Valassis Earns Five Sloan Awards for Workplace Flexibility
2010 Brings Recognition for Culture, Growth and Technology
Livonia, MI (Vocus/PRWEB) December 17, 2010
Valassis (NYSE: VCI), one of the nation’s leading media and marketing services companies, announced today that it has been recognized five times in 2010 with the prestigious Alfred P. Sloan Award for Business Excellence in Workplace Flexibility. Honorable mentions have been received for the following Valassis locations:
Corporate Headquarters, Livonia, Michigan; Dallas, Texas; Houston, Texas; NCH Marketing Services (a Valassis company), Deerfield, Illinois; and Windsor, Connecticut.
This award recognizes employers of all sizes and types across the country that are using flexibility as a strategy to increase workplace effectiveness and yield positive business results. As an honorable mention recipient of the 2010 Sloan Awards, Valassis ranks in the top 20% of employers nationally in terms of its programs, policies and culture for creating an effective and flexible workplace.
“Being considered a great place to work by our employees is important to us and this recognition draws attention to the programs we have in place and is a reflection of the great people who work here,” said Todd Wiseley, General Counsel and Senior Vice President, Administration. “We take pride in the 15 awards in 2010 recognizing Valassis for our workplace flexibility, culture, growth and technology.” Among the awards Valassis has received in 2010 are:
100 Fastest-Growing Companies by FORTUNE magazine; InformationWeek 500, Top Technology Innovators; Printing Industries of America, Best Workplace in the Americas Award; Best Adoption-friendly Workplace by the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption; Top Workplaces, Detroit, Houston and Milwaukee; and Top 100 Employer, The Black Collegian.
The selection process for the Sloan Awards is rigorous. First, the company’s flexibility programs and practices were measured against national norms from Families and Work Institute’s National Study of Employers. Employees were then surveyed confidentially on their access to flexible work options, the supportiveness of the culture and on nationally tested measures of workplace effectiveness.
“What makes this honor so special is that employees have corroborated this, affirming that it is indeed an effective and flexible workplace,” said Ellen Galinsky, president of Families and Work Institute (FWI).
FWI’s nationally representative studies of employees and employers have found that flexibility is a key ingredient in creating effective workplaces that can yield important work-related outcomes. In fact, employees in effective and flexible workplaces report having greater engagement on the job, greater job satisfaction and greater desire to stay with the organization.
The Alfred P. Sloan Awards for Business Excellence in Workplace Flexibility are part of the national When Work Works project, an ongoing initiative of Families and Work Institute, the Institute for a Competitive Workforce (an affiliate of the U. S. Chamber of Commerce) and the Twiga Foundation.
About Valassis
Valassis is one of the nation’s leading media and marketing services companies, offering unparalleled reach and scale to more than 15,000 advertisers. Its RedPlum™ media portfolio delivers value on a weekly basis to over 100 million shoppers across a multi-media platform – in-home, in-store and in-motion. Through its digital offerings, including redplum. com, consumers can find compelling national and local deals. Headquartered in Livonia, Michigan with approximately 7,000 associates in 28 states and eight countries, Valassis is widely recognized for its associate and corporate citizenship programs, including its America’s Looking for Its Missing Children® program. Valassis companies include Valassis Direct Mail, Inc., Valassis Canada, Promotion Watch, Valassis Relationship Marketing Systems, LLC and NCH Marketing Services, Inc. For more information, visit http://www. valassis. com or http://www. redplum. com. To learn about advertising opportunities with RedPlum, please call 1-800-437-0479.
Valassis Cautionary Statements Regarding Forward-looking Statements
Certain statements found in this document constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, the following: price competition from our existing competitors; new competitors in any of our businesses; a shift in client preference for different promotional materials, strategies or coupon delivery methods, including, without limitation, as a result of declines in newspaper circulation; an unforeseen increase in paper or postal costs; changes which affect the businesses of our clients and lead to reduced sales promotion spending, including, without limitation, a decrease of marketing budgets which are generally discretionary in nature and easier to reduce in the short-term than other expenses; our substantial indebtedness, and ability to refinance such indebtedness, if necessary, and our ability to incur additional indebtedness, may affect our financial health; the financial condition, including bankruptcies, of our clients, suppliers, senior secured credit facility lenders or other counterparties; certain covenants in our debt documents could adversely restrict our financial and operating flexibility; ongoing disruptions in the credit markets that make it difficult for companies to secure financing; fluctuations in the amount, timing, pages, weight and kinds of advertising pieces from period to period, due to a change in our clients’ promotional needs, inventories and other factors; our failure to attract and retain qualified personnel may affect our business and results of operations; a rise in interest rates could increase our borrowing costs; we may be required to recognize additional impairment charges against goodwill and intangible assets in the future; possible governmental regulation or litigation affecting aspects of our business; the credit and liquidity crisis in the financial markets could continue to affect our results of operations and financial condition; uncertainty in the application and interpretation of applicable state sales tax laws may expose us to additional sales tax liability; and general economic conditions, whether nationally, internationally, or in the market areas in which we conduct our business, including the adverse impact of the ongoing economic downturn on the marketing expenditures and activities of our clients and prospective clients as well as our vendors, with whom we rely on to provide us with quality materials at the right prices and in a timely manner. These and other risks and uncertainties related to our business are described in greater detail in our filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, including our reports on Forms 10-K and 10-Q and the foregoing information should be read in conjunction with these filings. We disclaim any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Mary Broaddus
Director, Investor Relations and Corporate Communications
734-591-7375
Broaddusm(at)valassis(dot)com
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