Firm: North Highland Headquarters: Atlanta Billable Consultants: 650 U.S., 500 from partner firms overseas Who knew? North Highland has only a 4.5 percent voluntary turnover rate.

Own your life; own your career; own your company.” That’s the phrase Daniel Reardon, president and CEO of North Highland, says drives his Atlanta-based employee-owned consulting firm. While the idea of personal responsibility is nothing new, Reardon is quick to point out all the ways that North Highland stands out from the crowd. The most notable one for the management and technology consulting firm is the lack of mandatory travel. A full third of his consultants don’t leave their home territory, and Reardon says it has no negative effect on their careers.

“It’s very hard on the families,” Reardon says of the toll travel can take, and he explains the absence of it is one of the firm’s most attractive qualities—and as such gets him the talent he needs. “We’re able to pick up what I think are the best consultants out there who have just reached that point in their lives where they need a little bit more predictability or stability.”

The reason North Highland’s employees aren’t racking up the frequent flier miles?  “Our policy is we don’t get on a plane to go looking for clients,” he says, adding, “We focus on the companies that are in the cities where we’re located.” That means Coca-Cola in Atlanta and Comcast in Philadelphia, as well as top firms in North Highland’s 12 other U.S. locations. The firm has international partner offices as well that fall under the name Highland. These offices add an additional 500 employees to the roster, bringing the total to 1,150 worldwide.

And employees who took our survey can attest to the travel-free lifestyle. Christopher Miller, a consultant based in the Atlanta office who has been with the firm for a little over two years, says he’s only traveled one day in his tenure there. And no one was more skeptical than he was when he was considering working at the firm, he says.

“Our policy is we don’t get on a plane to go looking for clients.  We focus on the companies that are in the cities where we’re located... . Our purpose is to change the way peopl think about consulting.” —Daniel Reardon CEO, North Highland

Reardon says another area where North Highland strays from the ordinary is in its compensation model—something survey participants from the firm often commented on. “The fixed [component] is ten or fifteen percent lower than probably what [consultants] were getting elsewhere,” Reardon says, “but the variable piece is designed to reward the behaviors that grow the business, and there are five or six different variables, and you can double your fixed.” Miller, for one, is a fan of the model: “Wow,” he says, “I just spent seven-plus years of my life in consulting basically working and traveling for my base salary. What a joke.”

The culture is something Reardon is especially proud of, and is something that when asked to describe in one word, says: “Healthy.” He says that environment is maintained in part through cultural assessment tests prospective hires must take. “It only takes one person to make a significant negative impact on a culture.”

Reardon says the culture at North Highland is not only something that benefits employees, it also benefits clients, and it ties into where North Highland is headed next. “Our purpose is to change the way people think about consulting. We went through an era where there were a lot of consultant jokes going around. So that’s one of the questions we ask our clients, ‘Are we changing the way you think about consulting?’ So far, they’re telling us definitely yes. But to finish that vision, we have to go hit more cities.”