13 Best Large Businesses To Work For In California: Forbes List
CALIFORNIA— The work-life balance in California has forever changed since the COVID-19 pandemic. In a recent release of America’s Best Large Employers by Forbes, what makes a good employer has been put under the microscope.
Over 500,000 California workers are employed by the 13 top large companies in the state, according to Forbes magazine. Of those, only a fraction are outside of the computer and biotechnology fields. The majority of California's large businesses which scored high among employees are in the northern part of the state, specifically Cupertino, the greater San Francisco area, and Mountain View. Los Angeles County and Orange County are also represented in the top 100 list.
In California, San Francisco-based Genentech, a medical company, leads the Golden State as the best large employer at #14. They employ 13,500 workers. Also on the list at #21 is Linked In, an IT, Internet Software and Services company. Headquartered in Sunnyvale, employs 16,000 workers. Fast food giant, In-N-Out Burger joins the top three at #23. Headquartered in Irvine, Orange County, the mega-chain conglomerate sits with 27,000 workers.
To compile the annual list of top 100 large companies Thursday, the business magazine partnered with the market research firm Statista to survey 60,000 Americans working for businesses with at least 1,000 employees.
Survey respondents were asked about such topics as their willingness to recommend their workplace to friends and family, as well as nominate companies other than their own. The final list represents the 500 employers receiving the most recommendations, Forbes said.
In California, employers ranked on the Forbes Top 100 Big Business list are as follows:
#14: Genentech, South San Francisco, Drugs & Biotechnology, employs 13,500.
#21: LinkedIn, Sunnyvale, Computer Services, employing 16,000.
#23: In-N-Out Burger, Irvine, Restaurants, employing 27,000.
#26: Paypal, San Jose, Banking and Financial employing 26,500.
#29: Lam Research, Fremont, Semiconductors, employing 12,000.
#34: Google, Mountain View, IT, Internet, employing 135,301.
#35: Trader Joe’s, Monrovia, Retail & Wholesale, employing 10,000.
#42: UCLA Health, Los Angeles, Healthcare, employing 32,000.
#46: Cisco Systems, San Jose, IT, Internet, employing 38,000.
#51: Live Nation Entertainment, Media Beverly Hills, employing 8,200.
#62: Apple, Cupertino, Technology Hardware, employing 154,000.
#81: Amgen, Thousand Oaks, Drugs & Biotechnology, employing 24,300.
#88: SpaceX, Hawthorne, Aerospace & Defense, employing 9,500.
Forbes’ Top 10 big employers in the country are:
The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (health care, social)
Georgia-based Southern Company (utilities)
NASA in the District of Columbia (aerospace, defense)
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York (health care, social)
South Carolina-based Michelin Group (automotive, automotive suppliers)
Ohio-based Sherwin-Williams (engineering, manufacturing)
Minnesota-based Mayo Clinic (health care, social)
Arizona-based Carvana (retail, wholesale)
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (health care, social)
Texas-based MD Anderson Cancer Center (health care, social)
Virginia-based Huntington Ingalls Industries, the largest military shipbuilding company, moved to No. 11 on the list from No. 387, the largest gain of any of the large companies.
Not surprisingly given COVID-19 restrictions, the largest drops were in the restaurant industry, with only 11 companies earning spots on the 2022 large employers list.
California-based In-N-Out Burger of Irvine was the only one to land among the top 200, coming in No. 23.
At In-N-Out Burger, the franchise owner and president, Lynsi Snyder talked with Forbes about their success.
“We bend over backward to try to do as many things behind the scenes to continue business as usual,” Snyder, told Forbes in November 2020. “It obviously has not looked like business as usual with masks and nearly empty dining rooms.”
U.S. employers are struggling to fill 10.9 million job openings in an environment of 4 percent unemployment.
“Whether working from home or the office, Americans’ priorities have changed,” Forbes said, noting that “what makes a top employer has changed, too.”
Paul McDonald, a senior executive director at Robert Half and a Forbes contributor, said “employees are in control at this point because there’s such a plethora of openings.”
“With the number of job openings today and the choices that good candidates have, you have to move swiftly but diligently,” he told Forbes. “A lot of organizations have realized that, through all the retention efforts and through all the resignations, they’ve had to re-recruit their current staff.”
Making a go at the new work/life balance is the California-based drug and biotechnology company Genentech.
In the pre-pandemic era, Genentech, which ranked 14th on the list, offered on-site benefits such as made-to-order sushi, daycare and Friday night parties. Now, the company holds virtual office hours with executives and gives employees two hours of “protected time” when they can take a break or work uninterrupted on projects.
Forbes said many of the large employers on the list are wrestling with redefining their corporate culture with a largely remote or hybrid workforce where some employees report to the office and others work from home.
This article originally appeared on the Across California Patch
