Increase in job load: 45.5% Reduction in salary increments: 30.3% Job security: 30.3% Cut in cost to the company: 30.3%

Very high employee satisfaction on almost every count. Seems to be able to maintain a good work-life balance for its employees

Despite high satisfaction, attrition levels also significantly higher than industry averages

I am very stressed at work: 48% I get a sense of great professional and personal satisfaction from the work I do here: 94%

I would definitely recommend this company to a close friend of mine: 94% I have exciting growth opportunities in this company: 88%

The India development center of this EDA tools major made its debut in the BES Top 20 last year at #2. That was a bit of a surprise even then. This year that surprise got bigger—it moved up the ranking to replace the long-standing claimant to the #1 throne—Infosys. For the fourth smallest company in the survey, that is quite a feat. Reason—extremely high levels of employee satisfaction on almost every count. In fact, while salary had appeared as the key strength in 2002, this year it was improving employee perceptions on almost every count that contributed to its performance.

So first, the good news. Overall Satisfaction in the company improved significantly during the year, taking it from #7 in 2002 to #1 in 2003. It also topped the ranking on most other parameters including company culture, job content and career growth, salary and appraisal systems. Every single employee strongly agreed with the statement “I feel pride in working for the company”. Significantly, while employees in some MNC development centers or companies have indicated that they didn’t feel very empowered (low ratings on “I think the work I do here is crucial to the company’s growth” and “I feel my opinion counts in the company”)—Cadence was among the few that scored very highly on both these questions.

All of this combined saw it moving up the preferred employer rankings from #4 to #1 as 64% of its own employees voted for it as their dream company. If there were any two relative weaknesses, these were training and people where the company ranked 2nd.

That said however, for a small company involved in such specialized work and where employees say they are happy, Cadence has very high levels of attrition (rank 16) and low retention (rank 17). For a company that has been around in India since 1986, tenure of senior management is also low (rank 14). In fact, on its overall parameters the company came in reasonably low at #13. This is not a new trend this year. The company was similarly a little low on most HR parameters last year at #15. This is an area of concern that the company needs to address.