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St. Louis Business & Technology News
www.slfp.com/SLFPBIZp.htm "When you think Saint Louis, think Saint Louis Front Page," a weekly publication covering the news and events in the greater St. Louis area. 
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Fireman's Fund to Expand
St. Louis Claim-Handling Operation NOVATO, Calif, (BUSINESS WIRE) January 20, 2003 - Fireman's Fund has selected St. Louis as the site to expand its expedited claim-handling operation. To be housed at the Company's Earth City office, the center will include 15 managers, many of whom will relocate from Company offices on the East and West coasts. Fireman's Fund will seek up to an additional 115 employees to handle property claims adjusting at the center. While insurance and customer-service experience is desired, the Company will also hire at the entry level and provide complete training to new employees. Pay for the entry-level adjuster jobs will begin at $30,000 plus incentives. "After researching many locations nationally, St. Louis emerged as having the best mix of labor availability, low real estate costs, and a good employee quality of life," said Andy Knudsen, claim executive for the St. Louis operation. "Its location in the Central time zone also makes St. Louis ideal: We'll be able to provide excellent phone coverage for customers throughout the country." At the St. Louis center, Fireman's Fund will expedite claims for customers who have had property losses to their homes, autos and businesses, with damage of not more than $5,000. "These customers, and their insurance agents, will benefit from a simpler claim process and quick, quality service," added Knudsen. St. Louis is also the location of the Company's national catastrophe center, and its Appraisal Coordination Unit, which expedites the appraisal and repair portion of auto claims. "We have had great experience in St. Louis with quality employees who are very service-minded," Knudsen said. "This was another factor making Earth City the natural choice." Knudsen emphasized that "The center is an excellent opportunity for employees to be trained in insurance techniques and acquire the adjuster licensing required by a number of states. We will begin hiring immediately." The 139-year-old Fireman's Fund holds an "A" rating from the A.M. Best Company and last year had gross premiums written of more than $4.7 billion from both commercial and personal insurance. Fireman's Fund is a subsidiary of Allianz AG of Munich, one of the world's largest financial services firms with almost $1 trillion in assets under management. Edward Jones Tops FORTUNE List of '100 Best Companies to Work For' List NEW YORK, (BUSINESS WIRE) January 6, 2003 - Edward Jones, a "small town" stockbroker headquartered in St. Louis, tops FORTUNE's annual "100 Best Companies to Work For" list for the second year in a row. The company, which has 7,474 branches, "screams integrity" and has serious profit sharing and significant employee ownership (25% of employees hold partnership stakes). With no layoffs this past year, it has "highly credible management in constant touch with staff" coupled with "fantastic training," on which it spends 3% of payroll and an average of 149 hours per employee per year. At No. 2 for the second year in a row in FORTUNE's sixth annual ranking is The Container Store, the Texas retailer that is expanding across the country and that continues to offer one of the highest pay scales in the retail field. It also provides domestic partner benefits, free yoga classes at distribution centers, and chair massages at their headquarters. The No. 3 spot is held by Atlanta law firm Alston & Bird, the first law firm to be in the top ten (it was No. 9 last year). The company thrives on daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly communication, and unlike many law firms had no layoffs this year. Semiconductor maker Xilinx, headquartered in San Jose, comes in at No. 4. The company protected its employees from a nasty downturn in high tech by refusing to abandon a no-layoff policy. Workers took a 6% pay cut, and the CEO took a 20% cut. Adobe, the Silicon Valley stalwart that is renowned for its cool graphics products and where "camaraderie is the byword," holds the No. 5 spot. It offers three-week paid sabbaticals every five years, Friday night beer bashes, and an annual holiday black-tie party. Rounding out the top ten are American Cast Iron Pipe (No. 6), with the lowest employee turnover (1.5%) on the list and an on-site clinic that offers medical and dental care for employees--and families--for life; TDIndustries (No. 7), an employee-owned construction firm that links insurance premiums to compensation--the less you earn, the less you pay; J.M. Smucker (No. 8), a 105-year-old company that offers health care for retirees and their spouses, as well as on-site stop-smoking classes; Synovus (No. 9), a Southeastern bank holding company with on-site child care, state-of-the-art gym, and generous profit-sharing and pension plans; and Wegmans Food Markets (No. 10), whose employees have mentored more than 1,000 kids, helping them to graduate from high school. Workers also take off to care for sick pets. "In good times, these companies go wild with the perks--yoga classes, volleyball courts, family rooms," said Robert Levering and Milton Moskowitz of the Great Place to Work Institute in San Francisco, which puts together the annual list. "In tough times, priorities change. But even when layoffs are unavoidable, they try to do it in an upfront and upstanding way. And if they end up feeling like more than just a place to work, that's the point." To select this year's list, Levering and Moskowitz surveyed a random sample of employees from 269 candidate companies--more than 1,000 firms were considered--to get their opinions about their workplaces. A total of 40,713 employees responded to the survey, created by the Great Place to Work Institute. Nearly half of the 19,529 employees surveyed gave additional written comments. Each company was also asked to fill out a questionnaire describing its HR policies and workplace culture. In scoring the responses, Levering and Moskowitz placed the greatest weight on the employee responses (two-thirds of the total), in addition to evaluating each company's benefits and practices. Return to St. Louis Front Page 
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