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By Staff Report
Apr. 21, 2017
Excelling in each area of human resources is no small feat. Workforce pinpointed seven core areas: workplace culture; employee benefits; diversity and inclusion; employee development/talent management; HR innovation; leadership development; and talent acquisition. To realize the importance of these categories and take action to improve them pushes a company from good to great.
Now in its fourth year, the Workforce 100 recognizes companies that excel in HR over the course of a year. To determine which companies make the list, Workforce editors work with researchers from the Human Capital Media Advisory Group, the publication’s research arm.
The research team created a statistical formula to sift through publicly available data on HR performance to separate the best from the rest. To give employees more of a “say,” we 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 2017 Workforce 100 list.
Besides being No. 1 in 2017, Google also is one of the 28 companies to make the Workforce 100 all four years.
[Please read: The Workforce 100 2014]
This year’s list heralded 25 previously unranked companies. That’s why we touched base with several first-timers that made an impression with some aspect of their HR strategy. Associate Editor Andie Burjek interviewed executives at companies including Ultimate Software (No. 19), West Monroe Partners (No. 31), LaSalle Network (No. 38) and Grant Thornton (No. 92) to get the scoop on their best workplace practices.
Welcome to the Workforce 100 list, first-timers; that’s some high-class HR company you’re keeping these days.
Industry: Technology
Number of Employees: 72,053
Top Ranking HR Person: Eileen Naughton
Performance Index: 9.682
Headquarters: Mountain View, California
Industry: Social media
Number of Employees: 17,000
Top Ranking HR Person: Lori Goler
Performance Index: 9.581
Headquarters: Menlo Park, California
Industry: Consumer products
Number of Employees: 100,300
Top Ranking HR Person: Ceree Eberly
Performance Index: 8.898
Headquarters: Atlanta
Industry: Professional services
Number of Employees: 244,400
Top Ranking HR Person: Margot Thom
Performance Index: 8.881
Headquarters: New York
Industry: Telecommunications
Number of Employees: 268,000
Top Ranking HR Person: William A. Blase Jr.
Performance Index: 8.876
Headquarters: Dallas
Industry: Mass media/entertainment
Number of Employees: 195,000
Top Ranking HR Person: Jayne Parker
Performance Index: 8.833
Headquarters: Burbank, California
Industry: Lodging/hospitality
Number of Employees: 226,500
Top Ranking HR Person: David Rodriguez
Performance Index: 8.617
Headquarters: Bethesda, Maryland
Industry: Telecommunications
Number of Employees: 159,000
Top Ranking HR Person: William Strahan
Performance Index: 8.572
Headquarters: Philadelphia
Industry: Financial services
Number of Employees: 34,400
Top Ranking HR Person: Edith Cooper
Performance Index: 8.513
Headquarters: New York
Industry: Technology
Number of Employees: 116,000
Top Ranking HR Person: Denise Young Smith
Performance Index: 8.364
Headquarters: Cupertino, California
Industry: Technology
Number of Employees: 106,000
Top Ranking HR Person: Richard Taylor
Performance Index: 8.363
Headquarters: Santa Clara, California
Industry: Consumer products
Number of Employees: 70,700
Top Ranking HR Person: David Ayre
Performance Index: 8.362
Headquarters: Beaverton, Oregon
Industry: Professional services
Number of Employees: 188,982
Top Ranking HR Person: Darren H. Burton
Performance Index: 8.344
Headquarters: Amstelveen, Netherlands
Industry: Consulting services
Number of Employees: 394,000
Top Ranking HR Person: Ellyn Shook
Performance Index: 8.320
Headquarters: Chicago
Industry: Financial services
Number of Employees: 269,100
Top Ranking HR Person: Hope Hardison
Performance Index: 8.275
Headquarters: San Francisco
Industry: Financial services
Number of Employees: 56,400
Top Ranking HR Person: L. Kevin Cox
Performance Index: 8.230
Headquarters: New York
Industry: Airline
Number of Employees: 53,500
Top Ranking HR Person: Jeff Lamb
Performance Index: 8.216
Headquarters: Dallas
Industry: Technology
Number of Employees: 71,958
Top Ranking HR Person: Jill Larsen
Performance Index: 8.209
Headquarters: San Jose, California
Industry: SaaS HCM software
Number of Employees: 3,747
Top Ranking HR Person: Vivian Maza
Performance Index: 8.184
Headquarters: Weston, Florida
Industry: Airline
Number of Employees: 83,756
Top Ranking HR Person: Joanne Smith
Performance Index: 8.112
Headquarters: Atlanta
Industry: Consulting services
Number of Employees: 23,000
Top Ranking HR Person: Betty Thompson
Performance Index: 8.101
Headquarters: McLean, Virginia
Industry: Aerospace/defense
Number of Employees: 97,000
Top Ranking HR Person: Patricia Lewis
Performance Index: 8.083
Headquarters: Bethesda, Maryland
Industry: Consulting services
Number of Employees: 6,200
Top Ranking HR Person: Matt Krentz
Performance Index: 8.073
Headquarters: Boston
Industry: Pharma, consumer products
Number of Employees: 126,400
Top Ranking HR Person: Peter Fasolo
Performance Index: 8.066
Headquarters: New Brunswick, New Jersey
Industry: Financial services
Number of Employees: 47,300
Top Ranking HR Person: Jory Berson
Performance Index: 8.043
Headquarters: McLean, Virginia
Industry: Aviation
Number of Employees: 150,500
Top Ranking HR Person: Heidi Capozzi
Performance Index: 8.027
Headquarters: Chicago
Industry: Consumer products/retail
Number of Employees: 254,000
Top Ranking HR Person: Scott Pitasky
Performance Index: 7.992
Headquarters: Seattle
Industry: Courier
Number of Employees: 335,435
Top Ranking HR Person: Judy Edge
Performance Index: 7.942
Headquarters: Memphis, Tennessee
Industry: Lodging/hospitality
Number of Employees: 45,000
Top Ranking HR Person: Ann-Marie Law
Performance Index: 7.926
Headquarters: Chicago
Industry: Insurance
Number of Employees: 28,738
Top Ranking HR Person: Mark Reid
Performance Index: 7.924
Headquarters: San Antonio
Industry: Management and technology consulting
Number of Employees: 850
Top Ranking HR Person: Susan Stelter
Performance Index: 7.895
Headquarters: Chicago
Industry: Insurance
Number of Employees: 34,000
Top Ranking HR Person: Gale King
Performance Index: 7.885
Headquarters: Columbus, Ohio
Industry: Financial services
Number of Employees: 49,739
Top Ranking HR Person: Sharon Taylor
Performance Index: 7.884
Headquarters: Newark, New Jersey
Industry: Biotechnology
Number of Employees: 14,815
Top Ranking HR Person: Nancy Vitale
Performance Index: 7.867
Headquarters: San Francisco
Industry: Software
Number of Employees: 25,000
Top Ranking HR Person:Cindy Robbins
Performance Index: 7.826
Headquarters: San Francisco
Industry: Research
Number of Employees: 44,000
Top Ranking HR Person: Nancy Phillips
Performance Index: 7.820
Headquarters: New York
Industry: Consumer products
Number of Employees: 91,584
Top Ranking HR Person: Marlene McGrath
Performance Index: 7.799
Headquarters: Saint Paul, Minnesota
Industry: Staffing and recruiting
Number of Employees: 198
Top Ranking HR Person: Sirmara Campbell Twohill
Performance Index: 7.780
Headquarters: Chicago
Industry: Retail
Number of Employees: 46,800
Top Ranking HR Person: Kevin Stickles
Performance Index: 7.776
Headquarters: Rochester, New York
Industry: Health care technology
Number of Employees: 24,400
Top Ranking HR Person: Julie Wilson
Performance Index: 7.762
Headquarters: Kansas City, Missouri
Industry: Consulting services
Number of Employees: 231,000
Top Ranking HR Person: Carolyn Slaski
Performance Index: 7.760
Headquarters: New York
Industry: Telecommunications
Number of Employees: 160,900
Top Ranking HR Person: Marc Reed
Performance Index: 7.751
Headquarters: New York
Industry: Financial Services
Number of Employees: 243,355
Top Ranking HR Person: John Donnelly
Performance Index: 7.737
Headquarters: New York
Industry: Financial services
Number of Employees: 13,000
Top Ranking HR Person: Erin Reynolds
Performance Index: 7.729
Headquarters: Detroit
Industry: Professional services
Number of Employees: 69,000
Top Ranking HR Person: Tony Goland
Performance Index: 7.716
Headquarters: London
Industry: Health care
Number of Employees: 63,480
Top Ranking HR Person: Cathy Fraser
Performance Index: 7.706
Headquarters: Rochester, Minnesota
Industry: Consumer products
Number of Employees: 105,000
Top Ranking HR Person: Mark Biegger
Performance Index: 7.698
Headquarters: Cincinnati
Industry: Lodging/ hospitality
Number of Employees: 169,000
Top Ranking HR Person: Matthew Schuyler
Performance Index: 7.683
Headquarters: McLean, Virginia
Industry: Software
Number of Employees: 14,158
Top Ranking HR Person: Jenn Mann
Performance Index: 7.680
Headquarters: Cary, North Carolina
Industry: Managed health care
Number of Employees: 41,000
Top Ranking HR Person: John Murabito
Performance Index: 7.679
Headquarters: Bloomfield, Connecticut
Industry: Computer data storage
Number of Employees: 6,300
Top Ranking HR Person: Scott Kelly
Performance Index: 7.670
Headquarters: Santa Clara, California
Industry: Automotive
Number of Employees: 4,200
Top Ranking HR Person: Carmen Johnson
Performance Index: 7.664
Headquarters: Deerfield Beach, Florida
Industry: Consumer services
Number of Employees: 97,000
Top Ranking HR Person: Edward Adams
Performance Index: 7.644
Headquarters: St. Louis
Industry: Automotive
Number of Employees: 3,300
Top Ranking HR Person: Kim Cerda
Performance Index: 7.631
Headquarters: Plano, Texas
Industry: Health care
Number of Employees: 18,815
Top Ranking HR Person: Michelle Kirby
Performance Index: 7.618
Headquarters: Arlington, Texas
Industry: Products and services
Number of Employees: 8,624
Top Ranking HR Person: Dennis Berger
Performance Index: 7.613
Headquarters: Vernon Hills, Illinois
Industry: Products and services
Number of Employees: 75,000
Top Ranking HR Person: Eric Minvielle
Performance Index: 7.610
Headquarters: McClean, Virginia
Industry: Software
Number of Employees: 2,227
Top Ranking HR Person: Debbie Connelly
Performance Index: 7.589
Headquarters: Westlake, Ohio
Industry: Technical solutions program management
Number of Employees: 171
Top Ranking HR Person: Juanita Phillips
Performance Index: 7.588
Headquarters: Huntsville, Alabama
Industry: Insurance/ health care
Number of Employees: 186,497
Top Ranking HR Person: Chuck Columbus
Performance Index: 7.585
Headquarters: Oakland, California
Industry: Technology/ consulting services
Number of Employees: 380,300
Top Ranking HR Person: Diane Gherson
Performance Index: 7.583
Headquarters: Armonk, New York
Industry: Agricultural biotech
Number of Employees: 20,800
Top Ranking HR Person: Steven Mizell
Performance Index: 7.579
Headquarters: St. Louis
Industry: Managed health care
Number of Employees: 49,500
Top Ranking HR Person: Thomas Weidenkopf
Performance Index: 7.569
Headquarters: Hartford, Connecticut
Industry: Financial services
Number of Employees: 14,153
Top Ranking HR Person: Tisa Head
Performance Index: 7.564
Headquarters: Vienna, Virginia
Industry: Retail
Number of Employees: 191,000
Top Ranking HR Person: John Hrabusa
Performance Index: 7.560
Headquarters: Lakeland, Florida
Industry: Health insurance
Number of Employees: 1,757
Top Ranking HR Person: Thayla Bohn
Performance Index: 7.540
Headquarters: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Industry: Telecommunications
Number of Employees: 50,000
Top Ranking HR Person: Elizabeth Sullivan
Performance Index: 7.529
Headquarters: Bellevue, Washington
Industry: Health care
Number of Employees: 15,073
Top Ranking HR Person: Frank Voytek
Performance Index: 7.527
Headquarters: South Miami, Florida
Industry: Real estate
Number of Employees: 75,000
Top Ranking HR Person: Jennifer Ashley
Performance Index: 7.492
Headquarters: Los Angeles
Industry: Financial services
Number of Employees: 208,000
Top Ranking HR Person: Sheri Bronstein
Performance Index: 7.490
Headquarters: Charlotte, North Carolina
Industry: Retail
Number of Employees: 72,500
Top Ranking HR Person: Christine Deputy
Performance Index: 7.488
Headquarters: Seattle
Industry: Toys
Number of Employees: 16,836
Top Ranking HR Person: Padma Thiruvengadam
Performance Index: 7.468
Headquarters: Billund, Denmark
Industry: Chemicals
Number of Employees: 113,830
Top Ranking HR Person: Thomas Belgeri
Performance Index: 7.462
Headquarters: Ludwigshafen, Germany
Industry: Medical technologies
Number of Employees: 94,052
Top Ranking HR Person: Cristina Wilbur
Performance Index: 7.443
Headquarters: Basel, Switzerland
Industry: Pharmaceuticals
Number of Employees: 68,800
Top Ranking HR Person: Mirian Graddick-Weir
Performance Index: 7.431
Headquarters: Kenilworth, New Jersey
Industry: Health care
Number of Employees: 14,155
Top Ranking HR Person: Nikki Sumpter
Performance Index: 7.398
Headquarters: Morristown, New Jersey
Industry: Information technology
Number of Employees: 1,460
Top Ranking HR Person: Karen Crone
Performance Index: 7.393
Headquarters: Cincinnati
Industry: Law firm
Number of Employees: 2,300
Top Ranking HR Person: Siobhan Handley
Performance Index: 7.388
Headquarters: San Francisco
Industry: Airline
Number of Employees: 13,566
Top Ranking HR Person: Michael Elliot
Performance Index: 7.385
Headquarters: Long Island City, New York
Industry: Financial Services
Number of Employees: 43,090
Top Ranking HR Person: Kevin Bastien
Performance Index: 7.376
Headquarters: St. Louis
Industry: Health care
Number of Employees: 51,600
Top Ranking HR Person: Timothy S. Huval
Performance Index: 7.365
Headquarters: Louisville, Kentucky
Industry: Clothing
Number of Employees: 69,000
Top Ranking HR Person: Anita Graham
Performance Index: 7.352
Headquarters: Greensboro, North Carolina
Industry: Financial services
Number of Employees: 11,900
Top Ranking HR Person: Michael Fraccaro
Performance Index: 7.351
Headquarters: Purchase, New York
Industry: Health care
Number of Employees: 14,746
Top Ranking HR Person: Victor Buzachero
Performance Index: 7.344
Headquarters: San Diego
Industry: Engineering and construction
Number of Employees: 61,551
Top Ranking HR Person: Mark Landry
Performance Index: 7.322
Headquarters: Irving, Texas
Industry: Security
Number of Employees: 67,000
Top Ranking HR Person: Denise Peppard
Performance Index: 7.316
Headquarters: Falls Church, Virginia
Industry: Financial services
Number of Employees: 15,000
Top Ranking HR Person: Marc Chini
Performance Index: 7.314
Headquarters: Stamford, Connecticut
Industry: Business process outsourcing
Number of Employees: 13,100
Top Ranking HR Person: Laurie Zaucha
Performance Index: 7.288
Headquarters: Rochester, New York
Industry: Food processing
Number of Employees: 19,300
Top Ranking HR Person: Lawrence Lyons
Performance Index: 7.284
Headquarters: Austin, Minnesota
Industry: Computer storage
Number of Employees: 72,000
Top Ranking HR Person: Steve Price
Performance Index: 7.278
Headquarters: Hopkinton, Massachusetts
Industry: Telecommunications
Number of Employees: 51,250
Top Ranking HR Person: Sandy McIntosh
Performance Index: 7.270
Headquarters: Vancouver, Canada
Industry: Business advisory services
Number of Employees: 7,281
Top Ranking HR Person: Pamela Harless
Performance Index: 7.242
Headquarters: Chicago
Industry: Energy
Number of Employees: 32,015
Top Ranking HR Person: Nancy Sykes
Performance Index: 7.241
Headquarters: Atlanta
Industry: Chemicals
Number of Employees: 56,000
Top Ranking HR Person: Johanna Soderstrom
Performance Index: 7.237
Headquarters: Midland, Michigan
Industry: Technology
Number of Employees: 108,800
Top Ranking HR Person: Steve Price
Performance Index: 7.224
Headquarters: Round Rock, Texas
Industry: Financial services
Number of Employees: 12,950
Top Ranking HR Person: Skip Spriggs
Performance Index: 7.220
Headquarters: New York
Industry: HR management software
Number of Employees: 57,000
Top Ranking HR Person: Dermot O’Brien
Performance Index: 7.178
Headquarters: Roseland, New Jersey
Industry: E-commerce
Number of Employees: 341,400
Top Ranking HR Person: Beth Galetti
Performance Index: 7.172
Headquarters: Seattle
Industry: Automotive
Number of Employees: 225,000
Top Ranking HR Person: John Quattrone
Performance Index: 7.165
Headquarters: Detroit
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.
World’s Best International Workplaces, 2016 (Great Place to Work Institute)
Best Small Workplaces, 2016 (Great Place to Work Institute)
Best Medium Workplaces, 2016 (Great Place to Work Institute)
100 Best Companies to Work For, 2016 (Fortune)
America’s Best Employers, 2016 (Forbes)
Best Employers for Healthy Lifestyles (National Business Group on Health)
The Best 401(k) Plans, 2016 (Bloomberg)
30 Best Workplaces to Retire From, 2016 (Fortune)
Best Employers for Vets, 2016 (Military Times)
Disability Equality Index, 2016 (AAPD)
100 Best Companies, 2016 (Working Mother)
50 Best Workplaces for Diversity, 2016 (Fortune)
50 Best Companies for Diversity, 2016 (Black Enterprise)
Top 50 Companies for Diversity, 2016 (DiversityInc)
The Most Admired for HR, 2015 (HR Executive)
The World’s 30 Most Innovative Corporate Human Resources Departments, 2015 (Human Resources MBA)
Most Admired Company, category Ability to Attract, Develop and Retain Talent (Fortune)
Best Companies for Leaders, 2016 (Chief Executive)
Most Admired Company, category Quality of Leadership, 2016 (Fortune)
Best Places to Interview, 2016 (Glassdoor)
Candidate Experience Awards, 2016 (Talent Board)
Learning Elite, 2017 (Chief Learning Officer)
Learning in Practice Awards, 2016 (Chief Learning Officer)
Excellence in Practice Awards, 2016 (Association for Talent Development)
BEST Awards, 2016 (Association for Talent Development)
Training Top 125, 2016 (Training)
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.
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