Former Chief Talent Officer who founded Voyage Consulting Group to help leaders treat their company culture like the strategic asset it is.
Guess what doesn’t define your company culture?
Free pizza. Pickleball tournaments. Posters with inspirational slogans.
None of those things will build the kind of culture that truly bonds your company and your people. And they won’t earn you a spot on Forbes’ new Best Employers for Company Culture list, either.
When 600 organizations are recognized as America’s Best Employers for Company Culture 2025, the data reveals what actually works—and which industries are leading the way.
8 Insights From The Best Employers List
Too often, people glance at a ranking like this, admire a few familiar names and move on. But hidden in the numbers are insights every leader can use. Eight patterns emerged for me from the full list of 600 companies. Below are the patterns and lessons for all culture-centered leaders to consider.
1. Healthcare and education lead (49 and 45 companies).
These sectors dominate the list because purpose-driven missions and people-centered environments create meaning and loyalty.
Lesson: Whatever your industry, tie daily work back to purpose. People stay engaged when they know their work matters. Remind them often of why it matters.
2. Professional services, IT, retail, banking and insurance are close behind (~35 each).
Culture strength isn’t limited to human services. Even competitive, regulated industries made the list.
Lesson: Constraints are no excuse. Any organization can build culture when leaders focus on fairness, transparency and growth.
3. Mega-tech is present—but rankings vary.
Microsoft (no. 12) and Salesforce (no. 27) rank near the top; Google (no. 146) and Apple (no. 162) fall mid-pack. Other massive tech companies aren’t listed at all. Big brand ≠ big culture.
Lesson: Reputation doesn’t equal reality. Even the most resourced companies must earn cultural credibility through systems and leadership behavior.
4. Geographic hubs dominate.
California (78) and New York (73) lead, followed by Massachusetts, Illinois, Ohio and Texas.
Lesson: Location matters less than leadership. Even if you’re not in a cultural hotspot, you can still build standout practices. Doing so can set you apart from competitors who settle for mediocrity.
5. Deep roots are rewarded (median founding year: 1955).
Most companies on the list are decades old; the top 100 skew older (median founding year 1937). Longevity supports stronger systems.
Lesson: Culture takes time to embed, but you don’t have to wait decades. Start building repeatable systems now.
6. The top 100 differs from the bottom 100.
The top 100 lean heavily toward healthcare and education; the bottom 100 tilt toward utilities, logistics and construction.
Lesson: Mission-rich work helps, but no industry is locked out. Leaders in underrepresented sectors must double down on communication, fairness and development.
7. Utilities, manufacturing and logistics lag at the very top.
These industries appear more often at the bottom of the 600, reflecting slower adoption of inclusive or feedback-driven practices.
Lesson: If you’re in a “hard hat” industry, culture is your differentiator. Investing here can set you apart in talent wars.
8. Systems win out over perks.
Recognized companies invested in leadership systems: manager coaching, transparent decision-making, feedback loops. Perks didn’t move the needle.
Lesson: Stop chasing perks. Culture sticks when leaders hardwire values into how work gets done.
What Leaders Should Do Next
The Forbes list isn’t just a badge of honor for 600 companies. It’s a mirror showing the rest of us where culture is working, and where gaps remain.
Culture is not a communication strategy. It’s not about talking; it’s about leading. When leaders changed how they ran meetings, made decisions and invested in people, trust scores increased, according to Harvard Business Review research cited in the Forbes article. Surface-level perks, by contrast, often backfired.
I’ve seen this firsthand. At one company I worked with years ago, senior leaders hosted a town hall full of rosy promises about the future. Employees were suspicious because they knew customer needs had changed and demand was down. Sure enough, a few weeks later, the company cut staff to meet quarterly numbers.
Employees weren’t fooled, and leaders lost a lot of trust that led to exits of high performers. The number of employees who referred their employer to their friends went down to single digits—not percentage, but digits.
Culture isn’t built in a speech; it can be destroyed in one, though.
Culture is built in the systems behind decisions, so here are ten actions to consider if you want to boost your culture.
1. Align systems with values: Culture shifts when leaders change how decisions, meetings and promotions are run. Include your company values in these processes.
2. Invest in manager development: Equip leaders to coach, resolve conflict and foster inclusion.
3. Design purposeful onboarding: Connect new hires to values, people and purpose from day one. Reinforce the connection throughout the first 60 days and beyond.
4. Create feedback loops: Use quarterly surveys and forums to keep a pulse on culture.
5. Measure more than engagement: Track belonging, fairness and trust as rigorously as revenue.
6. Celebrate everyday behaviors: Recognize actions that embody your organizational values, not just business wins.
7. Support employee communities: Build belonging groups and leadership incubators to foster unity and growth among your people.
8. Stay transparent: Fairness and inclusion in decision-making must be visible and consistent. Transparency will pay off when your company faces a major challenge and you need everyone to work together to solve it.
9. Model integrity: Leaders set the tone by being accountable and values-driven.
10. Anchor culture in stressful times: The real test: keep values front and center under pressure.
Final Thoughts
At the end of the day, culture doesn’t live in posters or awards. It lives in leaders. It lives in their everyday choices about how they show up and how they lead.
You and your company are always building culture. The only question is whether it’s by design or by default.
Culture isn’t a perk. It’s the tide that lifts—or sinks—everything else. And it’s up to you.
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