These Are the Top Companies to Work for in 2021, According to LinkedIn
It's not all Silicon Valley.
Every year, LinkedIn releases its list of the 50 best companies to work for, and while the Silicon Valley tech companies historically dominate the list, there are always a few unexpected inclusions that may make you reconsider your career goals.
This year, LinkedIn implemented a new methodology to come to its conclusions, focusing on companies that are investing in career development and overall success—and that are currently hiring. The job-hunting platform compiled internal data and sorted it into seven different buckets that collectively comprise a favorable workplace: ability to advance, skills growth, company stability, external opportunity, company affinity, gender diversity, and educational background.
The companies on this year's list span several industries—tech, yes, but also accounting, healthcare, real estate, automotive, IT, and retail. Each honoree has a proven track record of helping its employees thrive, whether that's by offering skills workshops, paying for workers' continued education, establishing employee resource groups, or anything else that assists with employee growth and retention.
Best of all, each company on the list is currently hiring, amounting to more than 300,000 available positions across the 50 workplaces. Here's this year's ranking of the best companies to work for right now.
LinkedIn's Top 50 Companies in 2021
50. SAP
49. Fidelity Investments
48. The Home Depot
47. Kimley-Horn
46. Whiting-Turner
45. UPS
44. Ford Motor Company
43. Medtronic
42. FedEx
41. Morgan Stanley
40. State Farm
39. Capital One
38. U.S. Bank
37. General Motors
36. Salesforce
35. Siemens
34. HCA Healthcare
33. Cognizant
32. Northrop Grumman
31. Realogy
30. Johnson & Johnson
29. Citi
28. Target
27. T-Mobile
26. KPMG
25. Intel
24. Lockheed Martin
23. Kaiser Permanente
22. Cisco
21. Oracle
20. Keller Williams
19. Facebook
18. Comcast
17. PwC
16. Raytheon Technologies
15. CVS Health
14. Verizon
13. Dell Technologies
12. Accenture
11. UnitedHealth Group
10. EY
9. Walmart
8. Apple
7. Deloitte
6. IBM
5. Bank of America
4. AT&T
3. JPMorgan Chase & Co.
2. Alphabet, Inc.
1. Amazon
Many companies on the list are veteran honorees, but the exact makeup of the ranking has some changes.
Amazon and Alphabet, Inc. are used to ranking high, but this year, they switched places, with Amazon snagging the top slot and Google's parent company falling just behind. That might be because—despite the stories we've heard of Amazon's concerning warehouse conditions—the company committed $700 million to offer employee upskilling programs between now and 2025, which includes its free Amazon Technical Academy and Mechatronics and Robotics Apprenticeship Program. Amazon also has a 16-week paid returnship program, in which underemployed and unemployed people can reacclimate to the workforce under Amazon's guidance with the potential to receive a full-time position at the company afterward.
One-tenth of the companies fall under the healthcare umbrella this year, a heartening result for an industry that's been under great stress during the pandemic. LinkedIn discovered that several healthcare organizations have made an effort to pay their employees back for the hard work. HCA Healthcare recently rolled out a Pandemic Pay Program, offering 70% of wages to employees who are unable to continue working. Kaiser Permanente is offering workers $3,000 per year to continue their education.
Most of this year's highlighted companies have committed to improving racial equity in a number of ways, whether that's partnering with HBCUs to build a more diverse staff, establishing new training programs, or hosting panels and discussions about racial injustice. Alphabet, Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America, UPS, and Raytheon Technologies stand out for pledging large sums of money to address economic, social, and racial inequality.
Only two years ago, Facebook landed in the number two slot; as other companies have stepped up, the social media powerhouse fell to number 19. Some companies appeared on LinkedIn's list for the first time this year, like real estate companies Keller Williams and Realogy and automakers General Motors and Ford Motor Company, all of which became extra relevant during a time when people were moving to more comfortable homes and buying cars to escape the city.