It seems like everyone wants to work for a big tech company these days.
And tech companies have a reputation for providing great workplaces with awesome perks that lure in top candidates.
Several tech companies made our list of the 50 Best Employers In America, based on data from our partner PayScale. Google took second place with 81 percent of its employees reporting high job satisfaction, and Yahoo came in 8th place with a 72 percent job satisfaction rating. Microsoft (#14), Symantec (#26), Cisco (#29), Intel (#40), and Apple (#55) also made our list.
So what exactly is making these tech companies such great places to work?
The Perks
Tech companies are famous for their incredible perks. They seem to know the value of rewarding their employees, and they do it in some of the coolest ways possible.
Google is legendary for its insane employee perks. Google offers its employees breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks for free at any of its global offices. The cafeterias regularly host celebrity chefs who serve five-star cuisine to employees. The company also strives to broaden employees' minds with lectures from celebrities and entrepreneurs, classes, and more. There are bocce courts, a bowling alley, a roller hockey rink, masseuses, and lots of wellness centers in all of their global offices. They even have a culture czar whose goal is to ensure happiness among the company's employees.
CEO Larry Page reflects on his reasons for rewarding his employees with these "lifestyle perks" in an interview with Fortune Magazine: “When you treat people [well] ... you get better productivity. Rather than really caring what hours you worked, you care about output. We should continue to innovate in our relationship with our employees and figure out the best things we can do for them ... Our people have also been a lot happier and more productive, which is much more important."
Google employees try to take advantage of these "lifestyle perks." Mugdha Bendre, a senior software engineer at Google, told Business Insider that she takes advantage of these company perks as much as possible: she takes the free Google shuttle to work, eats meals and snacks at the office, and takes breaks to play foosball or pool with coworkers.
"Once a week, we gather around a minibar (stocked by employees) to welcome Nooglers (new Googlers) and socialize," Bendre told us.
These perks seem to foster a nice corporate culture, encouraging employees to mix and mingle.
Since taking the reins as CEO of Yahoo last July, Marissa Mayer has already made several big changes to help the company compete with Google and Facebook. She made sure that employees got great perks, like getting free food and free smart phones through the "Yahoo! Smart Phones, Smart Fun!" program.
Renaud Waldura, Product Manager at Yahoo, told Business Insider that employees also get "movie tickets, car rentals, rebates on all kinds of stuff."
All big tech companies seem to be following suit: Microsoft employees have access to an organic spa and a company mall replete with 14 restaurants and pubs, stores and banks; Evernote pays for house-cleaning services for its employees; Zappos offers "laughter yoga classes" and Tank Top Tuesdays; and Facebook offers free wash-and-fold laundry services, hair cuts and dry cleaning.
The Benefits
Perks are a great way to lure in employees, but great benefits are what keeps them there.
Slate recently published an article that investigated how Google keeps its employees so happy — and it's largely because of the great benefits. Google's five-month maternity leave plan gives new mothers a full paycheck plus benefits and it allows mothers to take the time off whenever they like.
Google's head of HR, Laszlo Bock, told Slate that benefits such as this one keep employees happy and are cost-effective for the company. In fact, introducing the policy actually helped the company by reducing a high turnover rate that Google discovered was prevalent among their new mothers. “A 50 percent reduction—it was enormous!” Bock says.
Forbes reported that when a Google employee dies their spouses are entitled to 50 percent of what they made while working at Google every year for the next decade. Their children are also entitled to receive $1,000 every month — a bonus that can last up until they turn 23, if they're a full-time student.
Other tech companies also offer impressive benefits. Same-sex partners at Microsoft and Yahoo receive the same benefits that their heterosexual spouses do. Yahoo also gives its reimburses its employees up to $5,000 dollars to offset eligible adoption expenses.
Intel offers scholarships and free tutoring services to children of employees, and they reimburse their employees for MBA tuition up to $50,000 with no annual limit. Intel employees also get on-site medical care, and an eight-week paid sabbatical every seven years, according to Fortune,
Salary
These companies offer competitive salaries that lure in top talent — and keep them there. According to exclusive data from PayScale, Yahoo's experienced median pay is $120,000, beating out even Google ($119,000), which in past years was ranked as the highest best paying company in the tech world.
The median pay for experienced employees at Microsoft is $111,000, while experienced Apple employees make $98,100 and Intel employees make $97,100.
The tech sector is the place to be in 2013. According to the 2013 salary guide released by consulting firm Robert Half International, this year the tech industry will experience the biggest average salary increase of any sector studied. Starting salaries in the tech world are expected to increase by 5.3 percent and specialized developers can expect their paychecks to increase by 9%. This means that the annual salary range will be between $92,750 and $133,500.
Great Corporate Culture Makes For Satisfied Employees
All of these things combine to create a great corporate culture — and that makes for happy and loyal employees.
According to exclusive data from PayScale, 81 percent of the employees at Google, 76 percent of the employees at Apple, 75 percent of the employees at Intel, and 72 percent of the employees at Yahoo are highly satisfied with their jobs
Anthony Cafaro, an experience designer at Yahoo, told us that even though Yahoo is going through "a transitional period" at the moment, he feels a sense of excitement in the culture there.
"We're all hopeful the next year or so is going to be the most prolific and creative of our lives," Cafaro told us.
Employees feel satisfied and invested in their workplaces — and perhaps that is ultimately the reason why everyone wants to work in tech.
SEE ALSO: The 50 Best Employers In America >
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