Publix Super Markets Inc.

Why you want to work there

Last year, this supermarket operator in Lakeland, Fla., made more than $60 million in IT capital investments, spending money on both new business applications and infrastructure enhancements. The company's 815-plus IT employees have worked at Publix for an average of more than eight years each, and the 16 IT senior managers have an average 19 years of service each. In 2009, 53 IT employees (6.5% of the staff) were promoted. Happy holidays: In 2009, Publix gave full-time IT employees holiday bonuses equal to a month's salary, paying out a total of more than $3.8 million (which is 7.4% of the amount spent on salaries). Hourly employees who had worked at the company two years or less received bonuses equal to 40 hours of pay, and those with more than two years of service received payments equal to 80 hours of pay. Benefits bonanza: Each year, Publix presents five employees with the George W. Jenkins Award; winners are recognized at the annual stockholders meeting. The President's Award honors five people who demonstrate exceptional commitment to workplace diversity. During the semi-annual IT department meetings, seven awards are presented to individuals and/or teams who have demonstrated outstanding performance in areas such as customer service, speed to market, quality, value added, creativity, persistence and team effort. For employees interested in professional development, the company offers a tuition reimbursement benefit for approved courses of study. Forty IT employees are currently taking advantage of that perk. A training curriculum features more than 200 courses available through local colleges and universities, professional training organizations and technology vendors or via computer-based systems. Subjects of interest to IT employees include development languages, architecture standards, automated testing and leadership. More than 11% of the courses were developed internally. New this year: A mentoring program gives younger employees the opportunity to learn from their more experienced colleagues.