The best companies to work in 2014. Boston-based
consulting giant Bain & Co. finds itself at the top of several prestigious
rankings. It holds the No. 2 spot on Vault’s Consulting 50; it has
been named the Best Firm to Work For by Consulting magazine
for eleven consecutive years; it ranks among the Human Rights Campaign’s Best
Places to Work for LGBT Equality 2013; and today Bain was named the best
company to work for in 2014.
Online jobs and career community Glassdoor has
just unveiled its sixth annual Employees’ Choice Awards, which is a list of the
50 best places to work in the coming year.
Unlike most workplace-related awards, which
require companies to self nominate, the Employees’ Choice Award rely solely on
the input of employees who anonymously provide feedback through a survey. The
survey goes only to employees in the U.S., but many of the companies have
workers around the world.
The ranking of the top companies was determined
by taking cumulative average ratings from the half-million employees who
responded to the 18-question survey between Nov. 14, 2012 and Nov. 12, 2013.
The survey asks employees to rate their satisfaction with their company overall
and key workplace factors, such as career opportunities, compensation and
benefits, work-life balance, senior management, culture and values.
“Choosing where to go work is one of the most
stressful decisions a person can make, and it’s natural for people to want more
information so they can make better career decisions,” says Glassdoor
spokesperson Samantha Zupan. “Being recognized by employees as a ‘Best Place to
Work’ is no small achievement. The companies on our list are being honored as
it’s a reflection of their commitment to employees to create a positive and enjoyable
workplace.”
Zupan says the Employees’ Choice Awards help
give job seekers insight into the companies that keep employees satisfied year
round. “Finding a job you love is tough work but with feedback from people on
the inside, it can make the job search process easier,” she explains.
“In
addition, insights into what makes the winners ‘employers of choice’ can offer
HR and recruiting professionals at any company valuable perspective on what
works when it comes to fostering a great company culture.”
Bain was ranked as the top employer for a second
time, with an overall company rating of 4.6 out of a possible 5. The consulting
company received the highest rating in the 2012 Employees’ Choice Awards and it
ranked fourth in 2013.
A Boston-based employee wrote on the Glassdoor
site: “The best part about working at Bain is the people. The people make the
fantastic culture, provide wonderful professional development and coaching
opportunities, and make the job fun.”
Another employee of the company said it offers
“interesting, impactful work.” The San Francisco-based Bain principal went on
to say: “There is rarely a boring day, much less a boring project.”
“Bain & Company has been recognized as a
Best Place to Work in the Glassdoor Employees’ Choice Awards for all six years
that the awards have been around,” Zupan says. “Employees here frequently
comment on the opportunities to learn, the challenging work and what the
experience does for an individual’s career after having worked at Bain.”
Russ Hagey, global chief talent officer at Bain
& Company, told Glassdoor: “We are incredibly proud to be named the No. 1
Best Place to Work for the second time by Glassdoor. This ranking reflects not
only the excitement generated by working in the consulting industry but the
energy behind working at Bain. For more than 40 years, we have placed
significant focus on creating an outstanding professional and personal work experience
that in turn has fueled our growth anchored in a mission of delivering results
for clients and organizations around the globe.”
Twitter, the social networking and microblogging
giant, is second on the list with a 4.6 company rating.
With 2 ,000 employees in offices around the
world, and more than 230 million monthly active users, the newcomer prides
itself on offering its workers a “chance to think about fascinating, intricate
and important challenges every day.” The company’s corporate website says: “At
Twitter, your work will be immediately felt by many millions of people around
the globe.”
They claim to have “raucous weekly all-hands
meetings where tough questions are asked and answered because we maintain a
culture of openness and trust from the inside out.”
“Some of the best reasons to work at Twitter,
according to employees include: the consistent communication from CEO Dick
Costolo on the direction the company is headed, the great perks, the impactful
and challenging work, and notably the talented people that make up the Twitter
employee base,” Zupan says.
Twitter offers complete medical and dental
benefits, a “generous vacation policy,” a 401(k) savings plan, paid maternity
and paternity leave, catered breakfast and lunch in its San Francisco office,
gym membership reimbursement, weekly in-office yoga and pilates classes and
laundry and dry cleaning service, among other things.
A New York-based software engineer for the
company said: “It’s the ideal balance of fun and very cool work. You got all the
resources to be awesome.”
A director in San Francisco wrote: “Twitter is
an exceptionally transparent place. Senior team sets that bar very high. Also,
we are charting our own course – not copying the playbook set out by other
companies.”
Rounding out the top three with a 4.6 rating is
the Mountain View, Calif.-based social networking site LinkedIn.
Zupan says LinkedIn employees continually “sound
off about the great colleagues and collaborative work environment, a strong
sense of work-life balance, and attractive benefits and perks.”
LinkedIn has more than 4,800 full-time employees
with offices in 26 cities around the world. The company says it has the same
goals for its employees as it does for its 259 million-plus members: to help
them “find passion and purpose in their jobs and to transform their careers.”
A software engineer in Mountain View said
LinkedIn is “a company that truly cares about its employees, providing
opportunities for professional growth and career transformation. I look forward
to coming to work every day, and feel inspired by everyone around me.”
A Chicago-based manager said LinkedIn is a great
company and has a strong brand, “but what I love more is the environment I get
to work in every day. Scooters, cube decorating competitions, fund raising
events for charities, hilarious and brilliant co-workers, food, group fitness
classes, etc.”
Eastman Chemical Company and Facebook round out
the top five.
“Tech definitely dominates the 2014 list and
it’s interesting to see companies like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook as they
have all gone public within the last three years,” Zupan says. “In addition, as
with many tech companies (not just those headquartered in the San Francisco Bay
Area), these companies are constantly having to compete for top talent and so
they strive to create an attractive company culture to help with recruiting and
retention efforts.”
Of the 50 employers honored this year, seven
have been on the list since the awards’ inception in 2009, including Bain &
Company, Google, Chevron, National Instruments, Apple and CareerBuilder and
17 of them are newcomers. In addition to Twitter, Disney, Chick-fil-A, Mayo
Clinic, Wegmans and eBay are among those making their debuts this year.
“It’s important to recognize that each company
is unique and what works for one company in attracting and retaining top talent
may not work for another,” Zupan explains. “However, it is interesting to note
what perks and preference employees enjoy that influences their on-the-job
satisfaction. This type of insight paired with feedback from a company’s own
employees can help an employer to understand what attributes are attractive to
employees as well as potential recruits.”
Zupan says to become an employer of choice,
companies need to genuinely value their employees and make employee
satisfaction a priority. “Digging deeper into the companies that make this
year’s Best Places to Work list and what makes them employers of choice, we see
employees across all 50 companies speak favorably about mission-driven company
cultures, opportunities for career advancement, great colleagues and
challenging work environments,” she concludes. Click here for a full list of top best 50 companies you can work for in 2014.
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