Good pay, great health care, opportunities to move up, respect, diversity, flexibility—the best places to work offer a long list of reasons to apply with them. Of course, if you haven’t worked somewhere yourself, you can’t know for sure which companies are truly a good fit.
That’s why InHerSight goes right to the source—the women who work there.
InHerSight’s list of the best companies to work for, updated monthly, is based on ratings by women who work or have worked at the companies they rate. They’ll give the real story on if a company offers excellent chances at management or if it’s truly cool with flexible hours.
The Best Places to Work list is a stellar resource for 2022. People are still handing in resignation letters at a record rate, with a new high of 4.5 million workers quitting in November 2021.
The professor who first called this quitting trend “The Great Resignation,” Dr. Anthony Klotz, tells InHerSight that “pandemic epiphanies” are still driving people to quit and get a new job, or just take a break while they job hunt. There are also people who want to keep the option of working from home, as more companies ask employees to change out of their comfy pants and get back into the office.
No matter the reason, everyone deserves to love where they work. To make sure you do, check out our full list of the Best Places to Work in 2022. Here’s how we know they rock.
How women rate the best places to work
In addition to an overall satisfaction rating, there are 17 categories women use to rate companies with InHerSight, falling into five main areas:
Opportunity
Equal Opportunities for Women and Men: Harvard Business Review wrote that fairness and equity will be a defining trend for companies in 2022—although many are still behind in making sure women have access to the same opportunities as men when it comes to promotions, management, and resources.
Women in Leadership and Management Opportunities for Women: The Women Business Collaborative reported in 2021 that only 8.2 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs are women, but leadership roles help define the vision and future of the company. And it’s not just about already having women in those key positions, it’s about offering a path toward management for women in entry-level and mid-level roles.
Family
Maternity and Adoptive Leave and Family Growth Support: The United States is the industrialized nation that doesn’t have guaranteed paid parental leave at the federal level. Finally, companies are stepping up to offer a substantial amount of paid leave without any penalty, discrimination, or unfair treatment for being gone for weeks or months. Family growth support also looks at how companies support parents’ needs beyond time off after a child is born, like offering space to breastfeed, on-site daycare, IVF coverage, and more.
Schedule and Flexibility
Paid Time Off: Much like parental leave, the U.S. is also lagging behind in its paid time off policies. Many new employees get just a few days or a week off in their first year at a job, compared to the 20–30 days a year in other countries. No one wants to work somewhere that makes it hard to take a day off—or judges you when you do.
Flexible Work Hours and Ability to Telecommute: Life happens, and sometimes you need to be somewhere other than the office between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. It took a global pandemic for companies to loosen their strict work hours and no-work-from-home policies, but the shift is happening. According to research, 18 percent of high-paying jobs ($100,000 salary or higher) are now available for remote work, compared to 4 percent before the pandemic.
Enrichment
Salary Satisfaction: The good news is that salaries are going up, so make sure you are getting the pay you deserve. The median annual earnings of U.S. women aged 15 years and older working full-time and year-round in 2020 was $50,982, a 6.5 percent increase from 2019.
Wellness Initiatives: Employers are offering more programs that support mental, physical, and emotional health. Because of the pandemic, 64 percent of companies surveyed by Gartner in 2021 added a wellbeing benefit, and 85 percent added mental health support measures. You can find a company that offers programs like meditation, support groups, and emotional encouragement peers.
Sponsorship or Mentorship Programs and Learning Opportunities: Companies tend to overlook the importance of access to growth opportunities, training, and continued education. But if you value that, find somewhere that will foot the bill for you.
Culture
Support for Diversity: Employees want to work somewhere that supports the advancement and equitable treatment of everyone, regardless of race, gender, sexuality, age, ability, weight, and parenthood status. A Gartner report on the top HR priorities for 2022 shows 76 percent of jobseekers list a diverse workforce as a key factor when choosing a new company, and smart companies are paying attention to that.
Employer Responsiveness: It’s really hard to know if a workplace listens when employees escalate issues like harassment and discrimination unless you hear it from current or past employees. A 2021 study found that in the media and hospitality industries, 50 percent and 69 percent of employees, respectively, don’t trust their HR departments.
Sense of Belonging and The People You Work With: It’s easy to feel disconnected while working remotely—and it’s even worse when you go into an office but don’t feel welcomed. These metrics help you know if a company and its employees are likely to accept and include you, and treat you with respect, professionalism, and unbiased behavior.
Social Activities and Environment: The memory of forced work happy hours could have you cringing, but making authentic connections and networking at work can truly make us happier.
Women rate how their companies perform in each of the above categories on a scale of 1.0–5.0 stars. The highest rated company on the 50 Best Companies to Work For list currently has 4.8 stars, and all of the companies on the list have 3.8 stars or higher.
Read more: Fun Jobs That Pay Well
How to use our best workplaces list
You can scroll through the list of the top 50 workplaces, or you can narrow down your search based on what you’re looking for. The search filters you can use include the 17 review categories listed above, 162 industries, 99 U.S. cities, and company size.
Every company profile (called a company scorecard) shows you the average star-rating a company received for each category, and highlights the categories that are standouts for that workplace. Women can leave comments with more information on what they experienced and why they gave each rating.
Here are a few quotes about the companies ranking in the top 3 right now:
We want to hear from you, too! You can anonymously rate your company and contribute to InHerSight’s best workplaces list. Go check out the latest list of the best workplaces, as rated by the women who work there, and find yourself an excellent new job.
