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By James Tehrani
May. 22, 2016
To excel at everything from talent management to recruiting to benefits to diversity is not an easy task. To shine in those areas year after year is exemplary.
Now in its third year, the Workforce 100 recognizes companies that excel in various areas of human resources during the course of the previous year. To determine which companies make the list, Workforce editors work with researchers from the Human Capital Media Advisory Group, the magazine’s research arm.
To find out which companies are the best for HR management, the research team created a statistical formula to shift through publicly available data on HR performance to separate the best from the rest. This year, to give employees more of a “say,” we’ve asked recruiting and job review website Glassdoor Inc. to provide data on what workers are saying about the companies that made our short list. From there, we combined that information with the public data available to create our 2016 Workforce 100 list.
American Express Inc. was the top company on this year’s list, and it has made the list all three years. Thirty-three other companies have also made all of the lists.
Please also read: The 2017 Workforce 100 List
What interested us was that, even though the criteria have changed each year, there are a number of companies that continue to make the Workforce 100 list.
We decided to take a closer look at what some of these companies are doing to create a culture that their people can be proud of. To get the scoop, Associate Editor Sarah Sipek interviewed executives from companies such as AT&T Inc., Accenture and Cisco Systems Inc.
We congratulate all the companies that made this year’s Workforce 100 list.
—James Tehrani, managing editor
Industry: Financial services
Number of Employees: 55,000
Performance Index: 9.653
Headquarters: New York
Industry: Technology
Number of Employees: 62,000
Performance Index: 9.561
Headquarters: Mountain View, California
Industry: Consulting services
Number of Employees: 373,000
Performance Index: 9.432
Headquarters: Chicago
Industry: Insurance
Number of Employees: 28,000
Performance Index: 9.176
Headquarters: San Antonio
Industry: Telecommunications
Number of Employees: 281,000
Performance Index: 9.066
Headquarters: Dallas
Industry: Technology/Consulting Services
Number of Employees: 378,000
Performance Index: 9.048
Headquarters: Armonk, New York
Industry: Power/Consumer Products
Number of Employees: 305,000
Performance Index: 9.042
Headquarters: Fairfield, Connecticut
Industry: Consumer products
Number of Employees: 110,000
Performance Index: 8.729
Headquarters: Cincinnati
Industry: Consumer products
Number of Employees: 63,000
Performance Index: 8.695
Headquarters: Beaverton, Oregon
Industry: Professional services
Number of Employees: 174,000
Performance Index: 8.690
Headquarters: Amstelveen, Netherlands
Industry: Aerospace/defense
Number of Employees: 126,000
Performance Index: 8.654
Headquarters: Bethesda, Maryland
Industry: Pharma/consumer products
Number of Employees: 127,000
Performance Index: 8.642
Headquarters: New Brunswick, New Jersey
Industry: Biotechnology
Number of Employees: 14,000
Performance Index: 8.583
Headquarters: South San Francisco, California
Industry: Consulting services
Number of Employees: 225,000
Performance Index: 8.559
Headquarters: New York
Industry: Social media
Number of Employees: 13,000
Performance Index: 8.54
Headquarters: Menlo Park, California
Industry: Financial services
Number of Employees: 37,000
Performance Index: 8.536
Headquarters: New York
Industry: Lodging/hospitality
Number of Employees: 128,000
Performance Index: 8.504
Headquarters: Bethesda, Maryland
Industry: Technology
Number of Employees: 107,000
Performance Index: 8.496
Headquarters: Santa Clara, California
Industry: Financial services
Number of Employees: 45,000
Performance Index: 8.452
Headquarters: McLean, Virginia
Industry: Technology
Number of Employees: 71,000
Performance Index: 8.361
Headquarters: San Jose, California
Industry: Consumer products
Number of Employees: 123,000
Performance Index: 8.204
Headquarters: Atlanta
Industry: Financial services
Number of Employees: 235,000
Performance Index: 8.086
Headquarters: New York
Industry: Financial services
Number of Employees: 12,000
Performance Index: 8.070
Headquarters: Detroit
Industry: Software
Number of Employees: 19,000
Performance Index: 8.060
Headquarters: San Francisco
Industry: Banking
Number of Employees: 65,000
Performance Index: 8.001
Headquarters: Minneapolis
Industry: Technology
Number of Employees: 110,000
Performance Index: 7.910
Headquarters: Cupertino, California
Industry: Telecommunications
Number of Employees: 153,000
Performance Index: 7.908
Headquarters: Philadelphia
Industry: Consumer products
Number of Employees: 89,000
Performance Index: 7.889
Headquarters: St. Paul, Minnesota
Industry: Telecommunications
Number of Employees: 173,000
Performance Index: 7.888
Headquarters: New York
Industry: Telecommunications
Number of Employees: 33,000
Performance Index: 7.863
Headquarters: San Diego
Industry: Consulting services
Number of Employees: 11,000
Performance Index: 7.807
Headquarters: Boston
Industry: Manufacturing
Number of Employees: 55,000
Performance Index: 7.789
Headquarters: Columbus, Indiana
Industry: Energy
Number of Employees: 93,000
Performance Index: 7.780
Headquarters: The Hague, Netherlands
Industry: Consulting services
Number of Employees: 208,000
Performance Index: 7.770
Headquarters: New York
Industry: Computer storage
Number of Employees: 72,000
Performance Index: 7.765
Headquarters: Hopkinton, Massachusetts
Industry: Financial Services
Number of Employees: 265,000
Performance Index: 7.748
Headquarters: San Francisco
Industry: Information technology
Number of Employees: 14,000
Performance Index: 7.746
Headquarters: Cary, North Carolina
Industry: Aviation
Number of Employees: 159,000
Performance Index: 7.715
Headquarters: Chicago
Industry: Consulting services
Number of Employees: 23,000
Performance Index: 7.707
Headquarters: McLean, Virginia
Industry: Insurance
Number of Employees: 33,000
Performance Index: 7.678
Headquarters: Columbus, Ohio
Industry: Consumer products
Number of Employees: 263,000
Performance Index: 7.668
Headquarters: Purchase, New York
Industry: Mass media/entertainment
Number of Employees: 185,000
Performance Index: 7.621
Headquarters: Burbank, California
Industry: Airline
Number of Employees: 84,000
Performance Index: 7.597
Headquarters: Atlanta
Industry: Consulting services
Number of Employees: 6,000*
Performance Index: 7.594
Headquarters: Boston
Industry: Retail
Number of Employees: 180,000
Performance Index: 7.587
Headquarters: Lakeland, Florida
Industry: Financial services
Number of Employees: 11,000
Performance Index: 7.553
Headquarters: Purchase, New York
Industry: Consumer products/retail
Number of Employees: 238,000
Performance Index: 7.498
Headquarters: Seattle
Industry: Package delivery/freight
Number of Employees: 444,000
Performance Index: 7.453
Headquarters: Atlanta
Industry: Agricultural biotech
Number of Employees: 23,000
Performance Index: 7.427
Headquarters: St. Louis
Industry: Airline
Number of Employees: 50,000
Performance Index: 7.416
Headquarters: Dallas
Industry: Chemicals
Number of Employees: 112,000
Performance Index: 7.412
Headquarters: Ludwigshafen, Germany
Industry: Technology
Number of Employees: 109,000*
Performance Index: 7.366
Headquarters: Round Rock, Texas
Industry: Retail
Number of Employees: 45,000
Performance Index: 7.358
Headquarters: Rochester, New York
Industry: Chemicals
Number of Employees: 5,000
Performance Index: 7.320
Headquarters: The Woodlands, Texas
Industry: Lodging/hospitality
Number of Employees: 97,000
Performance Index: 7.319
Headquarters: Chicago
Industry: Retail
Number of Employees: 20,000
Performance Index: 7.297
Headquarters: Tulsa, Oklahoma
Industry: Financial services
Number of Employees: 49,000
Performance Index: 7.286
Headquarters: Newark, New Jersey
Industry: Retail
Number of Employees: 231,000
Performance Index: 7.266
Headquarters: Seattle
Industry: Social media
Number of Employees: 4,000
Performance Index: 7.255
Headquarters: San Francisco
Industry: Social media
Number of Employees: 9,000
Performance Index: 7.246
Headquarters: Mountain View, California
Industry: Chemicals
Number of Employees: 15,000
Performance Index: 7.238
Headquarters: Kingsport, Tennessee
Industry: Consumer products
Number of Employees: 172,000
Performance Index: 7.214
Headquarters: London
Industry: Software
Number of Employees: 14,000
Performance Index: 7.213
Headquarters: San Jose, California
Industry: Consulting services
Number of Employees: 212,000
Performance Index: 7.212
Headquarters: London
Industry: Financial services
Number of Employees: 42,000
Performance Index: 7.208
Headquarters: Boston
Industry: Technology/consumer products
Number of Employees: 240,000
Performance Index: 7.175
Headquarters: Palo Alto, California
Industry: Software/consumer products
Number of Employees: 118,000
Performance Index: 7.154
Headquarters: Redmond, Washington
Industry: Insurance/health care
Number of Employees: 186,000
Performance Index: 7.149
Headquarters: Oakland, California
Industry: Consumer products
Number of Employees: 43,000
Performance Index: 7.148
Headquarters: Irving, Texas
Industry: Medical technologies
Number of Employees: 4,000
Performance Index: 7.141
Headquarters: Basel, Switzerland
Industry: Insurance
Number of Employees: 8,000
Performance Index: 7.139
Headquarters: Detroit
Industry: Telecommunications
Number of Employees: 45,000
Performance Index: 7.134
Headquarters: Bellevue, Washington
Industry: Consumer products
Number of Employees: 38,000
Performance Index: 7.130
Headquarters: New York
Industry: Retail
Number of Employees: 117,000
Performance Index: 7.128
Headquarters: Issaquah, Washington
Industry: Retail
Number of Employees: 73,000
Performance Index: 7.124
Headquarters: Seattle
Industry: Consumer products
Number of Employees: 57,000
Performance Index: 7.103
Headquarters: Moline, Illinois
Industry: Health care
Number of Employees: 15,000
Performance Index: 7.095
Headquarters: Jacksonville, Florida
Industry: Financial services
Number of Employees: 13,000
Performance Index: 7.084
Headquarters: Vienna, Virginia
Industry: Health care
Number of Employees: 41,000
Performance Index: 7.060
Headquarters: Bagsværd, Denmark
Industry: Insurance
Number of Employees: 65,000
Performance Index: 7.059
Headquarters: Bloomington, Illinois
Industry: Pharmaceuticals
Number of Employees: 68,000
Performance Index: 7.058
Headquarters: Kenilworth, New Jersey
Industry: Health care
Number of Employees: 18,000
Performance Index: 7.036
Headquarters: Arlington, Texas
Industry: Energy
Number of Employees: 95,000
Performance Index: 6.998
Headquarters: Houston
Industry: Health care technology
Number of Employees: 22,000
Performance Index: 6.983
Headquarters: Kansas City, Missouri
Industry: Technology
Number of Employees: 3,000
Performance Index: 6.980
Headquarters: Maryland Heights, Missouri
Industry: Energy
Number of Employees: 74,000
Performance Index: 6.975
Headquarters: Irving, Texas
Industry: Health care
Number of Employees: 64,000
Performance Index: 6.970
Headquarters: Rochester, Minnesota
Industry: Software
Number of Employees: 5,000
Performance Index: 6.969
Headquarters: Pleasanton, California
Industry: Research
Number of Employees: 43,000
Performance Index: 6.936
Headquarters: New York
Industry: Consumer services
Number of Employees: 93,000
Performance Index: 6.914
Headquarters: St. Louis
Industry: Lodging/hospitality
Number of Employees: 164,000
Performance Index: 6.906
Headquarters: McLean, Virginia
Industry: Software
Number of Employees: 2,000
Performance Index: 6.905
Headquarters: Westlake, Ohio
Industry: Energy
Number of Employees: 15,000
Performance Index: 6.903
Headquarters: San Mateo, California
Industry: Restaurant
Number of Employees: 420,000
Performance Index: 6.902
Headquarters: Oak Brook, Illinois
Industry: Health care technologies
Number of Employees: 27,000
Performance Index: 6.896
Headquarters: Kalamazoo, Michigan
Industry: Health care
Number of Employees: 35,000
Performance Index: 6.882
Headquarters: Dublin, Ohio
Industry: Transportation
Number of Employees: 47,000
Performance Index: 6.863
Headquarters: Omaha, Nebraska
Industry: Automotive
Number of Employees: 4,000
Performance Index: 6.854
Headquarters: Deerfield Beach, Florida
The Workforce 100 is the rank order and scores of the 100 companies that performed best in seven core areas: workplace culture, employee benefits, diversity and inclusion, employee development and talent management, human resources innovation, leadership development and talent acquisition. The working assumption behind the list is that high performance in these core categories provides a reasonable proxy for overall HR excellence.
To create the ranking, researchers at the Human Capital Media Advisory Group, the research arm of Workforce magazine, collected available public data from a representative list of established benchmarking and ranking programs in the identified categories and partnered with Glassdoor to include data on employee satisfaction in key areas. This allowed researchers to generate a score based equally on depth and breadth of outside recognition and internal recognition.
The reason for this change in methodology was to create a ranked list that made comprehensive HR participation and employee feedback on their respective employers the primary focus rather than excellence in one core area. Using this method, organizations that are recognized on multiple lists but do not perform perfectly will be ranked higher than organizations that are ranked in one area but perform better in a single discipline. In addition, organizations that are not as heavily represented in external recognition programs are still acknowledged for their HR efforts through the posted opinions of their employees.
To generate the score, researchers first looked at how many lists with HR relevance a particular company appeared on, which makes up half of the total score (maximum of 5 points). The other half of the score (also with a maximum of 5 points) was derived from an average of the company’s Glassdoor performance in areas pertaining to HR. These scores are then added together to create the final score.
Component Lists:
World’s Best Multinational Workplaces, 2015 (Great Place to Work Institute)
Best Small Workplaces, 2015 (Great Place to Work Institute)
Best Medium Workplaces, 2015 (Great Place to Work Institute)
100 Best Companies to Work For, 2015 (Fortune)
America’s Best Employers, 2015 (Forbes)
Best Places to Work, 2015 (Glassdoor)
Candidate Experience Awards, 2015 (Talent Board)
Best Companies for Healthy Lifestyles, 2015 (National Business Group on Health)
The Best 401(k) Plans, 2015 (Bloomberg)
10 Best Companies to Retire From, 2015 (Fortune)
Diversity Value Index, 2015 (Talent Management)
Best Companies for Vets, 2015 (Military Times)
Diversity Equality Index, 2014 (AAPD)
100 Best Companies, 2015 (Working Mother)
Best Workplaces for Diversity, 2015 (Great Place to Work Institute)
40 Best Companies for Diversity, 2015 (Black Enterprise)
Top 50 Companies for Diversity, 2015 (DiversityInc)
Best Companies for Leadership, 2014 (Hay Group*)
Top Companies for Leaders, 2014 (Aon Hewitt)
Best Companies for Leaders, 2015 (Chief Executive)
20 Best Companies for Leadership, 2016 (Bloomberg Businessweek)
World’s Most Admired Companies, category Ability to Attract, Develop, and Retain Talent, 2015 (Fortune)
The World’s Most Innovative Corporate Human Resources Departments, 2015 (Human Resources MBA)
The Most Admired for HR, 2014 (HR Executive)
Career Opportunities Rating
Compensation & Benefits Rating
Culture & Values Rating
Work/Life Balance Rating
Recommend to a Friend Rating
Note: Some of the component lists are compiled by active participation from the companies listed and therefore do not recognize companies that decline to participate.
*Now known as Korn Ferry Hay Group
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