10 CT Companies Make Forbes' List Of Best Large Employers

CONNECTICUT — The COVID-19 pandemic "forever changed the workplace" and what makes a good employer, Forbes said with the release of its annual inventory of America’s Best Large Employers.

To compile the annual list, released Thursday, the business magazine partnered with the market research firm Statista to survey 60,000 Americans working for businesses with at least 1,000 employees.

Survey respondents were asked about such topics as their willingness to recommend their workplace to friends and family, as well as nominate companies other than their own. The final list represents the 500 employers receiving the most recommendations, Forbes said.

Among those 500 are 10 Connecticut companies, three of which made the top 100:

#12 Yale University: The Ivy League college based in New Haven has 15,243 employees.

#32 Stanley Black & Decker: The 17,682 employees at this power tool manufacturer are based in New Britain.

#40 United Rentals: The world's largest equipment rental company is based in Stamford and employs 18,250.

Not surprisingly, two of the 10 Connecticut companies are "Big Insurance." See the other Connecticut companies below.

Forbes’ Top 10 big employers in the country are:

1. The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (health care, social)
2. Georgia-based Southern Company (utilities)
3. NASA in the District of Columbia (aerospace, defense)
4. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York (health care, social)
5. South Carolina-based Michelin Group (automotive, automotive suppliers)
6. Ohio-based Sherwin-Williams (engineering, manufacturing)
7. Minnesota-based Mayo Clinic (health care, social)
8. Arizona-based Carvana (retail, wholesale)
9. University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (health care, social)
10. Texas-based MD Anderson Cancer Center (health care, social)

Virginia-based Huntington Ingalls Industries, the largest military shipbuilding company, moved to No. 11 on the list from No. 387, the largest gain of any of the large companies.

Not surprisingly given COVID-19 restrictions, the largest drops were in the restaurant industry, with only 11 companies earning spots on the 2022 large employers list. California-based In-N-Out Burger was the only one to land among the top 200, coming in No. 23.

“We bend over backwards to try to do as many things behind the scenes to continue business as usual,” the franchise owner and president, Lynsi Snyder, told Forbes in November 2020. “It obviously has not looked like business as usual with masks and nearly empty dining rooms.”

U.S. employers are struggling to fill 10.9 million job openings in an environment of 4 percent unemployment.

“Whether working from home or the office, Americans’ priorities have changed,” Forbes said, noting that “what makes a top employer has changed, too.”

Paul McDonald, a senior executive director at Robert Half and a Forbes contributor, said “employees are in control at this point because there’s such a plethora of openings.”

“With the number of job openings today and the choices that good candidates have, you have to move swiftly but diligently,” he told Forbes. “A lot of organizations have realized that, through all the retention efforts and through all the resignations, they’ve had to re-recruit their current staff.”

Forbes said many of the large employers on the list are wrestling with redefining their corporate culture with a largely remote or hybrid workforce where some employees report to the office and others work from home.

In the pre-pandemic era, Genentech, a California-based drug and biotechnology company that ranked 14th on the list, offered on-site benefits such as made-to-order sushi, day care and Friday night parties. Now, the company holds virtual office hours with executives and gives employees two hours of “protected time” when they can take a break or work uninterrupted on projects.

Here are the seven other Connecticut companies that made the top 500:

#157 Yale New Haven Health employs 12,000 in the healthcare services industry.

#196 The Hartford employs 18,500 in the country's "insurance capital."

#309 Cigna, based in Bloomfield, is another insurance industry giant, employing 73,700.

#333 Stamford-based Pitney Bowes employs 9,200 in the transportation and logistics business.

#391 Gartner is a research and consulting firm that employs 16,000 and is headquartered in Stamford.

#396 is the State of Connecticut. Employment figures were not provided.

#449 XPO Logistics is a transportation company based in Greenwich, employing 42,000.