Secrets of Superstar Employers
By Francine Kizner - Entrepreneur.com

Finding and keeping top-notch employees is a challenge for any business, but smaller-sized companies have the advantage of treating employees like family, offering innovative perks and maintaining a workplace where each employee feels he or she contributes to the bottom line.

These six companies go way beyond the free snacks in the office to show that whether your employees are factory workers or computer coders, you can become a superstar employer that offers competitive company perks. 

PreEmptive Solutions
Year started: 1996
Employees: 26
Employees lost last year: 2
Average length of employment: 3 years

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Shazaaam! LLC
Year started: 2001
Employees: 11 full-time and 7 part-time employees
Employees lost last year: 1
Average length of employment: 5 years

In business for 93 years, Quality Float Works of Schaumburg, Illinois, has an outstanding record of employee retention. "One of the challenges facing manufacturing is the lack of a skilled work force," says Sandra Westlund-Deenihan, CEO of the hollow metal float ball manufacturer.  She offers benefits like health care, a 401(k), summer flex hours, free haircuts once a month and gym memberships.

Westlund-Deenihan also believes in treating employees like family. She provided personal loans to workers who made poor lending decisions, and she's considering paying for summer camp for employees' children as well as setting up an education fund for employees with newborns.

"Larger companies, especially those that are going overseas, have lost the concept of taking care of people," says Westlund-Deenihan. "Lean manufacturing refers to process, not people."