Dive Brief:
- Saleforce tops the list of "100 Best Companies to Work For" in 2018, sponsored by Great Place to Work and Fortune. Wegmans Food Markets, Ultimate Software, The Boston Consulting Group and Edward Jones round out the top five.
- The list is based on feedback provided by more than 315,000 workers, Fortune said. Examples of positive reviews include: “I feel good about the ways we contribute to the community"; "I am given the resources and equipment to do my job"; "We have special and unique benefits here"; "Management is honest and ethical in its business practices"; "Management trusts people to do a good job without watching over their shoulders"; and "People celebrate special events around here."
- According to Great Place to Work and Fortune, workers who thought their company was a best place to work were four times as likely to give more of themselves to get the job done.
Dive Insight:
Salesforce jumped seven spots from last year's Fortune/Best Place to Work rankings to claim No. 1 in 2018. The company made headlines when its CEO, Marc Benioff, declared the company had effectively zeroed out its gender pay gap with $6 million worth of salary adjustments. Salesforce also finished in the top five of Fortune's "50 Best Places to Work for Parents," released in November, after demonstrating an organizational commitment to work-life balance and paid leave policies that help working parents.
These factors are all the more striking considering the company Salesforce dethroned: Google. Named the best place to work by the same outlet in 2017, Google didn't make an appearance at all in Fortune's list of 100 companies this year, and is the only one of the 2017 top five to not return to the list for another year. It's mysterious for a company that is often credited by outsiders with introducing several notable workplace and benefits trends in the past two decades.
Google, like its Silicon Valley competitors, has struggled with diverse representation within its workforce. The company also became a flash point for several diversity-related issues in the past year, from the explosive James Damore manifesto to the reportedly employee-made spreadsheet that documented pay disparity at the company.
Fortune's updated rankings are a potential warning to HR departments in the tech industry and beyond: companies that drop the ball when dealing with sensitive issues like pay transparency won't win accolades from employees, regardless of their reputation or benefits.
Other workplace attributes that have rated well among workers in previous studies include a sense of empowerment, honesty, ethics, trust, benefits, recognition and community involvement.
