The Story

A newly published list of Best Companies to Work For includes a newcomer that now holds the number 1 spot: Facebook.  This report is published the same week that Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's founder and CEO, is named Time Magazine's Person of the Year.  Other winners on the best company list include Southwest, Bain & Company, General Mills, Edelman, Boston Consulting Group, and SAS.  The list is generated by Glassdoor.com's Employees' Choice Awards.  Did your favorite company make the list?

Discussion Starters

• What is your favorite company to work for?  What criteria are you using to determine this?
• To what extent are you influenced by lists of top employers?  Why or why not?  Does this list, generated by employee feedback, have more credibility, in your opinion?

Assignment Ideas

• Choose one of the companies on the list and write an introductory paragraph for a cover letter.  How will you reference the company's spot on the best company list in a sincere way?  
• Explore comments about your favorite company on Glassdoor.com.  Summarize what you have learned in a memo to your instructor.  Try to balance positive and negative information about the company, knowing that the feedback is all from employees and may not represent an objective view.  Which comments do you find most believable and why?  Which are least believable and why?