Southern California Edison

Why you want to work there

IT employees at this California utility are good at giving back. Southern California Edison encourages employees to use an online tool to record the number of hours they spend doing volunteer work for charities, and each year, the utility matches the hours volunteered with cash donations of as much as $600 to a nonprofit or school of the employee's choice. The utility also sponsors an annual Employee Contributions Campaign, and IT employees play a large role in that effort. Last year, one-third of the department's employees participated, donating more than $370,000 to the campaign through individual donations and group fundraising activities. Southern California Edison matches employee donations of up to $2,000 to qualified educational institutions and the Energy Assistance Fund. The Employee Contributions Campaign allows donations to be made using payroll deductions, which helps spread out payments over a year's time. Employees support a broad range of causes, including women's alcohol and drug addiction rehab programs, special internship programs, children's cancer research and more. In fact, volunteerism is so central to the corporate culture that even summer interns are encouraged to take part in community activities, such as the 2010 beach clean-up day. Healthy hearts Southern California Edison offers employees a Preventive Health Account, through which the employer offers reimbursements of up to $400 on eligible expenses incurred by employees or their spouses or domestic partners or eligible children. Expenses that are eligible for reimbursement include gym membership dues, Special Olympics event fees, dues for organized sports leagues, payments to personal trainers, and fees for yoga, Pilates, martial arts, dance or wellness classes.