The Best Companies To Work For

Fortune’s annual list for 2016 is here. The major themes that emerge from the winners this year are: fairness (in pay), recognition, and gender equality. Google (Alphabet) is #1. Acuity Insurance, The Boston Consulting Group, Wegmans Food Markets, and Quicken Loans round out the top five.

Fortune compared the results from this year’s Great Place to Work Trust Index employee survey with those of their 1998 list. The result? Measures related to fairness showed the largest improvement.

People practices (the Jim Collins principle of who first, then what) that build trust across a company is one major factor that makes it a great place to work. And, that doesn’t show up on company benefits lists.

Fortune selects the firms on their list primarily based on the results of what employees report anonymously about their workplace culture. (Click here for their methodology.)

This Fortune article provides a quick summary of what Salesforce.com, Whole Foods and others are doing to make the workplace fairer – takes 2 minutes to read.

It appears that the 100 Best Companies have something to add to our national debate on fairness and economic equity – a very hot topic on the presidential campaign trail.

100 Best Companies to Work For Indistry Breakdown

See the full list of Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For at fortune.com/bestcompanies
Who didn’t make the list? One interesting company was Zappos. They missed the list for the first time in 8 years. For those interested, this related Fortune article reports on how their CEO Tony Hsieh shared the brutal facts with his company that their scores plummeted on 48 of the 58 questions. This is worth a read on the Zappos experiment with the holacracy approach (vs. hierarchal management) for team-based organizations.

Here is your takeaway. How would your employees rank your company? Would they say you are the best company to work for? Schedule part of your next monthly leadership team meeting to discuses this question and how you might improve your people practices.

Contact me to discuss the themes from this year’s list and how you can apply the principles in your business.