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KANSAS CITY, Missouri (March 9, 2017) — After surveying more than 230,000 employees from firms across the country on their workplace cultures, Great Place to Work and Fortune rank Burns & McDonnell No. 16 on the 2017 Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For list. This is the seventh year that the 100 percent employee-owned firm has earned this recognition. Burns & McDonnell is the only Kansas City-based company on the list.

“We had a record 70,000-plus people apply to work at Burns & McDonnell last year,” says Ray Kowalik, chairman and CEO, Burns & McDonnell. “Being a best place to work allows us to attract and hold on to the most innovative and client service-oriented people in the industry. Our commitment to our clients is that we have the best people who work the hardest on their behalf. Our projects are critical to the building of our great nation, and we can only be successful with great people.”

The Fortune rankings are based on employees’ ratings of their workplace culture, including the level of trust they feel toward leaders, the pride they take in their jobs and the camaraderie they experience with co-workers.

Burns & McDonnell is also consistently recognized atop the Best Places to Work by the Kansas City Business Journal, with similar honors often coming from more than 20 other publications across the country.

“It takes effort to become a best place to work,” Kowalik says. “It takes time. It takes passion. I read every comment from the surveys to see if there’s the next great idea for being a better place to work.”

“For Burns & McDonnell, our road to becoming a best place to work started 31 years ago when we become 100 percent employee-owned. That spirit of entrepreneurialism and attacking your job as if you own the company — because you do — has defined our culture and fueled our success.” 

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For list, and this year’s winners continue to confirm that a high-trust culture fuels better business results. Great Place to Work research shows that companies on the list beat industry rivals when it comes to talent retention and demonstrating higher levels of productivity than peers. 

“The Fortune survey validates our continued efforts to be the best place to work,” says Melissa Wood, chief administrative officer, Burns & McDonnell. “For example, we see community involvement as a responsibility at Burns & McDonnell. Employee-owners say they are proud of how we contribute to the community where we work, live and raise our families — and, in turn, charitable involvement is among our highest rankings.” 

“Congratulations to the 2017 100 Best,” says Michael C. Bush, CEO of Great Place to Work. “These leading companies are at the vanguard of a new business frontier, where organizations know they have to develop the full human potential of all their employees. They are working to build Great Places to Work For All, which are better for business, better for people and better for the world.”

In conjunction with the 2017 Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For, Great Place to Work also has produced a report predicting the future of workplace culture based on research into the 100 Best. To download the report, click here.

To see the full list of the 2017 Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For,clickhere. To see the schedule for all Great Place to Work Best Workplace lists and more information on how to apply, visit Great Place to Work’s website. 

About Burns & McDonnell

Burns & McDonnell is a family of companies made up of more than 5,700 engineers, architects, construction professionals, scientists, consultants and entrepreneurs with offices across the country and throughout the world. We strive to create amazing success for our clients and amazing careers for our employee-owners. Burns & McDonnell is 100 percent employee-owned and is proud to be No. 16 on Fortune’s 2016 list of 100 Best Companies to Work For. 

About The Fortune 100 Best Companies To Work For^®

To identify the 100 Best Companies to Work For^®, each year Fortune partners with Great Place to Work to conduct the most extensive employee survey in corporate America. The ranking is based on feedback from more than 232,000 employees at Great Place to Work-Certified™ companies with more than 1,000 employees.

Winning a spot on this list indicates the company has distinguished itself from peers by creating a great place to work for employees — measured and ranked through our analysis of the results of our Trust Index^© survey and Culture Audit^© questionnaire.

Through the Trust Index^©, employees anonymously assess their workplace, including the honesty and quality of communication by managers, degree of support for employees' personal and professional lives and the authenticity of relationships with colleagues. Results from the survey are highly reliable, having a 95% confidence level and a margin of error of 5% or less. Companies' results on the Trust Index^© survey are compared to peer organizations of like size and complexity. The Culture Audit^© includes detailed questions about benefits, programs and practices.

About Great Place to Work^®

Great Place to Work^® is the global authority on high-trust, high-performance workplace cultures. Through proprietary assessment tools, advisory services, and certification programs, including Best Workplaces lists and workplace reviews, Great Place to Work provides the benchmarks, framework, and expertise needed to create, sustain, and recognize outstanding workplace cultures. In the United States, Great Place to Work produces the annual Fortune "100 Best Companies to Work For^®" and a series of Great Place to Work Best Workplaces lists, including lists for Millennials, Women, Diversity, Small and Medium Companies and over a half dozen different industries. Great Place to Work^® provides executive advisory and to businesses, non-profits and government agencies in over 50 countries across six continents.