Fortune names The Breakers in Palm Beach one of 100 best companies to work for
A Palm Beach institution is being recognized for creating a positive culture for employees.
The Breakers was ranked No. 65 on the 2023 Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For by Fortune Media and Great Place to Work.
For Breakers chief executive Paul Leone, the recognition is a testament to the work done by the organization’s leadership to create a culture that values employee satisfaction as the top priority.
“Fundamentally, it’s about our culture, and it’s about hiring the finest people at every level in our organization, and then creating a culture where they look forward to coming to work every day,” Leone said.
The Breakers is the only independent hotel to rank on the list, the company said. The resort was founded in 1896 and still is under the original family ownership, belonging to descendants of oil magnate Henry Flagler.
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The ranking is based on hundreds of thousands of anonymous surveys of employees who work at companies that are certified by Great Place to Work, each with at least 1,000 employees.
At The Breakers, 97% of the resort’s 2,300 employees participated in the survey, with 94% saying The Breakers is a great place to work, 96% saying The Breakers is a physically safe place to work, 96% saying The Breakers is a welcoming company for new employees, 96% saying they are proud to tell others they work at The Breakers and 95% saying they feel good about how The Breakers contributes the community.
“It’s the way we do business,” Leone said. “We just simply embrace the value of every member of our team and genuinely care for them.”
Every member of The Breakers’ leadership team practices servant leadership, a philosophy that puts emphasis on service over profit.
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“Our team knows they are our top priority,” Leone said. “The more we do that, the more they serve our customers, our community, each other and our guests. That’s how this works. It’s really profound.”
While The Breakers offers leadership training, Leone said the company believes in leading by example. “They see our owners, our directors, myself as the top executive, they see us walking the talk, and it’s not an act,” he said. “It is genuine. We love our team. We so appreciate the effort they put forth and we lead by example.”
Leone said the emphasis on servant leadership dates back 29 years to when he became president of The Breakers. He decided the company would change its culture and put employees first.
To do that, The Breakers first had to focus on hiring, taking a behavioral approach to hiring to find people who are team-oriented and want to work and serve others, Leone said. Then Leone’s team focused on creating the environment they wanted for their employees.
“It means better working conditions, it means better pay, it means better benefits, it means more recognition,” Leone said. “It means we have, honestly, I would venture to say we have 500 more hourly employees on our team than any similar organization of our size and in our business. And what is the point of that? We are investing more in quality of life and work-life balance.”
While those investments may cost more up front, Leone said they pay off over time as “great investments.”
“Our customers come to appreciate our commitment to our employees because they end up getting a better experience,” he said.
Three other Florida-based companies made the list of the 2023 Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For: Baptist Health South Florida ranked No. 61; DHL Express U.S. ranked No. 88; and Publix Super Markets ranked No. 91.
The top spot in the survey went to Silicon Valley tech giant Cisco Systems.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Breakers Palm Beach named one of Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For
