This past year, companies have experienced an unprecedented loss in the workforce. A staggering number of employers have reported that they are short on skilled workers. The National Association of Business Economics (NABE) says that 47% — nearly half — of American companies struggle to fill these gaps. Unfortunately, this worker shortage is a disheartening trend that is unlikely to lessen in the upcoming year. Companies are rising to the challenge of becoming one of the best companies to work for in 2022.

However, establishing a business as one of the best places to work to attract skilled, talented employees is not an easy task. Improving working conditions, implementing additional benefits, and motivating staff is great ways to improve morale, but developing a good reputation requires time — and is usually dependent upon word of mouth traveling between current staff and prospective talent. Companies that have been harmed by the labor shortage and don’t have a large staff — skilled or otherwise — earning the reputation of being one of the best places to work could take years.

Determined to help these companies get recognized for their efforts, the Most Loved Workplace® certification program, a partnership between Newsweek and the Best Practice Institute, helps identify the best companies to work for and bring these companies together with much-needed talent.

The Most Loved Workplaces® list of best companies to work for in 2022, like the years before, is decided through the careful consideration of over three million employees from tens of thousands of companies. This list focuses on more than just the benefits and salaries that a company offers. BPI’s research revealed that when employees are happy and satisfied with their company. This increase directly correlates with their productivity — 94% of the workers surveyed reported that they are much more likely to perform at a higher level and stay with the company longer when they are content with their employer.

Becoming a certified Most Love Workplace® is a simple and free process, but it does require the company to meet the program’s requirements.

To start, the employer must complete a company profile, including the industry, company size, target demographic, and information about the program’s Love of Workplace Index.

From there, each business has a custom-generated Love of Workplace Index Pulse Validation white-label, which is sent to all of the company’s employees and takes only a few minutes to complete.

Then, employees fill out a quick and easy Love of Workplace Index™ Pulse Validation. Workers answer questions about their satisfaction at the company in an anonymous survey, so that company officials cannot alter their employees’ answers in any way, resulting in unbiased and factual information.

Finally, BPI analyzes the company’s written application and the results from the survey. If the employee satisfaction meets the criteria, the business becomes a certified Most Loved Workplace. 

Becoming a certified Most Loved Workplace® is a relatively straightforward process, but making Newsweek Magazine’s Top 100 Most Loved Workplace issue is a different beast entirely.

To understand what will cement an employer as a Most Loved Workplace, one of the best companies to work for in 2022, one must examine what for-profit and nonprofit organizations made the cut the year before and what they did to earn their well-deserved spot. Here are a few of 2021’s best places to work.

Ranked at number five on Newsweek’s “America’s Most Loved Workplaces® 2021” is Navy Federal Credit Union based in Vienna, Virginia. Though many companies in the financial services industry get a bad rap for either being tedious or too stressful, Navy Federal Credit Union has managed to keep its 20,000 employees happy with bonuses and paid volunteer leave. People who work for Navy Federal Credit Union say that one of the biggest perks is that if they want to make a career change within the company, they are trained in and given tasks in that new position.

Coming in at number three, computer software company SAP America, based in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, earns its spot on the list with its “culture of kindness.” Despite having over 100,000 employees, the CEO makes a point to respond to every employee — no matter their position — who reaches out to them. Additionally, SAP America stepped up in a big way for their employees, offering days off for mental health, plus an additional ten days off in case of a crisis.

Earning the top spot on the list of the best places to work in 2021 is none other than the music streaming platform Spotify. Based in New York City, Spotify takes each of its roughly 9,000 employees on a Passion Tour to build loyalty and talk deeply about its mission and values. Even better, Spotify values its employees as people — not just worker drones — and offers essential benefits such as six months of paid parental leave, making them one of the first companies in the nation to provide it.

Though the bottom line is essential to any business, a happy and loyal workforce is essential to a company. Do right by your employees and apply to become a Most Loved Workplace and become one of the best companies to work for 2022. Get certified for free to become a top company to work for – a Most Loved Workplace®.