Coca-Cola ranked as the best place to work for career growth in a new study of America's largest companies
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- The American Opportunity Index released its 2023 report evaluating the largest employers in the US.
- It looked at culture, hiring, pay and promotions to see how companies invest in their workers.
- Coca-Cola, ServiceNow, Meta, and Costco were ranked among the top ten employers on the list.
Coca-Cola was just ranked as the best place to work for career growth in the American Opportunity Index 2023 report.
The AOI is a joint project of Harvard Business School, the Schultz Family Foundation, and the Burning Glass Institute, and evaluates the quality of worker's career trajectories at the largest employers in the US over time.
The index included an analysis of 396 US companies across five key areas from hiring, pay, racial and gender parity, promotion practices, and culture over the past five years.
It looks at the experiences of nearly 5 million workers in the US who worked at those firms, analyzing pay data from Glassdoor and the profiles and resumés of workers uploaded to websites like LinkedIn.
Coca-Cola was ranked top overall, largely because of its hiring, pay, and culture scores. It scored lower on racial and gender parity, however.
Lisa Chang, Coca-Cola's global chief people officer, attributed its high ranking to the growth opportunities provided by the company.
"We encourage employees to gain new experiences, build skills and advance their personal development through short-term assignments and projects — many times in a different function, business unit or geography," Chang said.
"Coca-Cola also works closely with our bottling partners to invest in trade schools and on-the-job training in manufacturing plants and distribution centers," she added.
Top earners at Coca-Cola are nearly four times more likely to have been hired internally versus its rival PepsiCo, the study found.
Other companies that made the top five were J.M. Smucker, W.W. Grainger, PNC Financial Services Group, and Service Now.
Meta came in at six and was highly rated on racial and gender parity, culture, and pay. However, it was rated a score of one for its hiring practices, which looks at whether the company is good at hiring inexperienced people or those without college degrees.
After brutal layoffs and cost-cutting measures, Meta dropped off Glassdoor's list of the best places to work in the US in 2023. It previously made the list every year since 2011.
Major tech firms including Amazon, Microsoft, and Salesforce also made the AOI top 100 list in 2023.
Costco was the top retailer on the list and came in at nine overall. It rated high on factors like hiring, promotions, and culture.
The report found that Costco workers were 42% more likely to be retained over three years than those at Target — one of its competitors — for example.
In the past, it has made Glassdoor's ranking of the top 10 companies with the happiest employees and was included in its best places to work list from 2012 through to 2022.
The index found that workers at the top-performing companies on its list were, on average, paid 68% more for the same job than other firms and were 2.5 times more likely to receive promotions.
It also found that companies that improve retention by holding employees for longer periods can save anywhere from $100 million to $400 million on their bottom line.