Why Everyone Wants To Work At Big Tech Companies

Tech companies get a lot of hype for their employment perks.

This could be why several of them made our recent list of the Best Employers In America, based on exclusive data from PayScale.

Google ranked No. 2 out 200 companies with 81 percent of its employees reporting high job satisfaction; Yahoo ranked No. 8 with employees claiming a 72 percent job satisfaction rating.

Other companies that made the list are Microsoft (No. 14), Symantec (No. 26), Cisco (No. 29), Intel (No. 40), and Apple (No. 55) also made our list.

So what makes these companies such great places to work?

The Perks

Giant tech companies understand that offering incredible perks play a major role in attracting the most innovative and productive talent.

And Google is a leader in this philosophy. The company provides breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks without charge in all of its global offices and celebrity chefs are known to make appearances to provide five-star courses to employees.

Aside from this, Google facilities include bocce courts, a bowling alley, a roller hockey rink, masseuses, and wellness centers.

To stay a tech trendsetter and keep talent, Google's culture czar's job is to maintain the core value at Google and ensure happiness throughout the company.

In an interview with Adam Lashinsky at Fortune Magazine, Larry Page says that “when you treat people [well] ... you get better productivity. Rather than really caring what hours you worked, you care about output ... Our people have also been a lot happier and more productive, which is much more important."

And these perks help Google workers interact and mingle with one another.

"Once a week, we gather around a minibar (stocked by employees) to welcome Nooglers (new Googlers) and socialize," Mugdha Bendre, a senior software engineer at Google, told Business Insider.

Bendre said she also takes full advantage of the free Goggle shuttle that takes her to work and free meals throughout the day.

Another company that knows the importance of company culture is Yahoo. Since becoming CEO in July 2012, Marissa Mayer — former Googler — immediately made sure Yahooers were happy by providing free food and smart phones to the staff.

Renaud Waldura, product manager at Yahoo, told Business Insider that employees also get "movie tickets, car rentals and rebates on all kinds of stuff."

Other giant tech companies are following suit: Microsoft employees have access to an organic spa and a company mall complete with 14 restaurants and pubs, stores and banks; Evernote pays for house-cleaning services; Zappos offers "laughter yoga classes" and Tank Top Tuesdays; and Facebook provides free wash-and-fold laundry services, hair cuts and dry cleaning for their employees.

The Benefits

Wikimedia CommonsIf perks initially attract employees, benefits are what keeps them from moving on to the next best thing.

Meghan Casserly at Forbes reported that if a Google employee dies, their spouses are entitled to 50 percent of what they made while working at Google every year for the next decade.

But that's not all. Their children are also entitled to receive $1,000 every month — a bonus that can last up until they turn 23, if they're a full-time student.

Employees with same-sex partners also receive the same domestic partner health benefits that heterosexual spouses do.

Furthermore, the company offers new mothers five months of maternity leave which includes a full paycheck plus benefits, according to Farhad Manjoo at Slate magazine.

Laszlo Bock, Google's head of HR, told Slate that benefits such as this one keep employees happy and are cost-effective for the company.

In fact, introducing the policy actually helped reduced the high turnover rate for new mothers by 50 percent.

Other tech companies also offer impressive benefits. Yahoo reimburses its employees up to $5,000 dollars to offset eligible adoption expenses. Intel offers scholarships, free tutoring services to children of employees, and $50,000 for workers getting their MBAs.

Salary

According to data from PayScale, Yahoo's experienced median pay is $120,000, beating out Google's experienced median pay of $119,000.

According to the 2013 salary guide released by consulting firm Robert Half International, the tech industry will experience the biggest average salary increase out of any sector.

Starting salaries in the tech world are expected to increase by 5.3 percent and specialized developers can expect their paychecks to increase by 9 percent.

Great Corporate Culture Makes For Satisfied Employees

In short, a great corporate culture geared toward employee happiness results in happy and loyal employees. The more satisfied your employees are, the more productive they are and, ultimately, they're more likely to stay at their jobs.