What do best work places do differently?

Employees are the most important resources that a business can have. It is therefore hardly surprising that most companies that repeatedly feature in the ‘Top 10 companies to work in’ or ‘Best places to work in’ lists invest a sizeable amount of their time and resources in maximizing employee satisfaction and contentment. A happy employee is a productive employee and a dedicated and productive taskforce can take the company to newer heights.
Present age employees are clear about their expectations from the job and have a clearly defined career roadmap.  Some employees prefer vertical career growth while others may prefer operating in the horizontal growth spectrum. There are a few key traits, irrespective of the businesses and domains that are still important enough to attract the most dedicated and motivated employees:
Strong core values: Employees prefer working for a company that staunchly follows its core defined values. Strict adherence to core values bespeaks of a company that conducts its businesses responsibly and with integrity.
Clear future targets: Every individual wants to be a part of something that is destined to make it big in its business sphere. People like to work in a company that has a set of clearly defined goals and is steadily moving towards achieving the set targets with a well-defined business strategy. 
Passionate about its people: A company that values its employees and acknowledges their personal/work related challenges is likely to earn the respect of its employees. Introducing several employee-centric work initiatives such as flexible timings, corporate health insurance for employees and their families, recreational facilities, employee counselors etc. go a long way in making a satisfied employee.
Strong leadership: A strong company leadership that has an excellent track record of demonstrating strategic brilliance, integrity, strong entrepreneurial traits acts as a guiding force for individuals and inspires them to excel and work hard towards a central company goal.
Tangible growth prospects: While salary compensation is an important determinant for employee hiring and retention, the well-informed and career conscious employees of present times would prefer joining and staying on at a company that can help her/him chart a clearly defined career graph.
No matter which business sector/domain a company operates in, all the above mentioned factors are critical for the company’s future growth and brand establishment. A company is only as good as its employees. With the highly motivated and career driven individuals operative in the current work space, the companies need to rise up to their employees’ expectations in order to get featured in the best places to work in. Most companies that are clear about these deterministic factors are the ones that get continuously rated as the best places to work in.