4 Tampa Bay Area Companies Rank Among America’s Best Employers: Forbes

Forbes has once again named the company that ranks at America’s best employer. The selection may surprise some.

The winner isn’t Google, which earned second-place honors. Instead, Costco, the wholesale retailer shot to the top in the magazine’s annual rankings. As Forbes mentioned in releasing its report for 2017, the company has not slipped below third place over the past three years and provides a big perk in its health insurance coverage for part-timers.

In third place is Recreational Equipment Inc., or REI, marking the first appearance for the company on Forbes' list. And its place on the list is likely to do with the company's unique ownership structure. As explained in Forbes, REI is a consumer cooperative, and anyone who pays the one-time $20 membership fee and spends at least $10 a year receives an annual dividend.

Costco, Google and REI rank at the top on Forbes' list of 500 best large employers. To compile the rankings, Forbes split employers into two groups, midsized — companies with 1,000 to 5,000 employees — and large employers — companies with 5,000 or more employees.

Topping the list of America's best midsized employers was Lush, the indulgent retail cosmetics brand. Though the company is headquartered in the United Kingdom, it operates 200 locations in the United States.

"According to respondents, Lush employees were most taken with the company’s image, its diversity, and to a lesser extent its working conditions," says Forbes.

Rackspace, a cloud computing company based in Texas, came in second. And, in third place is New Seasons Market, a privately owned Portland-based chain of grocery stores. The company jumped to third place after being 42nd on the list in 2016.

To compile the rankings, Forbes worked with research firm Statista. The firm surveyed 30,000 American workers to collect opinions on the companies they work for. The most important factor in determining the rankings were how likely employers were to recommend their company to friends and family. Employees were also asked to recommend other companies, which also factored into the rankings, but to a lesser degree.

The Tampa Bay area companies that made the list of best large employers are:

• Publix Supermarkets, Lakeland, 30th best overall
• HSN, St. Petersburg, 102nd place overall
• Raymond James Financial, St. Petersburg, 142nd place overall

Mid-sized employers to make the grade from the Tampa Bay area included only one: Amscot Financial. The Tampa-based firm ranked 288th overall.

Patch’s Feroze Dhanoa contributed to this story.

Patch file photo