Intercontinental Real Estate

AUM: $8 billion

Employees: 104

Healthy work-life balance is Intercontinental Real Estate Corp.'s mantra, as the Boston-based real estate manager is valued by its employees for a "work hard, play hard" company culture, as one employee described it.

And its employees want to be there.

"I don't feel like a number," wrote one employee.

"(A) family-oriented organization that values its employees. Hard to find these days!" said another.

The average worker has been there for 11 years, and the combined tenure is roughly 1,100 years, the company estimates.

But the firm is going even further for its employees.

"We expanded our program for maternity and paternity leave for our employees this year. We always try to exceed market terms, not just meet them," Peter Palandjian, chairman and CEO, said.

Mr. Palandjian refrained from providing additional details on the benefits, but said it "would include both time and compensation."

Intercontinental is also going to give its employees an on-site gym that is expected to open by the end of the year. Employees will have the possibility to exercise and work at the same time. "It is highly flexible, within reason," Mr. Palandjian said.

"Last year we bought a building from Harvard University that is contiguous to our headquarters for employee expansion," Mr. Palandjian said, noting there is space for up to 28 employees in the new space.

The gym will be located on the first floor of the new building.

"We also hired a full-time trainer, an employee of the company, for one-on-one sessions, but also various group training sessions," Mr. Palandjian added.

Employees also cited Intercontinental's weekly ice hockey games, running since 1996, which are held every Friday from October through April.

"It's a bit of a legendary game in Boston. My brother had one team and I had the other. Around 70% (of participants are) employees and the rest are our bankers and real estate brokers ... people we do business with," Mr. Palandjian said.