Smile Brands Inc. has won a Glassdoor Employees’ Choice Award, which picks the top employers to work for in 2018. The program is now in its 10th year. It works differently from most business rankings, because only employees decide who makes the list. They do so by leaving voluntary feedback about their jobs, their workplaces and their employers on Glassdoor.
Smile Brands is a dental support organization with more than 350 affiliated practices in 15 states. Its culture grows out of the company mission, Smiles for Everyone. Steve Bilt, the co-founder and CEO, holds a 97 percent approval rating on the site.
Bilt described dentistry as a people business. When staff share a common mission, he said, patients are the ones who benefit. He called the Glassdoor honor a validation of the company’s operating model, since that model rests on the idea that good things follow when everyone has a reason to smile. He also argued that any CEO who wants to attract and keep talented people should put culture at the top of the agenda.
On Glassdoor, current and former employees around the world post their views about where they work. Each review asks for a rating of the company as a whole. It also covers career opportunities, pay, benefits, work/life balance, senior management, and culture and values. In addition, reviewers list the best reasons to join the company as well as its downsides.
The 2018 winners were picked from reviews by U.S.-based employees posted from November 1, 2016 through October 22, 2017. A company in the large category needed at least 1,000 employees and at least 75 ratings. Glassdoor then built the final list with its own algorithm, which weighs the quantity, quality and consistency of the reviews.
Smile Brands is based in Irvine, California, and is one of the biggest companies in the country that back dental groups with business services. Through exclusive long-term agreements with affiliated groups, it handles administration, marketing and finance, so dentists can spend more of their time on patients. Its network includes offices under the Johnson Family Dental, OneSmile Dental, Castle Dental, Monarch Dental, Bright Now! Dental and A+ Dental Care names. They operate in Washington, Virginia, Utah, Texas and Tennessee, as well as in Pennsylvania, Oregon, Ohio, Maryland and Indiana. The rest are in Florida, Colorado, California, Arkansas and Arizona. Gryphon Investors, a middle-market private equity firm in San Francisco, owns Smile Brands as part of its portfolio.
Glassdoor itself launched in 2008. Today the site holds reviews and insights on roughly 700,000 employers across more than 190 countries.
