Baird: Ranks No. 4 on Fortune’s 2017 100 Best Companies to Work For

Employee-owned firm’s second time among the top 5 companies

MILWAUKEE, March 9, 2017 – Baird ranks No. 4 on FORTUNE magazine’s 2017 list of the 100 Best Companies to Work For, an annual ranking of the top U.S. workplaces based on employee feedback and workplace attributes. Baird, an employee-owned international financial services firm recognized on the list for 14 consecutive years, has ranked among the Top 10 for four straight years and the Top 25 for the past nine years.

“Being a great place to work is the foundation of who we are at Baird and is fundamental to our privately held, independent business model and brand,” said Steve Booth, Baird President & CEO. “We are committed to providing a great workplace environment because it enables us to attract and retain talented associates who excel in their roles and enhance our clients’ overall experience with Baird.”

FORTUNE evaluates a number of attributes in selecting companies to be included on the 100 Best Companies to Work For list. Here is FORTUNE’s description of Baird: Besides its famous “no assholes” policy, the investment firm gets high marks for a company culture that values integrity and teamwork. At Baird, founded in 1919 and privately owned, two-thirds of employees are currently shareholders. The feeling, says one, is that “everyone is playing the same game and we are all equal contributors.”

“Our associates are the best in the industry and our clients see the difference in the quality advice and service they receive working with people who truly love what they do,” said Paul Purcell, Chairman of Baird. “Baird’s distinctive culture is vital to our ability to attract top professionals who value our employee-owned business model and who go above and beyond for our clients every day.”

By attracting and retaining top talent and through its balanced platform of five strategic businesses, Baird has achieved significant performance milestones, including the following results for 2016:

· Revenues of nearly $1.4 billion, up eight percent from 2015 and the seventh consecutive year of record results.[1]
· Client assets totaling $169 billion
· Record operating income of $155 million

Additionally, Baird has increased its employment by 26 percent over the past five years while the U.S. securities industry has grown by eight percent.

“Congratulations to the 2017 100 Best,” said Michael C. Bush, CEO of Great Place to Work. “These leading companies are at the vanguard of a new business frontier, where organizations know they have to develop the full human potential of all their employees. They are working to build Great Places to Work For All, which are better for business, better for people and better for the world.”

To read more about Baird’s workplace attributes, see the Great Place to Work Institute’s review of Baird.

METHODOLOGY
To identify the 100 Best Companies to Work For, each year FORTUNE partners with Great Place to Work to conduct the most extensive employee survey in corporate America. The ranking is based on feedback from more than 232,000 employees at Great Place to Work–Certified™ companies with more than 1,000 employees.

Winning a spot on this list indicates the company has distinguished itself from peers by creating a great place to work for employees – measured and ranked through our analysis of the results of our Trust Index© survey and Culture Audit© questionnaire.

Through the Trust Index©, employees anonymously assess their workplace, including the honesty and quality of communication by managers, degree of support for employees’ personal and professional lives and the authenticity of relationships with colleagues. Results from the survey are highly reliable, having a 95% confidence level and a margin of error of 5% or less. Companies’ results on the Trust Index© survey are compared to peer organizations of like size and complexity. The Culture Audit© includes detailed questions about benefits, programs and practices.

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