When Glassdoor released the survey results of best companies for compensation and benefits a
few months ago, one company that made the list received a lot of attention
because it looked out of place. The usual big name tech firms were all
there but somehow Costco was there too. Its benefits for part time
employees and relatively high wages for a retail store were cited as factors
for how Costco managed to snag the number two spot on the list, sandwiched
between Google and Facebook.
I didn’t think much of the survey until a few
weeks ago when Bloomberg released its list of Best and Worst 401(k) plans. (There are thousands
of 401(k) plans in existence - somehow this list has only ranked 240 plans from
best to worst.) The first thing I did was look at the plans rated
worst - and low and behold sitting at number 237 is Costco. (Last
place was Facebook but they have since implemented a generous match).
Their relatively paltry mach of up to $500 a year was what earned them the low
ranking.
When employees aren’t happy with a company they
will complain about anything and everything. An easy target is the 401(k)
match. All over Glassdoor you can find employees taking shots at their
companies’ 401(k) plans. Usually these are companies that overall don’t a
great rating anyway and this is a tangible benefits that employees like to
gripe about.
But what we learn from Costco is that it is
possible to have a reputation as a great place to work with great pay and
benefits and yet unabashedly maintain a stingy 401(k) match. But while
reading through the Costco Glassdoor reviews you don’t see employees
complaining about it. Why not? Because overall, employees are happy
working for Costco.
Another Glassdoor survey has them ranked number 16
for ''Best places to work''. The company somehow
is able to display to their employees that they are valuable by paying them
fairly and offering them other benefits. Employees feel good working for
Costco so they aren’t looking to find problems.
The inverse is true as well. Don’t think
that by offering a generous match you will automatically earn the adoration of
your employees. Not one of the top 10 companies in the Bloomberg survey
with the best 401(k) plans is ranked highly in the Glassdoor survey.
Clearly there is more to earning a reputation as a great place to work than by
throwing money in employee’s retirement accounts.
