Genentech, Alcon named 'Best Companies' again

New York

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Fortune

magazine has named Genentech and Alcon Laboratories to its latest “100 Best Companies to Work For” list of U.S. employers.

South San Francisco, CA-based Genentech, with almost 11,000 full-time employees, is seventh in the 2009 rankings. The achievement marks the company’s 11th consecutive year on the list, a distinction that cannot be claimed by any other biotechnology company, according to Genentech.

Fortune

noted that the company had instituted retention bonuses and severance ranging from 18 to 52 weeks’ pay for anyone whose employment is terminated after a merger.

This year marks Alcon Laboratories’ 11th consecutive time on the list, too. The company, which has about 7,200 employees in the United States, ranks 74th on the 2009 list.

Fortune

noted the company’s retirement program, in which every dollar contributed by an employee is matched with $2.40 from the company, and its “friendly” culture.

The magazine compiled the list based on the responses of more than 81,000 employees of 353 companies to a 57-question survey developed by the Great Place to Work Institute. Two-thirds of each company’s score was based on answers to the questionnaire, which was sent to at least 400 randomly selected employees of each company. The remaining one-third of a company’s score was based on responses to “culture audit” questions about the company’s demographics, pay, and benefits, as well as open-ended questions about philosophy, communication, and similar matters. Any company at least 7 years old and with more than 1,000 U.S. employees was eligible for inclusion.

The full list appears in the Feb. 2 issue of

Fortune

and also is available at

www.fortune.com/bestcompanies

.