B$Z: Superfeet Recognized in OUTSIDE’s Best Places to Work 2015

Superfeet has been selected as one of OUTSIDE’s Best Places to Work 2015. Each year, OUTSIDE recognizes the top 100 companies in the United States that help their employees strike the ideal balance between work and play. These companies encourage employees to lead an active lifestyle, are eco-conscious, and prioritize giving back to the community. The entire list of winners appears online at www.outsideonline.com/dreamjobs.

“Making the list of Best Places to Work List is a great honor for us” says LaVonne Olsen, Superfeet’s Vice President of People, Values and Culture “it reaffirms that our promise to put our people first is making a difference.”

“The companies recognized in this year’s Best Places to Work list are the gold standard for stellar work environments that seek to empower their employees both in and out of the office,” said OUTSIDE Online Editor Scott Rosenfield. “The new categories in this year’s list serve to highlight outstanding workplaces in distinctive fields—making it all the easier for our readers to find their dream jobs.”

To find the best places to work in the United States in 2015, OUTSIDE started by creating five company categories that reflect the magazine’s values and focus: Adventure/Travel, Wellness, Culture, Gear, and Media. OUTSIDE then conducted a rigorous vetting process in partnership with the Best Companies Group to assess the policies, practices, and demographics of hundreds of companies. Outside’s Best Places to Work 2015 was driven by employee reviews of their workplaces, taking into account factors like corporate culture, role satisfaction, work environment and overall employee engagement. The Best Places to Work list represents the cream of the crop: companies that are empowering their employees to live bigger, better lives.

Superfeet has made Outside’s Best Places to Work list twice before—ranked #6 in 2008 and #8 in 2011. With a much larger pool of competition this year. Superfeet is thrilled to have made the list yet again in 2015. The company has a culture that embraces its employee’s non-work passions and nurtures them to create a very satisfying place to work. Perks include: a dog-friendly workplace, a flip flops and short-friendly dress code, a wellness committee which mandates massages, happy hours on most Fridays, group stretching among the warehouse staff and other fun things like ukulele lessons.

Superfeet is also looking out for its employees basic needs and meets them with competitive compensation, 100% paid benefits, two paid volunteer days per year, morale-boosting blood drives and trash pick-ups and other culture-enhancing events.

Most notably, in July 2015, Superfeet’s employee stock ownership program (ESOP) purchased the balance of the company’s shares making it 100 percent employee owned.

“Becoming 100% employee-owned is a huge milestone for Superfeet,” explains John Ravoula, the company’s president. “It reinforces our long-term commitment to preserving our culture and values as we continue to grow as an organization.”