This year. for the second time, the economics magazine Capital carried out a survey to find "Germany's Best Employer". Based on the American "Great Place To Work", this contest resulted in a ranking of the 50 most attractive German employers. All of these companies are automatically qualified to take part in the European competition for the award  "Best Employers in the EU", which will be awarded to 100 companies.

A total of 107 companies, including many well-known large companies, from many different sectors of industry participated in the German contest 2004. The companies and their managers were evaluated on the basis of a questionnaire filled out by their employees which included aspects such as "Credibility", "Respect", "Fairness", "Pride" and "Team orientation" and a supplementary "culture audit" with the managers with personnel responsibilities. The two parts were weighted in the ratio 2:1, which meant that the employees' vote was predominant.

The employees of J. Schmalz GmbH in Glatten rated their company in the written questionnaire as a "very good place to work". The relationship between staff and management, a partnership with mutual trust, was regarded very positively. In this area, the company lay far above the average rating of the other "Top 50 Employers" in the competition. The employees also believe that the management runs the company competently and value the friendly working atmosphere evidenced, amongst other things, by the ready acceptance of new staff members and the many shared leisure activities offered by the company.

In the ranking list "Germany's Best Employer 2004", J. Schmalz GmbH took an excellent seventh place and thus beat such well-known large companies as Sick, Ford or Hugo Boss. The winner of the contest was Microsoft Deutschland.
Compared with other medium-sized companies with up to 500 employees, Schmalz finished in fourth position. Schmalz is thus qualified to participate in the contest to find the 100 best employees in the EU, whose results will be presented in London in April 2004.

The 50 German winners were announced on February 4, 2004, at an official presentation in the Hotel Adlon in Berlin, where the winners also received their awards.