Best Places to Work Awards Rules

Every year Comparably celebrates the companies and leaders that are deemed as the most exceptional in 16 categories by those who know best – employees. Winning our annual Comparably Awards is truly an achievement as it is based entirely on employee feedback in nearly 20 core culture metrics, from leadership and work environment to compensation and outlook. Four different awards are released each quarter, culminating in the biggest awards given at the end of the year: Best Places to Work, Best CEOs, Best Companies for Women, and Best Companies for Diversity.

Unlike other workplace awards, there is no self-nomination process or costs involved. Winners are determined based on feedback provided by those who know a company best - the employees. We have the unique ability to segment our ratings for a variety of demographics so we use that feedback to highlight the Best Companies and CEOs for Women – based entirely on female employee feedback – and Best Companies and CEOs for Diversity – based entirely on feedback from employees of color.

Leaving ratings takes no more than a few minutes to complete. Find your company here to start rating and encourage your fellow employees to do the same.

The eligibility deadline to submit ratings is different for each award, but it is always based on a prior 12-month period. We encourage ongoing employee feedback since we publish 16 different awards throughout the year. For example, our Happiest Employees Award was given in June 2018, so the eligibility period was a May 2017 to May 2018 timeframe. Previous award wins do not influence future awards. To qualify, Large companies (more than 500 employees) must have a minimum of 75 employee participants and Small/Mid-Size companies (fewer than 500 employees) must have a minimum of 25 employee participants. Additional weight is given to scores at companies with more participation from their employee base. To see eligibility rules for our next set of awards, we encourage you to check our blog for up-to-date information: www.comparably.com/blog.

Winners are determined based on a series of 50+ structured and comprehensive workplace questions in nearly 20 core culture categories, including: Compensation, Leadership, Professional Development, Work-Life Balance, and Perks & Benefits, to name a few (in Yes/No, True/False, 1-10 scale, and multiple choice formats). Comparably applies a proprietary algorithm to each award. The answer to each question is given a numerical score and then compared to companies of similar size. Winners are based on ratings from employees of all ages, genders, ethnicities, departments, education levels, experience, and locations (all global feedback is considered, with an emphasis on North America). The only exceptions: Best Companies and CEOs for Women are based solely on ratings from female employees; Best Companies and CEOs for Diversity are based solely on ratings from employees of color (non-Caucasian); Best CEOs is based on approval ratings employees give their chief executives; and Best Global Company Culture  is based on companies with a global footprint (ratings must be from both international & North American employees).

We announce four different awards on a quarterly basis: March, June, September, and December. We encourage you to check our website and follow our social media channels since we always publish all winners there first.

We’ll be happy to answer your questions at [email protected].

Comparably is a leading workplace culture and corporate brand reputation platform with over 15 million anonymous ratings on 70,000 companies. With the most comprehensive data on large and SMB organizations in nearly 20 different workplace categories – based on gender, ethnicity, age, experience, title, industry, location, and education - it is one of the most used SaaS platforms for employer branding and a trusted third party site for workplace culture and compensation. For more information on Comparably’s studies and annual Best Places to Work and Best Brands Awards, please visit Workplace Insider.