Glassdoor Unveils Employees' Choice Awards for Top 50 Best Places to Work in 2012

The reviews are in. Employees have spoken, revealing the best companies to work for in 2012; and, they love working at some of the biggest tech, science and management consulting companies in the nation. Glassdoor, a jobs and career community where people share workplace insights, has announced the winners of the fourth annual Employees' Choice Awards, listing the top 50 "Best Places to Work," based on surveys collected from U.S.-based employees in 2011. The top five Best Places to Work, according to employees, are: Bain & Company, McKinsey & Company, Facebook, MITRE, and Google. Of the 50 employers honored, 13 have been on the list for all four years, and 17 are debuting on the list this year.

"The Glassdoor Employees' Choice Awards recognize fifty outstanding companies rated highest by their own employees," said Robert Hohman, co-founder and CEO of Glassdoor. "This is the fourth year Glassdoor has assembled the Best Places to Work list, and there are consistent themes that surface among these top-rated employers, including company culture, competitive pay and benefits packages, open communication practices, and high opinions of the chief executive."

Management consulting firm Bain & Company has been on the Glassdoor list since 2009 and leads the pack in 2012 with a 4.7 overall company rating, based on a five-point scale, edging up from the number three spot in 2011. CEO Steve Ellis earned a 96% approval rating from his employees although this dipped from 99% last year.

"We're honored to be recognized as the best place to work by our employees, particularly since there are so many diverse and leading industries that this ranking represents," said Russ Hagey, chief talent officer at Bain & Company. "We consistently hear from our current and former employees that the challenging and supportive environment that Bain provides makes us not only the best place to work, but a great launching pad to a successful career, whether it's within the business, social or entrepreneurial sectors."

McKinsey & Company, another large management consulting firm, took the number two spot this year with a 4.3 company rating (up from #18 on the list in 2011), and CEO Dominic Barton has a 100% approval rating, up from 93% a year ago. Facebook, which ranked #1 last year, moved down to number three with a 4.3 company rating from a 4.6, while CEO Mark Zuckerberg slipped to an 89% approval rating from 96% approval last year.

Rounding out the top five companies to work for are MITRE with a 4.1 company rating (CEO Alfred Grasso has a 92% approval rating) and Google with a 4.0 company rating, which moved up from #30 and a 3.7 rating last year. Current CEO Larry Page garners a 92% approval rating, compared to former CEO Eric Schmidt's 96% approval last year.

Glassdoor's Employees' Choice Awards rely solely on the input of employees, who provide constructive feedback on their work environment and senior management throughout the year via an anonymous 20-question survey. The survey addresses eight key workplace factors that include work/life balance, career opportunities, communication, compensation & benefits, fairness & respect, employee morale, recognition & feedback, and senior leadership. The ranking of the top 50 list was determined by each company's overall Glassdoor rating, which is the cumulative average rating from employees who elected to participate in the 20-question survey between December 1, 2010 and November 23, 2011.

The complete list of the Glassdoor 2012 top 50 Best Places to Work is below, along with corresponding CEO approval rating, company rating and 2012 rank.



Based on at least 25 approved company ratings between 12/01/2010 - 11/23/2011. Based on a 5-point scale, 1.0=very dissatisfied, 3.0=OK, 5.0=very satisfied.

For more information about the awards, including employee commentary for all companies from the past year, visit Glassdoor's Best Places to Work page. A complete copy of the Glassdoor survey along with information about the Best Places to Work methodology may be requested via email to: pr [at] Glassdoor [dot] com. To receive regular updates about new and interesting data and reports, visit the Glassdoor blog and follow the company on Twitter, Facebook, Google + and LinkedIn.

About Glassdoor

Glassdoor is a free and anonymous jobs and career community offering an inside look at companies and access to millions of job listings. Glassdoor helps employees, job seekers, employers and recruiters find and share detailed information on nearly 150,000 companies, such as Facebook, Google, Chevron, J.Crew, NIKE and PricewaterhouseCoopers. This proprietary user-generated content includes salary data, company reviews, interview questions and reviews, office photos and CEO approval ratings. Glassdoor was founded in 2007 and launched its website in 2008. Headquartered in Sausalito, Calif. Glassdoor has raised $22.2 million from its founders, Benchmark Capital, Sutter Hill Ventures and Battery Ventures. More information about Glassdoor can be found on its blog, and by following the company on Twitter, Facebook, Google + and LinkedIn.