World’s Top HR Companies: Revealed

Two independent studies recently came up with their own lists which rank employers according to their excellence. While one enlists organisations that are best for work-life balance, the other ranks the world’s top companies for HR. Here’s a look at both:

Indeed’s Top 20 Companies for Work-Life Balance

Indeed, the job website put together a list that of organisations that are best-rated for work-life balance. “Employee reviews for all 20 companies indicate “fair” and “flexible” work environments. Many of the reviews also stressed a sense of community, Wolfe says, and a work environment that makes co-workers feel like ‘family’. Companies that proactively work to provide the appropriate personal time for employees tend to stand out.” says Paul Wolfe, Indeed’s Senior VP, HR. 

Here is the full list of organisations that are deemed best for work-life balance:

1. H&R Block

2. Network Capital Funding Corporation

3. In-N-Out Burger

4. H-E-B

5. Kaiser Permanente

6. Intuit

7. Southwest Airlines Co. 

8. NIKE Inc.

9. Century 21

10. Chick-Fil-A

11. Capital One Financial Corp.

12. Spirit Halloween Superstore

13. Cisco Systems Inc.

14. Pfizer Inc.

15. Honey Baked Ham

16. American Express Inc.

17. Raytheon

18. Trader Joe’s

19.Starbucks Corp.

20. Wegmans Food Markets Inc.

Paul explains the process of deciding the rankings, “... calculated the weighted average work-life balance rating average for the 1,000 companies with most ratings between April 2015 and March 2017. Work/life balance is one of the five options we give for reviewers to rank a company. Additionally, users describe their experience with a company's work/life balance within their written reviews.”

The organisations that made it to the list have famous and liberal policies to ensure their employees maintain a healthy work-life balance.

In-N-Out, the fast food joint offers paid vacation for both part and full-time workers, in addition to rewarding managers with European trips. Others, like H&R Block, facilitate flexible working schedules. Others in the list are too known for remote working, flexi-time, and telecommuting policies. Interestingly, Google was conspicuous by its absence in the list, especially given the fact that the perks of working at Google have achieved a legendary and almost mythical fame all over the world. 

2017 Workforce 100: Ranking the World’s Top Companies for HR

Workforce magazine compiled a list of the world’s top companies in HR and identified seven core areas, wherein the company must have done well: workplace culture, employee benefits, diversity and inclusion, employee development/talent management, HR innovation, leadership development and talent acquisition. The process, as explained by the magazine is as follows: “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.” Here is the list of top 20:

1. Google

2. Facebook Inc.

3. Coca-Cola Co.

4. Deloitte

5. AT&T Inc.

6. Walt Disney Co., The

7. Marriott International Inc.

8. Comcast Corp.

9. Goldman Sachs

10. Apple Inc.

11. Intel Corp.

12. Nike Inc.

13. KPMG

14. Accenture

15. Wells Fargo & Co.

16. American Express Inc.

17. Southwest Airlines Co.

18. Cisco Systems Inc.

19. Ultimate Software

20. Delta Air Lines Inc.

After being ranked second last year, Google, along with 28 other organisations, has been listed in all the four editions of the annual list. Furthermore, this year saw the inclusion of 25 first-timers, as more organisations made progress and effort to achieve and sustain excellence in HR. 

What is noteworthy of the two studies is the fact that Google, which tops the list for excelling in HR in one perspective, fails to make it to the top 20 in ensuring that its employees achieve work-life balance. In all possibility, the variability of the methodology applied in both the listings has lead to this point of contradiction. Similarly, the topper of the other list, H&R Block, doesn’t feature in the list that ranks best companies in HR overall. However, it must also be noted that eight companies are mutual to both the lists, namely, Kaiser Permanente, Southwest Airlines Co., NIKE Inc., Capital One Financial Corp., Cisco Systems Inc., American Express Inc., Starbucks Corp., Wegmans Food Markets Inc.

The two rankings show that excelling in one aspect of HR is no guarantee that other pieces will fall into place. Furthermore, such rankings are not written in stone, and the same methodology can produce varying results, depending on what question you are asking. Nonetheless, such studies help the organisations in gaining favourable opinion among current and prospective employees, thereby retaining and attracting talent. They also serve as a point of reference, when job-seekers are evaluating their options, thereby, strengthening the employer brand.