Interested in learning how to make your company one of the nation’s winning workplaces? You can get some ideas from Fortune’s 100 Best companies to Work For. It’s always fun to read reviews and profiles, which can be great research for picking up workplace trends and ideas. 2016 marks the 19th year that Fortune has been compiling the list. Companies are selected annually based on extensive surveys conducted in partnership with Great Place to Work. This year, Google/Alphabet is the No. 1 place to work for the seventh time in 10 years. Six newcomers include Veterans United at No. 30, Hilton Hotels at No. 56, and Slalom Consulting at No. 100. IKEA’s U.S. division returns to the list, along with GoDaddy and Sheetz.
If you’d like to narrow your focus, the full list offers filters to sort by industry, by size, or by headquarter location. In the plain list version, you can also search by perk, which can be helpful. You can also use the Compare Tool, which let’s you line up companies side by side to compare ratings, and key data points including benefits.
Great Places to Work has also released compilations of workplaces based on specific demographics or industries.
100 Best Workplaces for Women
100 Best Workplaces for Millennials
30 Best Places to Work in Finance & Insurance
20 Best Workplaces in Healthcare
For a shortcut, both Fortune & Great Places to Work have culled various lessons from the lists and posted these as articles or blog posts. Here are a few
Culture Tips From The Best Places To Work
The article looks at company culture at these three “best” pick — Google, Facebook and Whole Foods — and points to practices that help to create great work cultures. These characteristics include:
- Communicating well
- Offering development opportunities
- Providing flexibility
- Practicing what they preach
- Being transparent
- Giving power to their people
How to Create a Culture that Works for All Ages
“For example, millennials are often portrayed as promiscuous job-hoppers, lacking the loyalty of their elders. But our data suggests that when millennials’ expectations of an excellent company culture are met, they are more than willing to stay. Millennials who feel they’re at a great workplace are an incredible 25X more likely to want to stay with their workplace for a long time.
And overall, we discovered that employees of all ages are looking for similar things in a great workplace: a company they can be proud of, a sense of community with their colleagues, and honest, ethical leaders.”
Here’s the Secret to How the Best Employers Inspire Workers
The best workplaces reinforce cooperation, teamwork, camaraderie and interpersonal bonds in creative ways.