50 Best Places to Work
Glassdoor is a good tool for researching a potential employer. The site compiles anonymous reviews, ratings, and salary information from employees and allows individuals to access that information. The more you share about your current or past employer, the more access to information is granted.
In addition to the search and browse functionality, Glassdoor has assembled the latest reviews and ratings by employees, those submitted to the website between December 1, 2009 and December 1, 2010, and announced the 50 best places to work. Topping the list is Facebook, and that’s not a surprise. This company has been leading the charge by offering health compensation packages including ownership in the company which is currently valued ridiculously high, stealing the best employees from other companies in the sector like Microsoft and Google, and fostering a non-corporate atmosphere.
The next two companies on the list are Southwest Airlines and Bain & Company.
I find it interesting that these three companies, out of the thousands listed at Glassdoor, are the only companies to score higher than 4.0 out of 5 on the ratings scale. Add the companies that scored exactly 4.0, and the total is only nine. What this says to me is that although these companies may be the best places to work for, there are still more than enough dissatisfied employees. Possible offsetting this is what may be human nature for dissatisfied people to be more likely to write about their experiences than satisfied people.
Here is the list of the top ten.
- Southwest Airlines
- Bain & Company
- General Mills
- Edelman
- The Boston Consulting Group
- SAS
- Slalom Consulting
- Overstock.com
- Susquehanna International Group
If you want to work for a company and you don’t mind relocating for your work if you don’t live near one of these employers now, this list is a good place to start.
Article comments
I know my company based in Canada is always in the top 50(guess they’re doing something a lot better there). I am looking into relocating for a new job. It’s not in the top 50 but I know people who work for Progressive and have heard great things.
Thanks for the insight. I will suggest this to my husband. You are right, willing to relocate has a lot more potential in finding a good company than being stuck with what’s in your zip code.
My friend just told me about Glassdoor – definitely need to check it out.
Facebook just looks like a fun place to work. Yeah, your boss is constantly in the news, but at least you’re getting your paycheck haha
My company moved up this year compared to last but it’s still somewhere in the middle. I’ve read the anonymous reviews for mine, but it’s hard to compare since there are such huge geographic differences.
To clarify, I meant that the employees are working for different branches and departments. Most talk about how their local workplace is ran so it’s not a direct comment (I think) on the entire company as a whole.
True, the ratings and reviews reflect only what any one employee is exposed to, and with these large companies, any one person could have a wildly different experience opinion than any other, but unless you drill down by geography, you won’t see some of these difference. And in a company’s remote locations, there often isn’t enough feedback to form an opinion.
Glassdoor can be a great tool to use in a job search, but their login is a pain in the butt; it generally takes me about 15 minutes to achieve logged in status. And personally, I hate how they hide most of the data behind the login, there is no real reason to require it.
Personally, there isn’t a company on that list I would be interested in working for. Monsanto? Really? Of course, you will notice that this list is comprised of large and mostly multi-national corporations. Compare that to the fact that 90-99% of all companies in the US are small businesses which employ nearly half of the private sector workforce.
Exactly — it’s the large, multi-national corporations that have the leverage to attract employees and give them what they want. Working for a small business might be just as worthwhile and rewarding as working for the companies on this list, but it’s unlikely Glassdoor will feature smaller companies.