Arbitron One Of The 'Best To Work For'

US audience researcher Arbitron has been named on Fortune's list of the '100 Best Companies to Work For' for the third time. The company has also announced the appointment of Stacie de Armas as Director, Hispanic Services.

De Armas will oversee emerging Hispanic and Spanish-language market business initiatives for radio broadcasters, cable and outdoor, whilst continuing to oversee Arbitron's advertiser/agency initiatives in Puerto Rico. According to Owen Charlebois, president of US media services at Arbitron, 'The Hispanic market has its own shopping patterns, language preferences, and consumption habits. Ms. de Armas brings an understanding of this market segment, one that helps us to provide tools that enable marketers and advertisers to make more informed media buying decisions when targeting this influential and growing market'.

Recognized for the third time as a top employer, the company was ranked number 60 in Fortune's annual listing and was selected from a pool of approximately 1,000 companies. 'Our employees are our real competitive advantage', said Steve Morris, President and CEO. 'How our employees feel about the company played a large role in our selection. That makes this recognition particularly rewarding. It's gratifying to hear that our people think Arbitron is a great place to work'.

According to Kathie Ross, Executive VP for Organization Effectiveness and Public Relations, a number of factors account for employee satisfaction at Arbitron: interesting work, challenging assignments and a culture that encourages employee recognition through the organization. 'At Arbitron, employees have the opportunity to work on cutting edge projects like our Portable People Meter (PPM), our state of the art media and marketing research system. We also focus on giving people 'stretch' assignments so they can continue to learn and grow, which is particularly important given the long tenure and low turnover of Arbitron's staff. One thing that we really focus on at Arbitron is recognition - saying 'thanks' is very much a part of our culture. On a company recognition program called All Stars, employees nominate and then select colleagues who have made significant contributions to Arbitron's success. Each year, the executive team hosts the honorees and their guests on a three-day resort vacation. It's a way for senior management to say thanks in a fun and meaningful fashion'.

'The 100 Best Companies to Work For' list is based on two criteria: an evaluation of the policies and culture of each company, and the opinions of the company's employees. The latter, which counts for two-thirds of the total score, comes from employee responses to a 57-question survey, which goes to a minimum of 350 randomly selected employees from each company. It asks about things such as attitudes towards management, job satisfaction, and camaraderie within the organization. The remaining one-third of the score is based on an evaluation of each company's demographic makeup, pay and benefits programs, and culture. Companies are scored in four areas: credibility (communication to employees), respect (opportunities and benefits), fairness (compensation, diversity), and pride/camaraderie (philanthropy, celebrations).

The home page for Arbitron can be found at www.arbitron.com

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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