Behind the Top 50 Best Places to Work

Last month, Glassdoor released their 5^th annual Employee Choice Awards, the Top 50 Best Places to Work list. What does it take for a company to make that list? FAQs state:

“To be considered for Glassdoor’s annual Employees’ Choice Awards, companies must have at least 25 approved company reviews every 12 months. The reviews must be provided by employees and all reviews are posted anonymously on Glassdoor. Only one review per employee per year is accepted, and each review must meet our community guidelines.”

Beyond simple policy, I was curious about the actual comments that happy employees submitted to support the top ratings. Reading through the reviews, I was struck by the similarity of the feedback about these very different organizations. Admittedly, this is a very unscientific analysis; I simply mined through the comments at the companies listed and noted some trends that jumped out at me.

Management

Committed to values
Visionary, respected leaders
Inspire others, act as mentors
Aligned with company mission and philosophy
Prioritize long-term goals over short-term goals

People

Colleagues become friends
Smart, passionate, competent coworkers
Respectful and supportive of each other
Teammates are excited to be at the office
Employees are trusted to work independently
Good problem-solving collaborations and discussions

Career

Merit-based promotions and reviews
Employees have meaningful work and responsibility
Great projects and interesting, challenging work
Easy to shift between teams, roles, and projects
Good learning opportunity and developmental experiences

Culture

No red tape
Busy but fun
Good benefits
Treated like family
Work/life balance is attainable
Modern systems and processes

What makes a Best Place to Work in your opinion?

How much do employees vs. the employer have to do with this opinion?

Eva Rykrsmith

Eva Rykrsmith is an organizational psychology practitioner. Her passion lies in bringing a psychology perspective to the business world, with the mission of creating a high-performance environment. Follow her @EvaRykr.