Why Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For are beating out the competition
What are the 100 Best Companies to Work For doing right? Fortune ran the numbers for our most valued readers to answer just that.
This morning, Fortune published its 2020 ranking of the 100 Best Companies to Work For, with the top slots going to Hilton, Ultimate Software, Wegmans Food Markets, Cisco, and Workday. The top ranked firms are often the bar-setters for employee benefits and perks and more recently setting business standards for inclusion.
But what are the 100 Best Companies to Work For doing right? Why should you want to work there? And what should your business consider emulating? Fortune ran the numbers for our most valued readers to answer just that.
Numbers you should know:
$1.15 trillion
- … the total combined worldwide revenue of these 100 firms. That’s just shy of the $1.2 trillion gross domestic product of Mexico.
34%
- … the average percentage of these 100 companies workforces that are minorities. And 16% firms on the ranking have workforces where minority racial groups make up more than half of its employees.
44%
- … companies on the ranking offer on-site medical care. That includes No. 6 ranked Salesforce. While 12 out of 100 companies pay 100% of health care benefits for full-time employees.
3,000
- … the number of cultural events that Bank of America held for the purpose of helping employees learn about and connect with peers from different racial/ethnic, religious or country-of-origin identities other than their own.
$30,000
- … the maximum amount NVIDIA, a tech firm based in California, provides to employees to pay down their student loan debt. A total of 15 out of 100 firms offer this perk.
48%
- … the average percentage of these 100 companies’ workforces that are women. And 37% of ranked firms have a workforce that are majority women, with the highest being at Bright Horizons Family Solutions (94%) and Encompass Health Home Health & Hospice (85%).
Four deeper takeaways:
1. Employer tuition reimbursement is par for the course these days
Employees at No. 21 ranked Plante Moran can receive up to $10,000 in tuition reimbursement. The Michigan-based accounting firm has one of the most generous plans among companies on our ranking.
Firms like Plante Moran see tuition reimbursement as a great perk to both attract young professionals and grow their skills that they’ll use on the job. Just over 80% of firms offer more than $1,000 in tuition reimbursement, while 56% offer $5,000 or more.
2. Health Care and Education firms have the most female employees
The fact that firms with the most women in its workforce skews towards health care and education isn’t a huge surprise, as women have held the majority of registered nurses and teaching jobs for decades. But it’s worth noting that 12 financial services or insurance firms on the list have a majority female workforce. That includes companies like First American Financial Corp. (68%), Edward Jones (61%), and Capital One Financial (53%).
3. Telecommuting is the norm
The spread of high-speed internet and savings on commercial space, make having a telecommuting option a no-brainer for many firms. But where the top ranked firms really standout is by offering things that keep money in the pockets of employees, like subsidized on-site or off-site gyms (78%), subsidized child care (42%), and 100% paid health care cost (12%). And to help with the 9-to-5, companies like No. 77 ranked Bank of America even offer fully-paid sabbaticals.
4. Finance and insurance firms dominate the ranking
Financial service and insurance firms are notorious for paying well and offering top-notch employee benefits. That helps to explain why so many made the ranking. The highest being No. 7 ranked Edward Jones, a Missouri-based investment firm.
One more interesting number:
37%
- … the year-over-year increase in full-time or part-time positions at No. 78 ranked Total Quality Logistics. The Ohio-based freight brokerage has the highest job growth rate among companies on our ranking.
*Methodology: Fortune partners each year with people analytics firm Great Place to Work to determine the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For list. We conduct America’s largest ongoing annual workforce study, representing more than 4.1 million employees this year. To be considered, companies submit an application documenting over 200 data points describing their HR programs and practices. Great Place to Work then conducts an anonymous survey of each company’s workforce.