What makes for the Best Place to Work
I’m joined by Daniel Zhao, chief economist of Glassdoor, who talks me through their new rankings of the best places to work in 2026.
It’s an intriguing list, is a car wash really better than some of the most famous tech brands in the world?
The ranking allows us to explore what we want in a job: culture, connection, progression and autonomy.
Glassdoor: Top US places to work, Top UK places to work
TRANSCRIPT
Bruce Daisley: Daniel, to kick off, I wonder if you could introduce who you
Daniel Zhao: Yeah, so my name is Daniel j. I’m the chief economist at Glassdoor. So I run Glassdoor’s economic research team and our team is really dedicated to using Glassdoor’s unique data set to uncover what’s going on and what’s trending in the workplace with employee experience. Um, you know, pretty much anything that you can think of about what’s going on for employees right now.
Bruce Daisley: And I wonder if you could just remind us how the Glassdoor mechanic works. How would people find themselves maybe having to, um, submit a review to maybe glean something C Could you just point us, uh, point out for us how people find themselves reviewing and
Mm-hmm.
Bruce Daisley: information
Daniel Zhao: Yeah. Glassdoor is really the place to go to for insights about career and about companies. And most of our data, the vast majority of our data comes from employees who are coming to our site and. Telling us what their experience was at their, at their current or previous employer, right? So they’re leaving a review that articulates the pros, the cons, any advice to management that they have, and some ratings as well about different parts of their experience and that.
That, uh, helps, um, articulate at a, like, at a aggregate level how well a company treats their employees or how poorly a company treats their employees. And because there’s a lot of detail that comes into these reviews, we can really dive down and try to get a better understanding for what is really driving, um, maybe a five star experience versus a one or two star experience.
Bruce Daisley: And tell me this, I’ve, I’ve seen people draw upon your data. Donald so, and his brother, uh, Charlie, so his son Charlie. So, uh, use Glassdoor data to help them. Really sort of articulate how important workplace culture is, but is that something that you observe firsthand in the data? That, that the culture that we work in is a big determinant of where we work and, and, and how
Daniel Zhao: Yeah, Don and Charlie all do great work looking at what are some of these more specific determinants of culture, and I think that one of the findings that comes out of the Glassdoor data is that. Unsurprisingly, culture does really matter for how employees feel about their workplace. And I think one of the more interesting things is that when we actually look at what some of these determinants of the employee experience and employee satisfaction are, most people think it’s a work-life balance or how much you’re getting paid.
And it turns out that those factors don’t really explain day-to-day employee satisfaction quite as much as say, career growth. Um, management, uh, or culture, like those tend to be things that determine whether somebody is happy on a day-to-day basis. And if you think about it, that kind of makes sense, right?
So if your manager is terrible and they’re just like a, you know, you know, kind of driving you too hard on a daily basis, that’s really going to impact your experience in the workplace. You might be being paid well, but that doesn’t really matter if you just dread going into the office every day, right?
So, and that works both ways as well. Uh, there are plenty of people who maybe don’t feel like they’re being paid quite as much or have like worth, worth, like work-life balance, but they’re in a culture that is really invigorating for their career. Um, and it gives them a lot of growth opportunities and those are trade-offs that people often do make.
Bruce Daisley: We saw the new data today and certainly for the US um, list. It’s an I. Catching list actually, because I think it’s got a, a degree of everything. It’s got a, a good deal, more variety than you might anticipate, and it makes us, I think, reflect and ask ourselves, oh, what is a good job? What is the sort of job that we love feeling?
Part of the, the number one. Business. I had to search them because I thought their name surely can’t be what it suggests. And it’s, uh, a carwash business as far as I can tell. Uh, Nvidia second, we’ve, we’ve got a burger restaurant along the way. Do you wanna just describe for us firstly, what the findings were about the best places and what lessons that might teach us about what a
Daniel Zhao: Yeah, I thought the way you put it there is, was. Really a great way to describe it because you do have these companies that span a whole bunch of different industries. And also crucially, the way that these companies are creating a best place to work is different. Not every company is gonna have this access to the same tools or um, the same ways of creating culture.
Uh, if you are a food service company, if you run a burger chain, you’re not gonna be able to create employee culture in the same way that. A large consulting firm is going to be able to. Right. Um, but the fact that we see such a wide variety of companies, uh, across a different whole host of different industries, a whole host of different management styles and operating styles, I think really goes to show that it’s more about.
Um, offering something unique to employees and really being able to exceed their expectations. So to double click on some specific examples, uh, in and Out Burger in the top three. Um, this is a regional chain that’s really beloved by folks who, uh, live nearby. If you ever go to California, people swear by In and Out Burger.
And so there really is this culture, um, not just within the employee base, but also within the customer base. Uh, where people are really, um, you know, strong believers in the company and in the product. And that there is also an element of, um, you know, a different way that the, this company really treats their employees so they offer better paid than their peers.
You know, you think of a food service job as traditionally not very well paid, but in and Out does offer better pay than their peers. They offer benefits and crucially they offer career growth opportunities. So you could have somebody who starts as a cashier. Works their way up to manager for the store, works their way up to corporate and that’s a, a level of career growth and a level of career opportunity that doesn’t necessarily exist at some of their competitors.
And that’s really how they stand out and that’s why they’re in the top three. Even though a lot people don’t necessarily think about In and Out Burger in the same vein or the same breadth as Nvidia or Vein in the company.
Bruce Daisley: You’ve raised some really interesting points along the way there. The Adam Grant, the psychologist, talked about pride being a really important part of how we get value from our jobs, and I guess to some extent. Working at an organization that we feel proud to tell people we’re part of is about our individual identity and, and group identity.
Reflecting well onto that, so, so that idea, excuse me. So that idea that we could tell people that we, we work somewhere and we’re really proud of this. Brand that we represent. Uh, but you’ve mentioned a couple of other things along the way there, you know, that hygiene factor of pay plays a really big part.
Um, and, and there there’s other components that seem to be critical for here. To what extent does friendship or connection or or cohesion at work play an additional part? Is there anything else that you’re
Daniel Zhao: Yeah, so on that last point, I think connection is really, really important. Uh, this is something that I often hear from employees who are maybe a little bit jaded or a little bit burned out, and they’re like, you know, for my next job I’m not gonna try to connect with my coworkers. Why should I care about being friends with my coworkers?
I’m just gonna go in, get my paycheck and go out. And to some extent, that does sound appealing. It means that you don’t have to get as emotionally invested. It means you might not get hurt by a company that mistreats or misuses that relationship. Right? But that’s also the difference I think, between a three out of five company versus like a five out of five company, right?
A company that actually creates that kind of environment and lives. Those values is really going to be able to stand out against a company where everybody just views it as a paycheck. Um, so, you know. You know, everybody kind of has a different level of emotional investment. They want to put into their job, their career, their company, uh, and it’s okay to not want to be friends with all your coworkers.
Uh, but that being said, I think the companies that are able to really create a unique and rewarding culture are ones where people feel connected to their coworkers, that feel engaged beyond just, this is my nine to five job.
Bruce Daisley: It, it’s really interesting to the range of sectors in there as well. Do, do you think this represents the age of the, the end of the age of tech firms being seen as the, the. The salvation for workplace culture, the, the idea that your best future might be working in tech. It doesn’t seem to be backed up here.
There’s a really good range of different sectors, technology, consumer services, you know, manufacturing. There’s, there’s a really good range of of employers there. What’s your take on
Daniel Zhao: Yeah, so tech has lost some of its luster. We see that there are 24 out of the top 100 best places to work. We’re in the tech sector, which is down from 26 last year, and this is. Part of a broader trend that we’re seeing where tech companies, uh, are putting a lot more pressure on their workforces to be more efficient, be more productive.
Um, they’re trimming budgets are trimming headcount, and so there is a lot more pressure in the technology space. That being said, it is still the. Most represented industry on the list, and I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that tech does still offer enormous upside from a career and financial perspective.
It’s not every company, of course, but you have a company like Nvidia in the top three where. Employees talk about how amazing it is to be at the bleeding edge of this new AI revolution. Obviously that’s very rewarding from a financial perspective, but also from a career perspective as well, to be able to say, I worked on this incredibly cool problem or product, um, that is really addressing.
You know, or really creating change in society, right? So, uh, I think that technology still is very attractive to people, especially when you think about, um, how lucrative it can be from that financial and career perspective for folks just coming out of college. Uh, it’s not like say, medicine or law where you necessarily need to go and get.
Uh, graduated a professional degree. And uh, so you have these jobs that are a little bit more accessible. They have this upside. You have an industry that historically has been, um, a big investor in employee culture and experience. It has lost some of its luster in the last few years, to be fair. Um, but it is still a very attractive industry for folks, uh, trying to, trying to grow their careers.
Bruce Daisley: We’ve mentioned, uh, Charlie and Donald Soul before, and one of the things that they’ve drawn from the Glassdoor data before and, and they’ve. Been incredibly complimentary about how effective the data is, but one of the things they’ve drawn from it before is that in the past good culture is seven times more effective than salary when it comes to us deciding to stay at an organization.
Are there any other top line figures that you might draw from this? I know we’ve talked about a few of the, the different components before. You’ve talked about a few of the things, relationship with manager, but do you, do you produce a hierarchy in your mind when you’re thinking about what. What is the most important thing for a, uh, for, for someone when they’re
Daniel Zhao: Yeah, so hierarchy is a good word to use because there is a similar Maslow’s hierarchy of needs when we are talking about career, right? Like part of the reason that we talked earlier about work-life balance and compensation and benefits not ranking as highly is because those are, those are baseline things.
Uh, they’re the kinds of things where you wouldn’t even. Necessarily want to get into the job at all if you don’t meet those requirements. Right? And so there are many people who, when they’re applying to jobs, say. Hey, this job just doesn’t meet my bare minimum criteria. Uh, I’m not even gonna bother applying.
Or if they get the offer and they realize that the compensation is too low, they just don’t even bother taking it. So it’s kind of a, a very baseline like filter on whether a job even is acceptable or not. But then as you go above that, there are things that, well, okay, I decided to take this job, but what is actually.
Um, determining whether my day-to-day experience is good. You have something like senior management, which is really important because that determines culture, right? So you have, if senior managers are pushing, um, certain cultural practices that aren’t really healthy like that is gonna trickle down through the rest of the organization.
So that is really important. Uh, but it is a little bit detached from people’s day-to-day experience. You know, you’re not interacting with the CEO on a daily basis, even if they are modeling. What good behavior should be at the company. Uh, and then you have things that are more proximate to the employee, right?
So career growth, um, career growth, culture and values, like these are things that you’re thinking about more on a daily basis, uh, and whether you’re learning, whether you’re growing, whether you enjoy the people that you work with around you. And those are things that are really going to swing whether you’re having a good experience on any given day or not, um, in a way that sure, like.
You know, you want to be paid well, you wanna have good work life balance. Um, but those are kind of like table stakes. Whereas the things that really elevate a culture and really elevate employee experience are the things at the top of that hierarchy, that, that culture, that, um, career growth opportunity.
Bruce Daisley: Yeah, that’s why it’s so, it’s so interesting to see the organizations that have really stood out and done well because, you know, they’ve obviously focused on some of those things. to finish really, if you were advising organizations to, who were thinking about their employee proposition, they were thinking about, we want to be one of these best places to work.
We, we want to aspire to, to rise up the rankings. You’ve mentioned a few things along the way there, but are there, are there some sort of. that they should focus on? Should they encourage employees to post? Should they incentivize employees to post? How, how? How should they
Daniel Zhao: Yeah. So just, just to start, I think it’s important to try to understand where employees are, right? So asking employees for feedback and whether that’s on Glassdoor or internal surveys or uh, round tables, that sort of thing. Like just getting a sense of how employees are feeling. Is the first step to improving culture because every company is different.
Every company has different challenges, even within company. Every team has different challenges, and you’re not going to be able to address those problems that do exist unless you actually have a good understanding of what. Uh, you know, what’s going on? Um, you know, we, we don’t think that companies should incentivize, uh, that kind of feedback because, you know, we don’t, you want that feedback to be honest and authentic and truthful, right?
Uh, and that, that requires like, they’re not being any incentives, incentives attached to that. Um, but it also means building a culture where people feel like they can be honest and they can be authentic. Uh, so I think that. Asking for feedback. Asking for honest feedback is really one important thing. Uh, another aspect of that is in the other direction.
It is really important for leaders and companies to be transparent. We see that transparency and communication are values that employees are really emphasizing, especially in the post COVID world where, uh, you know, for say a remote company, you, you need to go. A little bit beyond what was normal in pre COVID because you need to be able to keep people connected.
You need to make sure people have the information that they need, that they might not be getting. Um, if they’re in a remote context, whereas maybe they were just picking up a lot of that passively around the water cooler in the pre COVID era. So transparency and communication really important, especially in an uncertain world like we have today.
Right. Um, and then the last thing that I’ll maybe mention here is, uh, flexibility is also something post COVID that has come up as very, very important and. That is not just say, remote work or hybrid work opportunities. That’s definitely something we hear from employees that they really value. But I think crucially, flexibility, what’s underlying that is autonomy, right?
Like workers want to feel like they’re being trusted by their employer to get the work done in the best way, in the way that they know is best for them, right? So if that means that, Hey, actually my best working hours are a little bit off. From the traditional nine to five. Um, but I’m, uh, I’m gonna be really, really productive from seven to three.
Uh, that’s something that I, I should be able to decide as the employee, right? So flexibility, um, uh, I get, which I guess is kind of downstream from autonomy, uh, is another really important thing that, that an employer should think about as a way to give some power back to workers.
Bruce Daisley: Yeah, I was really struck, actually, j just sort of, when I, when I saw the list, I went into some of the brands that I’d not seen before. You know, I, I hadn’t heard of crew car washes and so I went and read some of the reviews and the really pro the, the really sort of, uh, I think. thing for anyone who’s aspiring to get into the list is that it wasn’t just universal, but universal positives from crew employees.
Some of them a slightly different setup here, or they wanted, they said that, you know, there was a manager that wasn’t as good as you know, there were. felt genuine entries. It wasn’t like the whole group of crew car wash had suddenly gone un massed to, to post positive reviews. So it felt aspirational for other organizations to think, okay, well I think we could aspire to that level of greatness.
The, that level of good culture, it, it didn’t feel like it was selling something that was imp truly perfect and, and you couldn’t aspire to it. Really fascinating to, to dig into the
Daniel Zhao: Yeah, I think that is an excellent point. Like none of these companies on the best places to work are perfect. Like they’re all unique, right? They all have a different way that they are trying to create an experience, and for some people that won’t be a perfect fit, and that’s totally okay. You might have a company that pushes their employees really, really hard, but offers great career.
Growth opportunities, and that’s a trade off that many employees are willing to take. Um, but for some of them it won’t work out. That’s okay. You’re creating a unique culture with a unique employee value proposition, uh, and you’re gonna get some harsh feedback as a result. Uh, but I, I think this is like a, a really important point.
You know, you’re talking about some of these reviews, they’re, they’re more balanced. They talk about some of the pros and cons. Like the point of getting reviews on Glassdoor or getting feedback from employees is not to get positive feedback, right? The point is to get constructive feedback so you know where you can improve, right?
You know, obviously it’s great. Everybody loves to get positive feedback. They love to hear all the things that they’re doing well and that the strengths that they can rely on. But if you’re only getting positive feedback. Chances are you’re missing out on some of the things that you really can improve on.
And ultimately, if you are actually investing in improving the employee experience, uh, employees will recognize that. And that’s kind of like the organic way to improve your reputation, your employer brand, uh, is to make sure that you know the ground truth, that employees are, feel, feel like things are good and that they’re improving.
Uh, like that’s really the foundation for. Growing your employer brand overall.
Bruce Daisley: Fabulous. Daniel, I’m so grateful you took the time to talk to us and, uh, on the, on the day the, the research came out. Thank you so much
Daniel Zhao: Yeah. Yeah. It was lovely to chat.
