Great Place To Work Announces the World’s Best Workplaces™ 2021

The 25 World’s Best Workplaces stood out for creating globally exceptional employee experiences. These companies outperformed the competition with their unique and special benefits, robust training opportunities for professional development, and commitment to employee recognition and appreciation.  

To be considered, companies must be identified as outstanding global employers by appearing on at least five Best Workplaces™ lists in Asia, Europe, Latin America, Africa, North America or Australia. 

“The World’s Best Workplaces are the most sweeping and consistent examples of inclusive company cultures we’ve ever known,” said Michael C. Bush, CEO of Great Place To Work.    

“In a global workforce, alignment is everything, and these companies are fortifying their culture around the world — a nearly impossible feat. Even when tested by the pandemic, these companies recognize sub-communities in each region and their leaders carry an equitable employee experience across cultures. A huge congratulations to the World’s Best in 2021.” 

Topping this year’s ranking of the World’s Best was transportation and logistics giant DHL Express, which secured 47 national list awards spanning five continents. Technology firm Cisco ranked second on the 2021 list with 22 national list awards, and hotelier Hilton placed third with 21 national list awards. 

The World’s Best Workplaces range across industries, with information technology, professional services, biotechnology and pharmaceuticals making up nearly half of the winners. 

New to the list this year are biotech firm Amgen and software company Atlassian. There are ten re-entries in the top 25 companies — workplaces that appeared on past lists but didn’t make it in 2020, including pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk, which was last named to the list in 2015. 

This year proved to be enormously competitive; compared to 2020’s results, employees scored their workplaces higher on all 60 survey statements in 2021 — a notable achievement after a year of workplace challenges amid the pandemic. 

Compared to other workplaces, employees at the World’s Best are 17% more likely to say they have unique benefits. Employees at the World's Best are also 16% percent are more likely to believe pay is fair and 14% more likely to say they have training and professional development opportunities. 

Employees at the World’s Best are also more likely to be involved in company innovation, as calculated through Great Place To Work's Innovation Velocity Ration (IVR). IVR describes an organization’s ability to quickly harness, mobilize and respond to new information and ideas. IVR is the ratio of employees working in conditions which enable innovation versus the number of employees who are not. At the World’s Best Workplaces, the IVR is 7:2, meaning for every seven employees able to innovate, only two are experiencing friction. At other organizations, that drops to 5:2.  

Globally, over 90% of employees at the World’s Best say they have a sense of pride in their work, that management is honest and ethical, and that they feel good about the ways the company contributes to the local community. 

Slight regional variations could be seen, highlighting differences in company culture around the world. In Asia, the Best Workplaces demonstrated an outstanding commitment to honesty and transparency from management, as well as warm, welcoming work environments. Latin America’s Best Workplaces scored high on opportunities for professional development and trust in leadership. And in the U.S., employees at Best Workplaces versus other organizations were 15.6 times more likely to say their company was a great place to work when it showed a commitment to social responsibility during the pandemic. 

The top 25 World’s Best Workplaces in 2021

1. DHL Express
2. Cisco
3. Hilton
4. AbbVie
5. Salesforce 
6. 3M 
7. SC Johnson 
8. Amgen 
9. SAP 
10. Roche 
11. Hilti AG 
12. EY 
13. SAS 
14. AT&T Direct TV 
15. Stryker 
16. Novartis 
17. Cadence 
18. Novo Nordisk 
19. The Adecco Group 
20. Mercado Libre 
21. Adobe 
22. American Express 
23. Atlassian 
24. Santander 
25. Teleperformance 

View the Fortune World’s Best Workplaces 2021 list

About the World’s Best Workplaces methodology  

Great Place To Work identified the World’s Best Workplaces in 2021 by analyzing surveys representing 19.8 million employee opinions worldwide. We also consider the breadth and impact of company workplace programs.  

Organizations are assessed on their efforts to create great workplaces and positively impact people and communities across multiple countries around the world. The World’s Best Workplaces have demonstrated their success in creating great workplaces and their impact on their people and communities by ranking on national lists around the world.    

To be considered, companies must be identified as outstanding global employers by appearing on at least five Best Workplaces lists in Asia, Europe, Latin America, Africa, North America, or Australia during 2020 or early 2021. Companies must have at least 5,000 employees worldwide with at least 40% (or 5,000) of those employees located outside the headquarters country.  

About Great Place To Work 

Great Place To Work is the global authority on workplace culture. Since 1992, they have surveyed more than 100 million employees around the world and used those deep insights to define what makes a great workplace: trust. Great Place to Work helps organizations quantify their culture and produce better business results by creating a high-trust work experience for all employees.

Their unparalleled benchmark data is used to recognize Great Place To Work-Certified™ companies and the Best Workplaces in the U.S. and more than 60 countries, including the 100 Best Companies to Work For® and World’s Best list published annually in Fortune. Everything they do is driven by the mission to build a better world by helping every organization become a great place to work For All™.