In Work We Trust – Best Workplaces in Latin America 2009

The global economic crisis has generated waves of cost cuts and layoffs that even the most solid blue chip companies in Latin America have been unable to avoid.

The fundamental difference between the companies that have downsized and those that have managed to retain top talent and stave off the worst cuts by negotiating concessions from workers seems to come down to trust.

“When people have confidence in management [and] are brought into the decision making, those people want to help the company succeed because they have a vested interest in protecting their work environment,” said José Tolovi Jr., the global CEO for the Great Place to Work Institute, which tracks workplace trends and ranks the best companies to work for in more than 40 countries worldwide.

Each year, Latin Trade presents the Great Place to Work Institute’s rankings of the best workplaces in Latin America, based on a series of confidential employee surveys that measure their confidence in the company, the credibility and fairness of its executives, the respect they hold for those leaders, and the level of camaraderie and pride in their workplace. In 2009, more than 1,300 companies agreed to participate.

Companies worldwide are increasingly paying attention to workplace issues and public perception of corporate trustworthiness, which many believe could have a direct impact on a company’s bottom line.

The public relations firm Edelman publishes a Trust Barometer survey each year. In 2009, 91 percent of 25-to-64-year-olds surveyed around the world said they bought a product or service from a company they trusted, and 77 percent refused to buy a product or service from a distrusted company.

“Employees trust their leaders when they act in ways that convey their credibility, show respect, and ensure fairness in the implementation of policies and practices,” said Amy Lyman, the Great Place to Work Institute’s director of corporate research. “The behaviors of leaders create trust. These same behaviors are visible to the public through leaders’ public appearances, and also become well known to people through employees’ word of mouth interactions with customers, colleagues, friends and family.”

Tolovi cites 9/11 as an example. After the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, travel nearly ground to a halt, financially crippling most airlines, including U.S.-based Southwest Airlines. Most carriers severely curtailed routes and service – and subsequently saw the value of their stock drop. Southwest took a more moderate approach and brokered concessions from employees, who in turn began pooling money to support employees affected by the cuts. Tolovi said Southwest shares rebounded after three months, faster than other airline share prices, a recovery he credits to workers who “trusted the company – they trusted the management. ”

More recently, industrial equipment maker Caterpillar responded to weakened demand for its products by cutting its workforce in Brazil – its largest market in Latin America. “A lot of people lost their jobs,” Tolovi said. “But [Caterpillar] did it with a lot of respect, and they sent high-level management out to talk to people and tell them the reasons for the cuts.”

Caterpillar ranked No. 1 this year in the workplace poll for Brazil.

In an interview from his San Francisco office, Tolovi acknowledged that the political and business climate varies greatly around the world, yet since the institute began surveying outside the United States, it has observed similarities in the workplaces it ranks as the best.

Brazilian banking powerhouse Itaú-Unibanco and the software giant Microsoft are in distinct industries, but Tolovi said the workers reported similar levels of trust and camaraderie between managers and employees.

“Those are the three relationships that we find in the very best companies,” he said, citing, among others, S.C. Johnson and Diageo, which often make it on to the lists in multiple nations.

One company, Laboratório Sabin, a clinical analysis laboratory based in Brazil, offered all its employees free medical checkups, looking to preventative screenings as a way of keeping healthcare costs down, but few took advantage of the program. When its CEO created a program called Take Care of Your Parents, more employees participated, with the added benefit that the company gets “people who are more motivated and more committed,” Tolovi said.

Even in a business climate that prompts the most profitable concerns to reconsider corporate perks and invest in their workforce, the 2009 list includes most of the same companies as last year. Although companies frequently move up and down in the rankings, “great companies try to improve and understand that it’s important for business,” Tolovi said. “Sometimes, when you have a change of management and the workplace environment deteriorates, you have companies that slide off the list.”

Poor financial results are not necessarily a factor in how well a company ranks, Tolovi said. Brazilian automotive parts manufacturer Plascar experienced a 50 percent drop in revenue this year and it is still on the list.

“What we want is to show other companies that it’s possible to be profitable and be productive and have a great workplace,” he said.

Best Workplaces in Latin America (regionwide)

(For individual country lists Best Workplaces in Latin America broken down by country or region see below.)

01 JW Marriott Lima, Peru
02 Chemtech, Brazil
03 DHL Bolivia, Bolivia
04 Boehringer Ingelheim C.A., Venezuela
05 Otecel S.A. (Telefónica Movistar), Ecuador
06 Leasing Bancolombia S.A., Colombia
07 IBM del Perú, Peru
08 BancoEstado MicroEmpresas S.A, Chile
09 Diageo Colombia S.A., Colombia
10 Asesoria, Seguridad y Vigilancia – Asevig Cia. Ltda., Ecuador
11 Transbank S.A , Chile
12 Caterpillar, Brazil
13 Coca Cola de Chile, Chile
14 Fedex Express en Centroamérica, Central America
15 SAP Sucursal Perú, Peru
16 FedEx, Chile
17 Microsoft Perú, Peru
18 Christus Muguerza Sur, Mexico
19 Cadbury Adams Colombia S.A., Colombia
20 Telefónica Movistar, Uruguay
21 Novo Nordisk Pharma Argentina, Argentina
22 Federal Express México, Mexico
23 Microsoft, Brazil
24 Accor, Brazil
25 Whirlpool México, Mexico

Best Workplaces in Argentina

01 Novo Nordisk Pharma Argentina
02 Banco Santander Río
03 Nextel
04 DHL Express
05 Sherwin-Williams Argentina
06 Hexacta
07 American Express Argentina
08 FedEx
09 Dow Argentina
10 Kimberly-Clark Argentina
11 Chubb Argentina de Seguros
12 McDonald’s
13 Monsanto Argentina
14 Quintiles Argentina
15 Sodimac
16 Diageo Argentina
17 Atento
18 Microsoft de Argentina
19 Sun Microsystems
20 Electrolux
21 Coca-Cola de Argentina
22 Natura
23 SC Johnson & Son de Argentina
24 Sonico.com
25 Avaya
26 Mapfre Argentina Grupo Asegurador
27 Grupo BBVA Consolidar
28 Amcor Pet Packaging
29 Mitrani Caballero Ojam
30 Thomson Reuters La Ley
31 BBVA Banco Francés
32 Grupo ASSA
33 Novartis Argentina
34 Oracle
35 Ericsson
36 BDO Becher
37 Softtek Argentina
38 Ernst & Young
39 Movistar
40 Carrier
41 Walzen Suisse
42 3M Argentina
43 Technisys
44 Baufest
45 ZF Sachs Argentina
46 Coca-Cola FEMSA Argentina
47 Transportadora de Gas del Sur
48 Bertotto, Boglione
49 La Porteña
50 Paolini

Best Workplaces in Brazil

01 Caterpillar
02 Chemtech
03 Kimberly-Clark
04 Plascar
05 Laboratório Sabin
06 Accor
07 Pormade
08 Kaizen
09 Microsoft
10 Cisco
11 FedEx
12 Unimed Missões
13 Promon
14 Coelce
15 Google
16 Monsanto
17 Magazine Luiza
18 Predicta
19 Sama
20 Marelli
21 Boehringer Ingelheim
22 BV Financeira
23 AstraZeneca
24 3M
25 Cultura Inglesa

Best Workplaces in Colombia

01 Leasing Bancolombia
02 Diageo Colombia
03 Cadbury Adams Colombia
04 Janssen Cilag
05 Colombiana Kimberly Colpapel
06 Productos Roche
07 Bancolombia
08 Renting Colombia
09 Microsoft, Colombia
10 C.I. Wayuu Flowers
11 Studiocom.com
12 Telefónica Móviles Colombia
13 Compañía de Financiamiento Comercial Sufinanciamiento
14 Nestlé Purina Petcarte de Colombia
15 Construcciones El Cóndor
16 Edatel
17 Arcos Dorados Colombia Ltda y Cia S.C.A. – McDonald’s
18 Laboratorios Wyeth
19 Telefónica Telecom
20 Hewlett Packard Colombia
21 Astrazeneca Colombia
22 Dow Química de Colombia y Dow Agroscience de Colombia
23 Factoring Bancolombia
24 DirectvColombia Ltda.
25 Fiduciaria Bancolombia

Best Workplaces in Mexico

01 Starbucks
02 Interprotección, Agente de Seguros y de Fianzas, S.A. de C.V.
03 Fedex Express México
04 JW Marriott Mexico City
05 Premier Chevrolet
06 SC Johnson and Son
07 Siegfried Rhein
08 Franklin Electric Linares
09 Glaxosmithkline
10 American Express (Mexico)
11 Grupo Scotiabank México
12 Grupo Ruba
13 Hoteles Marriott Cancún
14 Casamagna Marriott Puerto
Vallarta Resort & Spa
15 Secretaría de Planeación y Desarrollo Regional del Gobierno del Estado de Aguascalientes (SEPLADE)
16 DjOrthopedics de México
17 Infonavit
18 Diageo
19 McDonald’s
20 Eli Lilly de México
21 Daimler Financial Services Mexico
22 Compusoluciones
23 Ingram Micro
24 Janssen-Cilag
25 Grupo Cementos Chihuahua (GCC)
26 Hewlett Packard
27 Calzado Chabelo
28 IBM
29 Lundbeck
30 Resort Condominius International de México (RCI)
31 Odebrecht
32 Nokia
33 Sun Microsystems
34 Hoteles Milenium
35 Microsoft México
36 Procter & Gamble México
37 Wyeth
38 Computación en Acción S.A. de C.V.
39 Servicios Corporativos Afore Banamex S.A. de C.V.
40 Sabre Travel Network
41 Gasored
42 Telefónica Movistar
43 Perot Systems
44 Mapfre Seguros
45 Banco Compartamos
46 Arvin Meritor
47 Biomédica de Referencia
48 Para tu Casa
49 Deloitte
50 Chrysler Financial Mexico

Best Workplaces in Central America & the Caribbean

01 FedEx Express en Centroamérica
02 Kimberly Clark
03 Oracle Caribbean
04 SC Johnson de Centroamérica
05 Diageo
06 McDonald’s
07 Grupo Agrisal
08 Atento
09 Scotiabank
10 Banco Agricola
11 Telefónica Móviles Centroamérica
12 ASESUISA
13 Cervecería Hondureña
14 AFP Crecer
15 Pfizer Centroamérica y Caribe
16 Cabcorp
17 Grupo Purdy Motor
18 Elektra Noreste
19 Excel Automotriz
20 Digicel
21 Novartis
22 AES Dominicana
23 Grupo Financiero Ficohsa
24 Sisttemex de Centroamérica
25 Ingenio La Unión
26 Grupo Roble
27 Spectrum
28 DHL
29 SCA
30 Transactel

Best Workplaces in Chile

01 Coca-Cola Chile
02 BancoEstado MicroEmpresas
03 Transbank
04 GRUPO TELEFONICA CHILE (Movistar, Telefónica, Terra)
05 Ericsson
06 Oriencoop
07 Nielsen Chile
08 VTR
09 GRUPO SECURITY (Banco, Corredora, Vida, Inversiones, Factoring)
10 Ducasse
11 BanChile Inversiones
12 Grupo Santander
13 Sun Microsystems
14 FedEx Express
15 SC Johnson Chile
16 Kimberly Clark Chile
17 Novartis
18 Gerdau Aza
19 3M
20 GRUPO BCI (Banco, Factoring)
21 Microsoft
22 Maestranza Diesel
23 RSA Seguros Chile
24 Saitec
25 DOW
26 DHL
27 Falabella Retail
28 Banco Estado
29 Everis Chile
30 Ingram Micro
31 Asociación Chilena de Seguridad
32 Natura Cosméticos
33 Principal Financial Group Chile
34 Chilquinta Energía
35 Essbio Nuevo Sur