HR Administration

2016 Workforce 100: Ranking the World’s Top Companies for HR

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

WF_100_2016_Logo_FINAL-01

1.  American Express Inc.

Industry: Financial services
Number of Employees: 55,000
Performance Index: 9.653
Headquarters: New York

2.  Google Inc.

Industry: Technology
Number of Employees: 62,000
Performance Index: 9.561
Headquarters: Mountain View, California

3.  Accenture

Industry: Consulting services
Number of Employees: 373,000
Performance Index: 9.432
Headquarters: Chicago

4.  USAA

Industry: Insurance
Number of Employees: 28,000
Performance Index: 9.176
Headquarters: San Antonio

5.  AT&T Inc.

Industry: Telecommunications
Number of Employees: 281,000
Performance Index: 9.066
Headquarters: Dallas

6.  IBM Corp.

Industry: Technology/Consulting Services
Number of Employees: 378,000
Performance Index: 9.048
Headquarters: Armonk, New York

7.  General Electric Co.

Industry: Power/Consumer Products
Number of Employees: 305,000
Performance Index: 9.042
Headquarters: Fairfield, Connecticut

8.  Procter & Gamble Co.

Industry: Consumer products
Number of Employees: 110,000
Performance Index: 8.729
Headquarters: Cincinnati

9.  Nike Inc.

Industry: Consumer products
Number of Employees: 63,000
Performance Index: 8.695
Headquarters: Beaverton, Oregon

10.  KPMG

Industry: Professional services
Number of Employees: 174,000
Performance Index: 8.690
Headquarters: Amstelveen, Netherlands

11.  Lockheed Martin

Industry: Aerospace/defense
Number of Employees: 126,000
Performance Index: 8.654
Headquarters: Bethesda, Maryland

12.  Johnson & Johnson

Industry: Pharma/consumer products
Number of Employees: 127,000
Performance Index: 8.642
Headquarters: New Brunswick, New Jersey

13.  Genentech Inc.

Industry: Biotechnology
Number of Employees: 14,000
Performance Index: 8.583
Headquarters: South San Francisco, California

14.  Deloitte

Industry: Consulting services
Number of Employees: 225,000
Performance Index: 8.559
Headquarters: New York

15.  Facebook Inc.

Industry: Social media
Number of Employees: 13,000
Performance Index: 8.54
Headquarters: Menlo Park, California

16.  Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Industry: Financial services
Number of Employees: 37,000
Performance Index: 8.536
Headquarters: New York

17.  Marriott International Inc.

Industry: Lodging/hospitality
Number of Employees: 128,000
Performance Index: 8.504
Headquarters: Bethesda, Maryland

18.  Intel Corp.

Industry: Technology
Number of Employees: 107,000
Performance Index: 8.496
Headquarters: Santa Clara, California

19.  Capital One Financial Corp.

Industry: Financial services
Number of Employees: 45,000
Performance Index: 8.452
Headquarters: McLean, Virginia

20.  Cisco Systems Inc.

Industry: Technology
Number of Employees: 71,000
Performance Index: 8.361
Headquarters: San Jose, California

21.  Coca-Cola Co.

Industry: Consumer products
Number of Employees: 123,000
Performance Index: 8.204
Headquarters: Atlanta

22.  JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Industry: Financial services
Number of Employees: 235,000
Performance Index: 8.086
Headquarters: New York

23.  Quicken Loans Inc.

Industry: Financial services
Number of Employees: 12,000
Performance Index: 8.070
Headquarters: Detroit

24.  salesforce.com inc.

Industry: Software
Number of Employees: 19,000
Performance Index: 8.060
Headquarters: San Francisco

25.  U.S. Bank

Industry: Banking
Number of Employees: 65,000
Performance Index: 8.001
Headquarters: Minneapolis

26.  Apple Inc.

Industry: Technology
Number of Employees: 110,000
Performance Index: 7.910
Headquarters: Cupertino, California

27.  Comcast Corp.

Industry: Telecommunications
Number of Employees: 153,000
Performance Index: 7.908
Headquarters: Philadelphia

28.  3M Co., The

Industry: Consumer products
Number of Employees: 89,000
Performance Index: 7.889
Headquarters: St. Paul, Minnesota

29.  Verizon Communications

Industry: Telecommunications
Number of Employees: 173,000
Performance Index: 7.888
Headquarters: New York

30.  Qualcomm Inc.

Industry: Telecommunications
Number of Employees: 33,000
Performance Index: 7.863
Headquarters: San Diego

31.  Boston Consulting Group

Industry: Consulting services
Number of Employees: 11,000
Performance Index: 7.807
Headquarters: Boston

32.  Cummins Inc.

Industry: Manufacturing
Number of Employees: 55,000
Performance Index: 7.789
Headquarters: Columbus, Indiana

33.  Royal Dutch Shell

Industry: Energy
Number of Employees: 93,000
Performance Index: 7.780
Headquarters: The Hague, Netherlands

34.  PricewaterhouseCoopers

Industry: Consulting services
Number of Employees: 208,000
Performance Index: 7.770
Headquarters: New York

35.  EMC Corp.

Industry: Computer storage
Number of Employees: 72,000
Performance Index: 7.765
Headquarters: Hopkinton, Massachusetts

36.  Wells Fargo & Co.

Industry: Financial Services
Number of Employees: 265,000
Performance Index: 7.748
Headquarters: San Francisco

37.  SAS Institute Inc.

Industry: Information technology
Number of Employees: 14,000
Performance Index: 7.746
Headquarters: Cary, North Carolina

38.  Boeing Co.

Industry: Aviation
Number of Employees: 159,000
Performance Index: 7.715
Headquarters: Chicago

39.  Booz Allen Hamilton Inc.

Industry: Consulting services
Number of Employees: 23,000
Performance Index: 7.707
Headquarters: McLean, Virginia

40.  Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co.

Industry: Insurance
Number of Employees: 33,000
Performance Index: 7.678
Headquarters: Columbus, Ohio

41.  PepsiCo Inc.

Industry: Consumer products
Number of Employees: 263,000
Performance Index: 7.668
Headquarters: Purchase, New York

42.  Walt Disney Co.

Industry: Mass media/entertainment
Number of Employees: 185,000
Performance Index: 7.621
Headquarters: Burbank, California

43.  Delta Air Lines Inc.

Industry: Airline
Number of Employees: 84,000
Performance Index: 7.597
Headquarters: Atlanta

44.  Bain & Co.

Industry: Consulting services
Number of Employees: 6,000*
Performance Index: 7.594
Headquarters: Boston

45.  Publix Super Markets Inc.

Industry: Retail
Number of Employees: 180,000
Performance Index: 7.587
Headquarters: Lakeland, Florida

46.  MasterCard Inc.

Industry: Financial services
Number of Employees: 11,000
Performance Index: 7.553
Headquarters: Purchase, New York

47.  Starbucks Corp.

Industry: Consumer products/retail
Number of Employees: 238,000
Performance Index: 7.498
Headquarters: Seattle

48.  UPS Inc.

Industry: Package delivery/freight
Number of Employees: 444,000
Performance Index: 7.453
Headquarters: Atlanta

49.  Monsanto Co.

Industry: Agricultural biotech
Number of Employees: 23,000
Performance Index: 7.427
Headquarters: St. Louis

50.  Southwest Airlines Co.

Industry: Airline
Number of Employees: 50,000
Performance Index: 7.416
Headquarters: Dallas

51.  BASF

Industry: Chemicals
Number of Employees: 112,000
Performance Index: 7.412
Headquarters: Ludwigshafen, Germany

52.  Dell Inc.

Industry: Technology
Number of Employees: 109,000*
Performance Index: 7.366
Headquarters: Round Rock, Texas

53.  Wegmans Food Markets Inc.

Industry: Retail
Number of Employees: 45,000
Performance Index: 7.358
Headquarters: Rochester, New York

54.  Chevron Phillips Chemical

Industry: Chemicals
Number of Employees: 5,000
Performance Index: 7.320
Headquarters: The Woodlands, Texas

55.  Hyatt Hotels Corp.

Industry: Lodging/hospitality
Number of Employees: 97,000
Performance Index: 7.319
Headquarters: Chicago

56.  QuikTrip Corp.

Industry: Retail
Number of Employees: 20,000
Performance Index: 7.297
Headquarters: Tulsa, Oklahoma

57.  Prudential Financial Inc.

Industry: Financial services
Number of Employees: 49,000
Performance Index: 7.286
Headquarters: Newark, New Jersey

58.  Amazon.com Inc.

Industry: Retail
Number of Employees: 231,000
Performance Index: 7.266
Headquarters: Seattle

59.  Twitter Inc.

Industry: Social media
Number of Employees: 4,000
Performance Index: 7.255
Headquarters: San Francisco

60.  LinkedIn Corp.

Industry: Social media
Number of Employees: 9,000
Performance Index: 7.246
Headquarters: Mountain View, California

61.  Eastman Chemical Co.

Industry: Chemicals
Number of Employees: 15,000
Performance Index: 7.238
Headquarters: Kingsport, Tennessee

62.  Unilever

Industry: Consumer products
Number of Employees: 172,000
Performance Index: 7.214
Headquarters: London

63.  Adobe Systems Inc.

Industry: Software
Number of Employees: 14,000
Performance Index: 7.213
Headquarters: San Jose, California

64.  EY

Industry: Consulting services
Number of Employees: 212,000
Performance Index: 7.212
Headquarters: London

65.  Fidelity Investments

Industry: Financial services
Number of Employees: 42,000
Performance Index: 7.208
Headquarters: Boston

66.  Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co.

Industry: Technology/consumer products
Number of Employees: 240,000
Performance Index: 7.175
Headquarters: Palo Alto, California

67.  Microsoft Corp.

Industry: Software/consumer products
Number of Employees: 118,000
Performance Index: 7.154
Headquarters: Redmond, Washington

68.  Kaiser Permanente

Industry: Insurance/health care
Number of Employees: 186,000
Performance Index: 7.149
Headquarters: Oakland, California

69.  Kimberly Clark Corp.

Industry: Consumer products
Number of Employees: 43,000
Performance Index: 7.148
Headquarters: Irving, Texas

70.  Roche Diagnostics

Industry: Medical technologies
Number of Employees: 4,000
Performance Index: 7.141
Headquarters: Basel, Switzerland

71.  Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan

Industry: Insurance
Number of Employees: 8,000
Performance Index: 7.139
Headquarters: Detroit

72.  T-Mobile US Inc.

Industry: Telecommunications
Number of Employees: 45,000
Performance Index: 7.134
Headquarters: Bellevue, Washington

73.  Colgate-Palmolive Co.

Industry: Consumer products
Number of Employees: 38,000
Performance Index: 7.130
Headquarters: New York

74.  Costco Wholesale Corp.

Industry: Retail
Number of Employees: 117,000
Performance Index: 7.128
Headquarters: Issaquah, Washington

75.  Nordstrom Inc.

Industry: Retail
Number of Employees: 73,000
Performance Index: 7.124
Headquarters: Seattle

76.  Deere & Co.

Industry: Consumer products
Number of Employees: 57,000
Performance Index: 7.103
Headquarters: Moline, Illinois

77.  Baptist Health South Florida

Industry: Health care
Number of Employees: 15,000
Performance Index: 7.095
Headquarters: Jacksonville, Florida

78.  Navy Federal Credit Union

Industry: Financial services
Number of Employees: 13,000
Performance Index: 7.084
Headquarters: Vienna, Virginia

79.  Novo Nordisk

Industry: Health care
Number of Employees: 41,000
Performance Index: 7.060
Headquarters: Bagsværd, Denmark

80.  State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co.

Industry: Insurance
Number of Employees: 65,000
Performance Index: 7.059
Headquarters: Bloomington, Illinois

81.  Merck & Co.

Industry: Pharmaceuticals
Number of Employees: 68,000
Performance Index: 7.058
Headquarters: Kenilworth, New Jersey

82.  Texas Health Resources

Industry: Health care
Number of Employees: 18,000
Performance Index: 7.036
Headquarters: Arlington, Texas

83.  Schlumberger

Industry: Energy
Number of Employees: 95,000
Performance Index: 6.998
Headquarters: Houston

84.  Cerner Corp.

Industry: Health care technology
Number of Employees: 22,000
Performance Index: 6.983
Headquarters: Kansas City, Missouri

85.  World Wide Technology Inc.

Industry: Technology
Number of Employees: 3,000
Performance Index: 6.980
Headquarters: Maryland Heights, Missouri

86.  Exxon Mobil Corp.

Industry: Energy
Number of Employees: 74,000
Performance Index: 6.975
Headquarters: Irving, Texas

87.  Mayo Clinic

Industry: Health care
Number of Employees: 64,000
Performance Index: 6.970
Headquarters: Rochester, Minnesota

88.  Workday Inc.

Industry: Software
Number of Employees: 5,000
Performance Index: 6.969
Headquarters: Pleasanton, California

89.  Nielsen Holdings Inc.

Industry: Research
Number of Employees: 43,000
Performance Index: 6.936
Headquarters: New York

90.  Enterprise Holdings Inc.

Industry: Consumer services
Number of Employees: 93,000
Performance Index: 6.914
Headquarters: St. Louis

91.  Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc.

Industry: Lodging/hospitality
Number of Employees: 164,000
Performance Index: 6.906
Headquarters: McLean, Virginia

92.  Hyland Software Inc.

Industry: Software
Number of Employees: 2,000
Performance Index: 6.905
Headquarters: Westlake, Ohio

93.  SolarCity Corp.

Industry: Energy
Number of Employees: 15,000
Performance Index: 6.903
Headquarters: San Mateo, California

94.  McDonald’s Corp.

Industry: Restaurant
Number of Employees: 420,000
Performance Index: 6.902
Headquarters: Oak Brook, Illinois

95.  Stryker Corp.

Industry: Health care technologies
Number of Employees: 27,000
Performance Index: 6.896
Headquarters: Kalamazoo, Michigan

96.  Cardinal Health Inc.

Industry: Health care
Number of Employees: 35,000
Performance Index: 6.882
Headquarters: Dublin, Ohio

97.  Union Pacific Corp.

Industry: Transportation
Number of Employees: 47,000
Performance Index: 6.863
Headquarters: Omaha, Nebraska

98.  JM Family Enterprises Inc.

Industry: Automotive
Number of Employees: 4,000
Performance Index: 6.854
Headquarters: Deerfield Beach, Florida

99.  Dow Chemical Co.

Industry: Chemicals
Number of Employees: 50,000
Performance Index: 6.841
Headquarters: Midland, Michigan

100.  BP

Industry: Energy
Number of Employees: 80,000
Performance Index: 6.840
Headquarters: London *2014 numbers

WORKFORCE 100 METHODOLOGY

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:

Top Companies Lists, Overall:

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)

Top Companies Lists, Benefits

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)

Top Companies Lists, Diversity

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)

Top Companies Lists, Leadership

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)

Top Companies Lists, Talent Management

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)

Glassdoor Data Used

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

James Tehrani is the director of content strategy at FlexJobs.

Schedule, engage, and pay your staff in one system with Workforce.com.

Recommended

Join over 52,000 of your HR peers

Don't miss out on the latest tactics and insights at the forefront of HR.