How Inc. Chose the Best Workplaces

With national unemployment at a 17-year low, businesses are working overtime to recruit, engage, and retain talent. Our firm, Quantum Workplace, a leading software platform for employee engagement and performance, partners with Inc. to survey Americans in pursuit of the employers that create strong cultures of engagement.

At the start of the year, firms of all sizes and industries are nominated for this recognition. Once nominated, each company had to survey all employees using our methodology. Quantum Workplace gathered, analyzed, and audited the data. The survey covered topics such as trust in senior leadership, career development, change management, and benefits and perks.

Employee engagement measures the strength of the mental and emotional connection workers feel toward their places of occupation. Those measurements reached new highs this year. Among participating companies, 74.2 percent of workers are highly engaged, compared with 72.1 percent in last year’s data set.

In addition to analyzing employee sentiment, this study takes into account financial and nonfinancial elements of corporate culture. We captured practices on 45 benefits and perks to understand which combinations were common in highly engaged workplaces.

As you might expect, Best Workplace companies offer comprehensive health coverage and generously subsidize premiums. And remember when “unlimited paid time off” seemed like such a game-changing idea? This year, 30 percent of the 1,853 competing employers offer this benefit.

If your goal is to be truly different, here are the five benefits offered by the fewest employers: onsite child care ( 1 percent), onsite medical (2 percent), concierge (6 percent), paid sabbaticals ( 10 percent), and paid transportation to and from work ( 11 percent). Otherwise, you may be great, but you won’t be unusual.