These 10 VA Companies Are Among America’s Best Employers

VIRGINIA — Ferguson Enterprises, Navy Federal Credit Union and the University of Virginia are the best employers with headquarters in Virginia, according to a new ranking from Forbes.

The Forbes report, America’s Best Employers By State, is based on a survey of more than 160,000 employees of companies with at least 500 people working in U.S. operations.

The survey, conducted by the market research firm Statista, asked participants how likely they were on a scale of zero to 10 to recommend their employer as a good place to work. Respondents were also asked to evaluate employers they’d worked for within the past two years, and organizations they knew within their industry or through friends or family who worked there.

By those measures, the top 10 employers with headquarters in Virginia are:

1. Ferguson Enterprises, a retail and wholesale company based in Newport News with 35,000 employees; Kevin Murphy is the CEO of the company, founded in 1953.
2. Navy Federal Credit Union, a banking and commercial services company based in Vienna with 16,000 employees; Dietrich Kuhlmann is the CEO of the company, founded in 1933.
3. University of Virginia, an education provider based in Charlottesville with 16,000 employees; James E. Ryan is the CEO of the company, founded in 1819.
4. Capital One, a banking and financial services company based in McLean with 51,987 employees; Richard D. Fairbank is the CEO of the company, founded in 1994.
5. Booz Allen Hamilton, a professional services provider based in McLean with 31,900 employees; Horacio Rozanski is the CEO of the company, founded in 1914.
6. Hilton Worldwide Holdings, a travel and leisure company based in McLean with 178,000 employees; Christopher J. Nassetta is the CEO of the company, founded in 1919.
7. Northrop Grumman, an aerospace and defense company based in Falls Church with 101,000 employees; Kathy J. Warden is the CEO of the company, founded in 1939.
8. Inova Health System, a healthcare and social services provider based in Falls Church with 24,000 employees; J. Stephen Jones is the CEO of the company, founded in 1956.
9. ICF, an insurance company based in Fairfax with 9,000 employees; John Wasson is the CEO of the company, founded in 1969.
10. CarMax, a retail and wholesale company based in Richmond with 30,621 employees; Bill Nash is the CEO of the company, founded in 1993.

Workers from all 50 states and the District of Columbia answered the most recent survey. Those findings were supplemented with data from the previous three surveys. In all, 1,294 organizations made the final cut.

Those in the final list are performing well with workers for their employee retention efforts, according to Forbes.

“When employees are in their roles for longer, leaders need to consider how they can ensure that they are providing challenges and development opportunities for that member of the staff to keep them engaged, satisfied, and productive,” Becky Wallace, head of people at LearnUpon, a corporate learning platform, told Forbes.

The report found that fewer than 50 percent of workers think their employer invests in the skills they need to advance. “