Great Place to Work® and Fortune Name The Container Store Among Best Workplaces for Women and Diversity

DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

The Container Store TCS is honored to announce that Great Place to Work^® and Fortune have recognized the retailer as one of the 100 Best Workplaces for Women and 50 Best Workplaces for Diversity. Both recognitions are based on evaluations from more than 100,000 employees from more than 600 different companies with published Great Place to Work^® Reviews.

From the 637 companies studied to determine the 100 Best Workplaces for Women, researchers' analysis of women and men's results show that honorees, including The Container Store, create a more consistent and inclusive environment for both genders across a range of day-to-day trust-building behaviors, including employees' access to special recognition, fair treatment regardless of role, and management's approachability.

"When it comes to hiring, our ultimate goal is to find GREAT people. The first place we look is among our own customers – the majority of whom are women," said Kip Tindell, Chairman & CEO of The Container Store. "We're proud that our employee base is 65% female and 13 of our top 20 management positions are also held by women."

Additionally, The Container Store has been named to the list of 50 Top Workplaces for Diversity. The list includes companies that have made diversity a top priority and surveyed more than 128,000 women and 69,000 minority employees. The survey gauged everything from how well-represented women and minorities are within the workforce, management and executive positions to how positively they experience their workplace.

In conjunction with these two workplace honors, The Container Store has launched a series of seven, 90-second videos on their culture blog – WhatWeStandFor.com – highlighting each of the retailer's Foundation Principles^™. These principles are the retailer's basic and fundamental business philosophies about treating employees, customers, vendors, shareholders and the community with respect and dignity. To learn more about their Foundation Principles, visit WhatWeStandFor.com or view each of the seven video links below:

• 1 Great Person = 3 Good People
• Communication IS Leadership
• Fill the other guy's basket to the brim. Making money then becomes an easy proposition.
• The Best Selection, Service & Price
• Intuition does not come to an unprepared mind. You need to train before it happens.
• Man in the Desert Selling
• Air of Excitement!

About The Container Store

The Container Store TCS is the nation's leading retailer of storage and organization products and the only retailer solely devoted to the category. The company originated the concept of storage and organization of retailing when it opened its first store in 1978. Today, the retailer has 76 store locations nationwide that each average 25,000 square feet. The Container Store has over 10,000 products - many of them multifunctional - to help customers save space and, ultimately, save them time. As the pace of modern life accelerates, being organized is not a luxury but a necessity. The Container Store is devoted to making customers more productive, relaxed and happier by selling customized organization solutions such as custom closets using its new TCS Closets™ collection and its elfa shelving and drawer system. Since its inception, the retailer has nurtured an employee-first culture and couples its one-of-a-kind product collection with a high level of customer service delivered by its highly trained organization experts. The Company has been named to FORTUNE magazine's 100 Best Companies To Work For^® 16 years in a row. Visit www.containerstore.com for more information about store locations, the product collection and services offered - including the retailer's new, personalized in-home organization service Contained Home - and to sign up for the POP! Perfectly Organized Perks program. Discover The Container Store's storage and organization solutions at work in real spaces of its customers' and employees' homes along with tips, advice and product sneak peeks at the retailer's new lifestyle blog, Container Stories (containerstore.com/blog). To find out more about The Container Store's unique culture, Foundation Principles and devotion to Conscious Capitalism, visit the retailer's culture blog at www.whatwestandfor.com or read Chairman & CEO Kip Tindell's book UNCONTAINABLE: How Passion, Commitment, and Conscious Capitalism Built a Business Where Everyone Thrives (available at The Container Store, www.uncontainable.com and anywhere books are sold).

About The 100 Best Workplaces for Women 2015

The 100 Best Workplaces for Women is a "best of the best" ranking. The winners come from a universe of approximately 650 companies with published Great Place to Work® Reviews, meaning they are serious about creating a great workplace and comfortable with transparency.

To create this list, Great Place to Work® surveyed 135,689 women at 637 companies, who answered a detailed questionnaire considering everything from the fairness of their company's promotions, to who has access to information and leadership, the level of support for employees' personal lives, and the degree of inclusiveness and connection they feel with colleagues. Women answered 58 questions in total, including an overall assessment of whether the company is a great place to work.

These survey results have a high degree of reliability in accurately reflecting employees' experiences: In statistical terms, women's survey results all meet a 95 percent confidence level and a margin of error of 6.5 percent or less.

The survey results are the biggest reason companies appear on this ranking, since two-thirds of each company's score is based on women's reports. The remaining third takes into account how well-represented women are within the workforce overall and in management and executive positions. We also gave higher scores to companies who achieved the highest level of parity between men and women in their organization – meaning, companies where not only the most women reported the company performed well on an index of fairness-related questions, but also those where just as many women had that experience as men.

About The Best Workplaces for Diversity 2015

The 50 Best Workplaces for Diversity is a "best of the best" ranking. The winners come from a universe of approximately 630 companies with published Great Place to Work® Reviews, meaning they are serious about creating a great workplace and comfortable with transparency. Companies needed to have at least 30 employees with at least 15% women and 15% racial/ethnical minorities in order to be considered for the list.

To determine the winners, Great Place to Work® surveyed 128,000 women and over 69,000 minorities at 630 companies who answered a detailed questionnaire considering everything from how comfortable they are being themselves; the degree of favoritism or insider politics they observe in the workplace; the fairness of promotions; the feeling of honest connection with coworkers; their access to senior leadership; and who receives information and professional development and who doesn't. Employees answered 58 questions in total, including an overall assessment of whether the company is a great place to work.

Survey results have a high degree of reliability in accurately reflecting employees' experiences: In statistical terms, women's and minorities' survey results both meet a 95 percent confidence level and a margin of error of 6.5 percent or less.

These survey results are the biggest reason companies appear on this ranking, since two-thirds of each company's score is based on women's and minorities' reports. The remaining third of each company's score takes into account how well-represented women and minorities are within the workforce, management and executive positions; how positively they experience their workplace on an index of factors where women and minorities tend to have a less positive experience than their colleagues; and how favorably women and minorities' experiences compared to the 139,000 men and 184,000 Caucasians also surveyed.

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