Employees are increasingly finding that salary and benefits are not enough to keep them happy at work.
In fact, only 24 percent of U.S. employees believe their organization cares about their well-being, according to a Gallup poll. This comes as only about one-third of employees feel respected at work and 24 percent of employees feel "very often" or "always" burned out at their job.
Improving employee well-being boosts retention. The primary reason people are leaving their job? Engagement and culture, followed by well-being and work-life balance. These factors make up 68 percent of the total reasons employees left their job in 2024, according to Gallup.
These factors, as well as increased pay and job security, are also the top reasons that attract employees to new positions.
To highlight companies that are fostering positive and supporting workplace culture, Newsweek, in collaboration with Plant-A Insights, published its third-annual ranking of America's Greatest Workplaces. The 2025 list includes the top 1,500 companies that received a 4, 4.5 or 5-star rating based on reviews from U.S.-based employees and other publicly available data.
Newsweek and Plant-A collaborate on several workplace rankings that consider different demographic groups, such as women, Black Americans, people with disabilities and LGBTQ+ folks. This ranking, however, considers reviews from all demographics and does not give special emphasis or priority to reviews based on gender, ethnicity or other identity characteristics.
Plant-A said the goal of this ranking is to provide an overall assessment of a workplace's quality based on the collective experience of its entire workforce.
There are 36 industries represented in the final ranking. Some of the most represented industries on the list include construction, hospitality, manufacturing, professional services, real estate, software development, utilities and wholesale.
In the nearly 5 million company reviews that were collected from more than 400,000 employee interviews, Plant-A found that employees continue to place the most importance on job security, compensation and the quality of their working environment.
Highly rated companies demonstrated the most year-to-year improvements in employee satisfaction in overall compensation, benefits and working conditions that consider mental health.
Eli Lilly and Company, known as Lilly, is an American pharmaceutical company with origins dating back to the late 1800s. Its more than 47,000 employees worldwide develop medicine and run clinical trials in the areas of Alzheimer's, cancer, diabetes, obesity, pain and immunology.
It has improved its rating from last year's ranking, moving from 4 to 5 stars. Lilly has also been featured on Newsweek's recent rankings of America's greatest workplaces for women, people with disabilities and LGBTQ+ folks.
Lilly's Senior Vice President of Talent and Inclusion Julie Dunlap told Newsweek the company strives to be a place where employees enjoy meaningful work, grow their careers and make important contributions to society.
"Our approach to employee well-being means fostering a healthy, vibrant work environment while also enriching our employees' lives with their families and in their communities," she told Newsweek in an emailed statement. "We take a broad view of well-being anchored in providing support for mental and physical health, financial knowledge and security, and a culture of rich connections and purpose to inspire all employees to be their best."
Dunlap also highlights Lilly's commitment to identifying and developing future leaders within the company and gathering regular feedback from employees through a "speak-up culture where everyone feels their ideas and contributions are welcome and valued."
Employee reviews for the 2025 ranking also demonstrate that highlighting an equitable and sustainable culture may pay off big for companies across all industries.
In 2025, a greater percentage of employees emphasized the importance of environmental sustainability, up from 65 percent in 2024 to 75 percent. There was also a four percentage point increase in importance placed on diversity, equity and inclusion, from 72 percent to 76 percent, over the last year.
According to Plant-A, respondents indicated "a moderate but growing prioritization of social and environmental responsibility" and "a stronger desire for a more inclusive and sustainable workplace culture."
"By cultivating a collaborative and inclusive culture, we empower our nearly 50,000 employees to thrive—personally and professionally—by equipping them with the skills and support they need to reach their full potential," Dunlap said. "We deeply value diverse backgrounds, skills and global perspectives to fuel our innovation and strengthen the understanding of the people we serve."
For the America's Greatest Workplaces 2025 ranking, employee reviews are weighted based on the respondent's familiarity with the companies they were evaluating.
Employees evaluated companies based on a set of factors including belonging and community, sustainability and awareness, compensation and benefits, training and career progression, work-life balance, working environment, company image, mental well-being, job security and corporate culture. Respondents evaluated their own employers based on three of 12 criteria for each driver category on an 11-point scale, rating each driver from "not important at all" to "very important."
In addition, Plant-A partnered with Aniline.ai to analyze more than one million data points and more than 120 individual KPIs per company, like leadership, compensation, hiring and work-life balance. Social media reviews and an online sweep for pervasive public allegations or lawsuits regarding discrimination, harassment or poor workplace conditions also factored into a company's final score.
The total score incorporates the recommendation score, the category score and the desk research.
There are over 900 news companies in the top 1500 this year and an over 52 percent ranking improvement among the 593 companies that remained in the top 1500 from last year's list.
Health care, professional services and manufacturing were the industries with the biggest year-over-year improvement.
In addition to the national list, there are also four sub-industry lists for financial services, health care, manufacturing and technology.
