Coca-Cola topped a list of the best 100 companies to work for in the U.S., according to the newly released American Opportunity Index.
The index was compiled by Harvard Business School, the Burning Glass Institute and the Schultz Family Foundation. The index includes 396 of America's largest employers, assessing the progress of a company’s employees over five years, from 2018 through 2022.
The groups used information from LinkedIn and Glassdoor, such as payscale and resumes, to help determine the rankings. The index does not use self-reported data and companies cannot choose to opt out of the index.
In addition to pay, the index examines opportunities for promotion, diversity and other factors.
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Coca-Cola did particularly well in providing raises, hiring people without college degrees, hiring those without previous job experience, and hiring leaders from within the company.
Companies in the top 10 include:
1) Coca-Cola
2) J.M. Smucker
3) W.W. Grainger
4) PNC Financial Services Group
5) ServiceNow
6) Meta Platforms
7) Capital One Financial
8) Bank of America
9) Costco Wholesale
10) Intuit
The publishers of the data stressed that companies that promote from within tend to do best with employee retention.
"Companies know that retaining workers improves productivity and, ultimately, business performance. But many employers assume that the only lever they have for driving retention is raising pay. The Index shows that a strong track record of internal promotion is also highly correlated to driving retention; in fact, internal promotion is second only to pay itself as a means for retaining employees," the index says.
They say companies that offer higher pay and better opportunities for promotion save in attrition costs. They say that attrition can cost companies anywhere from 33% to 67% of an employee's annual salary.
"More companies must embrace the idea that comfortable practices and long-standing policies often generate significant hidden costs. Most importantly, more companies must acknowledge that our current workforce development system – of which they are the principal beneficiary – is simply not fit for the 21st century," the publishers wrote.
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