East Penn Manufacturing was named to FORTUNE’s ninth annual “100 Best Companies to Work For” list. The Lyon Station based battery manufacturer was listed as number 79 in the overall ranking consisting of hundreds of companies throughout the United States. The list and related stories appears in the January 23 issue of FORTUNE and on their web site at www.fortune.com.
“The 100 Best Companies to Work For” list is compiled for FORTUNE by Robert Levering and Milton Moskowitz of the Great Place to Work Institute in San Francisco. The list is based on two criteria: an evaluation of the policies and culture of each company, and the opinions of the company’s employees. The latter is given more weight; two-thirds of the total score comes from employee responses to a 57-question survey, which goes to a minimum of 400 randomly selected employees from each company. More than 100,000 employees from 466 companies participated in the survey this year, up from 356 candidate companies last year. It asks about things such as attitudes towards management, job satisfaction, and camaraderie within the organization. The remaining one-third of the score is based on an evaluation of each company’s demographic makeup, pay and benefits programs, and culture. Companies are scored in four areas: credibility (communication to employees), respect (opportunities and benefits), fairness (compensation, diversity), and pride/camaraderie (philanthropy, celebrations). Companies that are at least seven years old and have 1,000 or more employees are eligible for the list.
East Penn was recognized as being a company with long-term employees. The company’s top ten senior employees have 419 years of combined service. In addition, East Penn’s annual voluntary turnover is very low at a rate of six percent.
East Penn is a leading manufacturer of high quality lead-acid batteries and accessories for the automotive, industrial, marine, telecommunications, commercial, and stationary markets. The company’s quality systems for its entire 480-acre complex have been certified to ISO 9001:2000 and ISO/TS 16949:2002 requirements. The company’s Wire and Cable division has been certified to ISO 14001 Environmental Management System requirements. The company claims to have the largest, most modern single-site manufacturing facility in the world. For more information contact East Penn Manufacturing Co., Inc., Lyon Station, PA 19536 or visit the company’s web site at www.dekabatteries.com
