Pepco Holding Inc.

Winning Years: 2008, 2005
Industry: Utilities
Location: Washington, D.C.
Website: www.pepcoholdings.com
2008 Rank: 42

Highlights of 2008 Winning Strategies

Pepco Holdings Inc. offers financial-planning workshops about getting ready for retirement, at no cost to employees and their spouses. Forty-three percent of the company’s employees are age 50+, with the average tenure being 24 years.

Additional Policies and Practices:

Workplace Culture/Continued Opportunities: Pepco offers learning and development programs to its full- and part-time employees working at least 20 hours a week, including tuition reimbursement, in-house classroom training, online training, and certification classes. During the past 12 months, 100 percent of Pepco employees have participated in at least one of the training opportunities, with an average of four hours spent in training.

The company celebrates long-service anniversaries with announcements, parties, awards, and gifts. Employees gain experience and develop new skills by working on temporary assignments in other departments, on team projects, and via access to formal job-rotation programs. In addition, employees participate in leadership development training, executive assessments, cross-rotational development programs, coaching, mentoring, engineer-rotation programs, and business transformation project teams. Pepco’s Disability Management Program provides employees with light-duty positions or job reassignments if they cannot perform normal job functions. The Corporate Accommodation Review Board ensures that reasonable accommodations are made for employees with permanent medical limitations.

Benefits/Health: Employees working at least 20 hours per week receive individual and family medical and prescription-drug coverage, individual and family vision and dental coverage, individual and family long-term care insurance, and short- and long-term disability.

Health benefits for retirees under 65 include individual and spousal medical and prescription drug coverage, individual vision insurance, individual and spousal long-term care insurance, and individual life insurance or other death-benefit coverage. Health benefits for retirees 65+ include individual and spousal medical and prescription drug coverage and individual life insurance or other death-benefit coverage. New hires are only eligible for individual life insurance or other death benefit coverage upon retirement. The company offers employees  flexible spending accounts to help cover out-of-pocket health care costs.

Benefits/Financial: Pepco offers a 401(k) with an employer match, a defined-benefit plan, and a cash-balance plan to its full- and part-time employees. Employees may choose to invest in lifecycle funds and age 50+ employees can make catch-up contributions. Employees receive financial-planning information from staff members and from the firm that administers their 401(k) plan.

Pepco offers short-term time off without pay and long-term leaves of absence without pay to allow for caregiving. The company offers referral services to assist with childcare, grandchild care, and eldercare to its full- and part-time employees working at least 20 hours per week.

In addition, the company offers the following wellness programs to full- and part-time employees: flu shots, health screenings, health-risk appraisals, health club discounts, physical activity and exercise programs, and weight loss programs. Thirty-nine percent of the company’s employees have used at least one of its wellness benefits during the past 12 months.

Benefits/Alternative Work Arrangements: Pepco offers alternative work arrangements, such as flextime, compressed work schedules, job-sharing, and telecommuting, to its full- and part-time employees working at least 20 hours per week. Full-time employees are eligible to move to part-time work on a permanent or temporary basis.