7 reasons Facebook is the best place to work in America and no other company can touch it

Glassdoor

• Facebook ranks No. 1 on Glassdoor's 2018 best places to work list.
• The annual ranking is based on employee reviews, which touch on how satisfied employees are with their employer, their CEO, and other key workplace attributes.
• Facebook tops the list for a number of reasons, including its perks and compensation, leadership, and career opportunities.

Thanks to the premium Facebook places on its employees' happiness, the tech giant has proven itself to be the gold standard for employers.

Headquartered in Menlo Park, California, Facebook just topped Glassdoor's Employees' Choice Awards, which features the 100 best places to work in 2018 across the US.

With a company rating of 4.6 out of 5, Facebook has now ranked No. 1 on Glassdoor's annual list three times and has made the list for eight consecutive years over the past decade.

To find the companies with the most satisfied workers, Glassdoor scanned its massive database of company reviews and ratings from current and former employees.

Reviews include employees' opinions on some of the best reasons to work for their employer, any downsides, advice to management, and whether they'd recommend their employer to a friend, as well as ratings on how satisfied they are with their employer overall, their CEO, and key workplace attributes like career opportunities, compensation and benefits, culture, and values.

Based on employees' reviews, companies received overall ratings on a scale of one to five, with five representing the most satisfied employees.

"Every morning when I go in, I feel like the luckiest guy on earth for ever landing a job here," writes a Facebook data scientist in Menlo Park, California, on Glassdoor.

"From its openness to its diversity, Facebook has truly surpassed all tech companies in terms of culture, perks, and employee lifestyle," a software engineer at Facebook in Menlo Park writes.

Here's a breakdown of why Facebook was rated the best company to work for in America for its more than 20,000 employees:

Employees say they feel valued and trusted

"The most important thing is the people who work at Facebook," Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's Chief Operating Officer, told Glassdoor.

"The best thing about working at Facebook is that we encourage people to bring their full selves to the work," she said. "We all believe in what we are doing and and we value our relationships with others. We're a strengths-based culture and are looking for people who are excellent at what they do best. If you've got the skills, we'll give you the shot."

Employees report on Glassdoor that there is a lot of autonomy and trust at Facebook.

Don Faul, a former Facebook executive, told The Wall Street Journal that, compared to other tech companies that place more importance on "manager" titles and hierarchy, Facebook employees are often placed in roles that cater to their strengths and are encouraged to question and criticize their managers.

And this kind of freedom is perhaps one of the best drivers for employee engagement.

"You get zero credit for your title," he said. "It's all about the quality of the work, the power of your conviction, and the ability to influence people."

Facebookers are driven by the company's mission

Facebookers have responded well to the company's mission — to "Give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together" — saying on Glassdoor that meaningful and challenging work that impacts billions of people is what attracted them to and keeps them at the company.

"I love the people who I work with and impact I get to have with my work. I learn something new every day and grow every day from new challenges. I look forward to going to work every day. I can't imagine a better company to work for," one employee writes.

"Our mission here at Facebook is to give people the power to build communities and to bring the world closer. This is something we live by in the workplace as well. No idea is a dumb one, and you are encouraged to make an impact," a site logistics analyst writes.

The senior leadership at Facebook is transparent

In keeping with the company's mission to build community, Facebook's leadership works hard to keep their employees connected.

Every week, CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other senior leaders host a Q&A to update Facebookers and address questions and concerns. During these meetings, Zuckerberg routinely entrusts his employees with company secrets including news of not-yet-released products and company goals. And, for the most part, employees keep this trust.

"It's an important part of Facebook's culture," Zuckerberg wrote on Facebook. "People ask thoughtful questions about why our company is going in certain directions, what I think about things happening in the world, and how we can continue improving our services for everyone. I learn a lot from these Q&As, and the questions people ask help us build better services."

"That level of transparency is alarming when you see it at first," a former employee told Recode's Kurt Wagner. "But there's something [special] about knowing you're getting an unfettered response."