September 15, 2016
The 100 Best Workplaces for Women
At these great workplaces, female employees have a voice, development opportunities and fair pay.September 15, 2016 - San Francisco, Calif. The work world overall remains a place where women struggle to have an equal say. Some organizations are much better at creating environments where women can speak up and feel heard by leaders.
Research and consulting firm Great Place to Work and Fortune are proud to honor such companies, by announcing the second annual Best Workplaces for Women list.
In creating the ranking, we found a key difference between women and men’s experience at work has to do with communication with company leaders. In particular, our study of more than 137,750 female employees showed that women are less likely to feel involved in decisions, to feel they can get a straight answer from managers and to feel leaders are easy to talk with. The 100 Best Workplaces for Women are much better at creating environments where women can have a say. At those leading companies, 79 percent of female employees feel management involves them in decisions affecting them—compared to 68 percent of female employees at non-winning organizations.
Other key findings from the ranking are that the 100 Best Workplaces for Women have more training opportunities for female employees and have more equitable pay practices. At the top organizations, 80 percent of female employees say people are paid fairly for their work, compared to 71 percent of women at non-winning companies.
The new ranking and research paints a more complex picture of what women want at work. In recent years, much of the discussion about female-friendly cultures has centered on the importance of mentors and workplace flexibility.
“Great workplaces for women were erroneously thought of as offering programs that mostly promoted good work/life balance. But our research shows that the best workplaces for women are the organizations that treat everyone equally, whether it’s pay or giving women and men the same shot at a promotion,” said Michael C. Bush, CEO of Great Place to Work. “Congratulations to the 100 Best Workplaces for Women—they are showing everyone how to create a Great Place to Work For ALL.”
The No. 1 Best Workplace for Women is Texas Health Resources, a nonprofit health system where more than three-quarters of employees and two-thirds of mid-level or senior managers are women. Rounding out the top five are Child Trends (2), Build-A-Bear Workshop (3), Ultimate Software (4) and PrimeLending (5). Other noteworthy winners: Marriott International (81), with the most employees (102,301), Keeping Matters Current (9) with the fewest (12), and Bright Horizons Family Solutions (98), whose 18,826-person workforce is 95 percent women, the most of any organization.
Both women and men at Best Workplaces for Women feel their employers provide ample opportunities to grow and advance in their careers, and provide them with the flexibility they want to balance their work and personal lives.
To create the list, Great Place to Work surveyed 137,762 women at Great Place to Work-Certified companies.
The Best Workplaces for Women ranking is part of a series of rankings by Great Place to Work and Fortune based upon employee survey feedback from Great Place to Work-Certified organizations. To see the full list of the Best Workplaces for Women click here. To see the schedule for all of our workplace lists and more information on how to apply, visit Great Place to Work’s website.
About the Best Workplaces for Women
Published together with our partner Fortune, the 100 Best Workplaces for Women rankings are based entirely upon feedback from more than 137,762 women at Great Place to Work–Certified companies. Women completed our anonymous Trust Index survey, answering questions about how frequently they experience the behaviors that create a great workplace, including, for example, their assessment of how fairly they're treated regardless of gender, the quality and authenticity of communications with managers, and equitable pay and promotion practices. Women’s anonymous responses resulted in a total score for each company, which was compared to the benchmark for organizations of that size, and ranked accordingly.
Results from the survey are highly reliable, having a 95% confidence level and a margin of error of 6% or less. Winning a spot on this list indicates the company has distinguished itself from peers by being a great place to work for women, and has a workplace where women have high representation in the total employee population and in management positions. The 100 companies with the highest employee ratings and female representation were selected for the list.
About Great Place to Work
Great Place to Work is the global authority on high-trust, high-performance workplace cultures. Through proprietary assessment tools, advisory services, and certification programs, including Best Workplaces lists and workplace reviews, Great Place to Work provides the benchmarks, framework, and expertise needed to create, sustain, and recognize outstanding workplace cultures. In the United States, Great Place to Work produces the annual Fortune "100 Best Companies to Work For" and a series of Great Place to Work Best Workplaces lists, including lists for Millennials, Women, Diversity, Small and Medium Companies and over a half dozen different industries.
Follow Great Place to Work online at www.greatplacetowork.com and on Twitter at @GPTW_US.
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