Meet America’s Best Employers By State 2020

 Meet America’s Best Employers By State 2020

On March 19, Marriott International CEO Arne Sorenson addressed employees of the Bethesda, Maryland-headquartered hotel chain in a six-minute video. Just two months had passed since the U.S. recorded its first coronavirus case, and already revenues had declined by 75%, with an expectation that they’d soon drop by 90%, as travel had come to an abrupt standstill. Sorenson, who had forgone his annual salary and cut that of his executive team by 50%, had to deliver difficult news: Two thirds of employees were being placed on furlough or a reduced workweek. “I have never had a more difficult moment than this one,” he said. “There is simply nothing worse than telling highly valued associates, people who are the very heart of this company, that their roles are being impacted by events completely outside of their control.”

In the weeks that followed, Marriott established relationships with more than 100 companies—including Albertsons, Amazon, CVS, Home Depot, PepsiCo and Walmart—to ensure their employees landed on their feet. “We’ve almost become a placement agency for our employees,” says David Rodriguez, global chief human resources officer at Marriott. “It was painful for us, but we took the perspective of, ‘we’ve got to do what’s best for them.’” Under the most unlikely circumstances, Marriott confirmed why it is considered by many to be an employer of choice.

Forbes partnered with market research company Statista to pinpoint those organizations liked best by employees in our second annual ranking of America’s best employers by state. The list is divided into 51 rankings—one for each of the 50 states, plus the District of Columbia—and was compiled by surveying 80,000 Americans working for businesses with at least 500 employees. Surveys were conducted on a rolling basis from October 2019 to May 2020, and responses regarding the same employers were compared throughout the process, so as to account for any statistically significant variations in the results collected before and after the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. The ranking features some companies whose appearance on the list, in light of recent events, might come as a surprise, but they are a reflection of the feeling of their own workforces at the time they were surveyed.

Marriott, for example, ranks in 19 states—including Hawaii, where it claims the No. 1 spot—as does Hilton, despite reductions to its workforce. Upon being forced to lay off 22% of its corporate employees and furlough thousands more, Hilton also provided outplacement support, partnering with more than 90 hiring employers. “Never in a million years did I think my recruitment team would be trying to place team members elsewhere,” says Laura Fuentes, chief talent officer at Hilton. “When you turn off a revenue stream overnight, the impact it has on the business is devastating. We knew that this was a moment where we had to be all the more committed to our values.” Those who lost their jobs were given severance pay, the option to retain their corporate laptops (so as to assist with their employment search) and access to an expedited recruitment process should they apply for a position at Hilton in the future.

For the second year, government agencies dominate the ranks, in spite of the fact that many have faced criticism over their responses to the coronavirus pandemic. The Department of Defense, which ranks in 32 states, more than any other employer, has seen 66 employees across its civilian, contractor and military populations die due to Covid-19. It has, however, sought to ensure the safety of its workforce through a multitude of measures, including testing for all DoD personnel and a policy ensuring those who receive pay and benefits for performing duties that can no longer be fulfilled due to the pandemic still will be compensated.

Of course, the DoD isn’t the only government agency to have been affected by the pandemic. The Department of Veterans Affairs, which ranks in 17 states, has reportedly seen the passing of at least 30 employees. Like the DoD, the VA has taken steps to ensure that all frontline workers who come in contact with patients are protected, including launching a tool that employees can use to screen themselves for symptoms and exposure before entering facilities. It was among the first health organizations to pause elective surgeries and visitation, and if Secretary Robert Wilkie has it his way, it will be first in line for a Covid-19 vaccine. “I’ve asked that we be put at the top of the list for vaccines when that comes. Our people deserve that protection, frontline workers in particular,” he says. “Are we going to have hiccups in an organization this big? Sure. We’re 400,000-plus in terms of employees. But we’ve done a lot to ensure that our folks feel that they are protected.” Jeryl Wilson, director of diversity and talent acquisition at the United States Postal Service, shares this sentiment. USPS, which also ranks in 17 states, has reportedly lost at least 60 employees. When asked about reports alleging that employees were without proper safety supplies in the early days of the pandemic, she says, “We’re a very large company, we stretch across the nation, and we’ve worked very hard to ensure we’ve had the right PPE. Is it possible that employees have not had quick access? It’s possible—but our mission and purpose are to make sure employees have the equipment they need.” In addition to expanding its leave policies, the organization has been distributing millions of face coverings, gloves and sanitation supplies to more than 30,000 USPS locations every day.

The employers that make the most appearances on this list are, in many cases, also those that have the most widespread operations, not to mention the most frontline workers. FedEx, for example, ranks in 27 states, including New Jersey, where it took the No. 49 spot despite an outbreak at a Newark facility that reportedly resulted in the death of five employees. “The safety, health and well-being of our team members and customers continues to be our top priority,” a FedEx spokesperson said in an email statement to Forbes. “Whenever there is a confirmed case of Covid-19, we identify and notify team members . . . and thoroughly sanitize potentially affected areas.” FedEx offers free Covid-19 testing in more than 25 locations, and has suspended the need for customer signatures, so as to promote social distancing. UPS, which ranks in 16 states and took the No. 1 spot in North Dakota, has equipped drivers with sanitizing supplies and employees with emergency paid leave. Two workers have reportedly died from Covid-19, while others have alleged a lack of safety protocols. “We have formal complaint processes, and we also have hotlines that employees can use and an open-door policy,” says Danelle McCusker, president of human resources for the domestic U.S. and air regions for UPS. “We take each investigation very seriously.”

Amazon may be among the most surprising employers to make multiple appearances on this year’s list. The retail giant, which ranks in 24 states, has reportedly seen eight employees die due to Covid-19 and faces a lawsuit alleging the company failed to provide workers of its JFK8 Staten Island facility with a safe work environment. “Health and safety are our top concerns and priority, and we’re continuing to double down on that,” says Adam Sedo, senior manager of corporate communications at Amazon. To that end, Amazon has invested $4 billion in more than 150 coronavirus-related changes to its warehouses, including stocking sites with 100 million masks, 34 million pairs of gloves, 48 million ounces of hand sanitizer and 2,298 handwashing stations. Frontline workers have seen pay increases of $2 an hour, in addition to a one-time, thank-you bonus—the total of which exceeded $500 million—and access to a $25 million relief fund meant to alleviate financial distress due to the pandemic. If an employee tests positive for Covid-19, he or she will receive up to two weeks of additional paid time off, and all employees have available to them 100 hours of emergency child and adult care. As the demand for Amazon’s services have surged, so too has its hiring. “Since March, we’ve hired more than 175,000 people to help continue to serve customers,” Sedo says. “They started as seasonal, and over the summer we converted 125,000 of those into permanent roles.”

Home Depot has been busy hiring, too. Earning marks in 23 states, including New Mexico, where it places in the No. 1 spot, the home-improvement chain has seen its business boom as more Americans spend time in their own backyards. Its employees will reap the rewards: “Our business performance will result in very positive profit sharing—which we call ‘success sharing’—and the store associates will all share in the success of their units,” says Tim Hourigan, executive vice president of human resources at Home Depot. “Take care of associates, they’ll take care of customers and everything else will take care of itself.” When it comes to taking care of associates, Home Depot has invested $850 million in benefits to help employees at this time, including weekly bonuses of $100 and 80 hours of paid time off for full-time hourly associates (part-time associates receive $50 and 40 hours, and those considered high risk by the CDC receive 240 hours). Thermal scanners and plexiglass partitions have been installed in stores to safeguard associates, but even still the company has reportedly lost three employees to Covid-19. “Our hearts go out to their families,” Hourigan says. “We reflect what you’d expect to see in the general population.”

Also ranking in 23 states, Target has taken similar precautions, and while there have been reports of employees testing positive for Covid-19, none have died to date. In addition to permanently raising its hourly minimum wage to $15 an hour and gifting one-time bonuses of $200 to frontline workers, Target has ensured that all employees—even those not on its healthcare plan—have free access to virtual doctor visits and mental health resources. Although these benefits were put in place in response to the pandemic, they’re not out of character for the employer, which expanded its family leave policy last year and invests $10 billion into training and development annually. “It’s not lost on me that our team members have choice in where they work,” says Melissa Kremer, chief human resources officer at Target. “It’s really all about investing in and taking care of our team, whether they’re with us for a year of a career.”

For the full list of America’s Best Employers By State, click here.

Methodology

To determine the list, Statista surveyed 80,000 Americans working for businesses with at least 500 employees. All the surveys were anonymous, allowing participants to openly share their opinions. The respondents were asked to rate their employers on a variety of criteria, including safety of work environment, competitiveness of compensation, opportunities for advancement and openness to telecommuting. Statista then asked respondents how likely they’d be to recommend their employer to others, and to nominate organizations in industries outside their own. The number of businesses ranked in each state was dependent on two factors—the number of qualifying employers and the size of the state’s workforce—and those with operations in more than one state had the opportunity to be listed multiple times. The final list ranks the 1,461 employers that received the greatest number of recommendations in each of the 50 states as well as the District of Columbia.