Inside Our Methodology: How We Rank 32,000+ Companies Across 9 Dimensions

Transparency is a core value at Best Place To Work. This article provides a complete look inside our methodology.

Data Collection

We aggregate data from multiple sources to ensure robustness:

1. Employee Surveys (35% weight) — Anonymous surveys distributed to verified current and former employees. Minimum 30% response rate required for inclusion.

2. Public Review Platforms (25% weight) — Sentiment analysis of reviews from Glassdoor, Indeed, Blind, Comparably, and InHerSight. We use NLP to extract dimension-specific sentiment.

3. Company Disclosures (20% weight) — SEC filings, annual reports, sustainability reports, diversity disclosures, and benefits documentation.

4. Third-Party Certifications (10% weight) — Great Place to Work, B Corp, Fair Pay Workplace, and industry-specific certifications.

5. Proprietary Research (10% weight) — Our team conducts interviews, policy analysis, and compensation benchmarking.

Scoring Model

Each company receives scores from 0-100 on nine dimensions. The overall score is a weighted average:

Validation

We validate scores through:

• Cross-source triangulation — Scores must be consistent across data sources
• Temporal consistency — Year-over-year changes must be explainable
• Peer benchmarking — Scores are calibrated against industry and size peers
• External audit — Annual methodology review by an independent advisory board

Limitations

We're transparent about what we can't perfectly measure:

• Sub-team culture variations within large organizations
• Very recent changes (data has a 3-6 month lag)
• Companies with fewer than 50 employees have less statistical robustness
• Self-selection bias in voluntary surveys

Updates

We update our rankings quarterly, with a comprehensive annual edition each January. Companies can request a review of their scores through our methodology page.