Meet America’s Top Employers in 2024

When Hadley Lunn was a nursing resident at University of Kansas Health Systemhe and his first-year team noticed a communication gap related to their patients in the cancer department. Lunn said nurses had no systematic way of knowing when a patient had a negative reaction to a blood transfusion, so when those patients returned for repeated transfusions, nurses were unable to prevent reaction so that it does not happen again. “We missed that they had a response in the past because it was hard to keep track of the paperwork,” Lunn says. with a research project at the end of that first year of work, Lunn and his peers were encouraged to find a solution to this problem.

So, for their research project, residents on the nursing unit worked with the Health System’s electronic medical records platform to develop a way to document transfusion reactions so that nurses could see that information easily in the patient’s records and prepare it during the next visit. Lunn, who adds that it was gratifying to have a positive impact on the hospital and patient care, especially early in his career.

Now, eight years later, Lunn notes that his first year of training and team building also helped solidify his commitment to his employer: “As a new nurse, I think it’s really helpful to retain nurses because you create a community in your facility, you get involved immediately to make changes and see growth, and you’re really connected to the leaders of the health system. about new nurses from other groups. ”

Lunn’s experience is not surprising. He says that many employees spend most of their career in the Health Department, some choose to stay in the same department while others choose to explore new methods or new skills in the hospital. Lunn, for example, transferred to an OBGYN clinic several years ago and currently works as a freelancer one day a week within the Health System’s nurse recruitment and retention team. . This investment in staff growth and job evaluation is undoubtedly one of the many reasons the University of Kansas Health System is ranked No. 1 in both Kansas and Missouri (The Health System has multiple locations) on our list America’s Top Employers by Country 2024.

The list—that Forbes conducted in partnership with market research firm Statista for the sixth consecutive year—it is based primarily on a survey of more than 160,000 employees working at companies with at least 500 people within the United States. Survey participants—who lived in each of the 50 states and Washington, DC—were asked how likely they were to recommend their employer from zero to 10 years ago. two, and organizations they knew within their industry or through friends or family who worked there. The responses were combined and entered into a scoring system, and the highest scoring organizations in each state made our rankings. A total of 1,294 organizations were recognized. (For more on this method, see below.)

This year, the industries that received the most places in the groups were retail and retail, health care and social services, education, government services, and banking and financial services. The largest number of top employers in the retail and retail sector were large national operations and department stores that gained spots in many states. These included Amazon (ranked in 36 states, including No. 1 New Mexico), The Home Depot (ranked 27 times, including No. 1 in Nevada) and The goal (ranked 23 places).

On the other hand, in the health care, social services and education sectors, the employers on our list are often located in the same state. And it was health care and social services organizations that tended to rank highest among all sectors, earning spots in the top 10 in 43 countries.

Regardless of the industry, says Allison Vaillancourt, Ph.D., vice president of organizational success in consulting firm Segal, employees often report that the most important thing to them at work is to flexibility and autonomy, meaningful work that matches their values, a respectful environment with managers who make them feel valued, well-defined paths for growth and development, and of course, competitive salary and benefits.

For Mary Ganska, her job as assistant director of academic services at the Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy at. Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) (No. 23 in Pennsylvania), checks many of those boxes. Working at a private academic university for more than seven years, he says, has provided him with a great intellectual community, supportive colleagues and administrators, professional development opportunities (including a master’s in public administration from CMU that he received with the help of employee education benefits. ), and the flexibility to try new roles and advance within the organization. In fact, he moved to his current job because he was interested in trying something different. “I wanted a change,” says Ganska, “and since the university has so many different areas for people to work in, I was able to take the skills I had built up in one place and using them in a very new way. “It feels like the world is your oyster.”

As the chair of the CMU Labor Council (an elected group of representatives who work with the university administration to address the needs of workers and improve the welfare of the community), Ganska is also impressed by how university leaders are how to respond to workers’ concerns. Ganska says: “Last year, when our university president, Farnam Jahanian, came to our meeting, someone asked him why the benefits of dependent education were not available to illegitimate children unless they had other parents. “You can see our president didn’t know that and he’s surprised to hear that. And this past month, in July, they updated the definition of dependent children to now include illegitimate children and children. of my family members.”

Special benefits are also focused on Verizonwhich has created conditions in 17 states. Sam Hammock, Verizon’s chief human services officer, points to benefits such as tuition assistance, student loan repayment, discounts on fitness and exercise, and childcare and elderly care – not only for work days but also for evenings. “We want people to feel completely human,” says Hammcok, which is why the company aims to simplify life outside of work.

Verizon also offers a mental health care program through a platform that provides easy access to real doctors, often with just a one-day wait. The program was an immediate success, with less than 10,000 employees signing up to use the plan within the first three months of its launch, says Hammock.

But it’s not just the benefits that motivate people to stay at Verizon (the average tenure among the company’s 110,000 employees is 13 years). “People tell me they stay with them for growth,” says Hammock. “We invest hundreds of millions of dollars in development and internal exchange programs that allow people to constantly challenge themselves and try new opportunities.”

Sammy Delacruz, for one, started his career at a Verizon store in New York City 23 years ago, and quickly found his niche as a skilled salesperson and customer solutions specialist. And even though he chose to stay in sales rather than move into another role, he says he continues to enjoy the technology training programs and new products, business culture and customer relations: “Verizon is k’ a company that gives you all the opportunity, and prepares you to succeed—you just need to succeed.”

For a complete list of America’s Best Employers by Country, click here.

Method

To create our list of The Nation’s Largest Employers of 2024, Forbes partnered with market research firm Statista to survey more than 160,000 employees working for companies with at least 500 employees in the United States. Survey participants were asked how likely they are to recommend their employer on a scale of zero to 10. Respondents were also asked to review the employers they have worked for in the past two years, and organizations they know within their industry or through friends or family. who worked there.

The responses—which were received from all 50 states and Washington, DC—were then combined and entered into a database, along with survey data from the past three years. Much weight is given to recent data and responses from current employees within the country. The top-scoring companies in each state made our list, with each state ranked between three and 101 employers, based on the size of the state and the number of responses received. In the end, 1,294 organizations made it to our list.

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Like everything Forbes lists, companies do not pay a fee to participate or be selected. To read more about how we make these lists, click here. For questions about this list, please email listdesk [at] forbes.com.