide workplace flexibility.

As a single mom with two kids in grade school, she said: "I still have time to coach the soccer team. I know this sounds cheesy, but there are days when I can't believe they pay me to have this job."

Staff Writer Mike Hughlett contributed to this story.