CAMBRIDGE, Mass. & PHILADELPHIA & SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The Burning Glass Institute, Harvard Business School’s Managing the Future of Work Project, and the Schultz Family Foundation today launched the 2023 American Opportunity Index, a groundbreaking ranking that measures how effective companies are at developing talent to drive business performance and advance individual employees’ careers ratupoker.
Topping this year’s ranking are Coca-Cola Co., J.M. Smucker Co., W.W. Grainger Inc., PNC Financial Services Group, ServiceNow Inc., Meta Platforms Inc., Capital One Financial Corp., Bank of America Corp., Costco Wholesale Corp. and Intuit Inc ratupoker.
The Index reveals that workers at top-performing companies are two-and-a-half times more likely to receive promotions, and they are paid, on average, 68 percent more for the same jobs. Firms that deliver for their employees are not confined to just a few sectors: The Index’s top-100 companies represent more than three-quarters of the industries evaluated.
An analysis of Index results also finds large companies that significantly outperform their peers in retaining employees are saving as much as $400 million a year on turnover costs. Many of those firms succeed in keeping their people by offering ample opportunities for promotions in addition to competitive wages.
This year’s Index has been expanded to assess 400 of the largest U.S. companies who publicly report their financial performance. All firms are rated across multiple metrics and by sector. The highest-scoring 100 firms overall are recognized as top employers, and companies are also rated in five ways:
- Hiring: How well do companies hire people without degrees and those with little experience?
- Pay: How well do companies pay their employees and increase compensation over time?
- Promotion: How well do companies move people up and prepare them for better jobs elsewhere?
- Parity: How well do companies move all people up, regardless of race or gender?
- Culture: How well do companies retain their employees and build their careers?
The 2023 American Opportunity Index reveals several powerful insights for companies navigating a dynamic labor market:
- Corporate practice has a major impact on workers. Employees of higher performing companies on the Index have remarkably different career trajectories – in terms of promotion, pay, and retention, among other key metrics.
- Driving better outcomes for workers helps companies, too. Being in the top quartile of retention vs. the bottom quartile can add approximately a half-point to the bottom line — between $101 million and $424 million for the average Fortune 500 company — as firms benefit from reduced costs associated with attrition.
- Promotion is a powerful lever for boosting employee retention. Companies know that retaining their workers improves productivity and business performance. Having a strong track record of promotion is almost as important at driving retention as pay itself.
- Promotion and parity often – but not always – go hand in hand. Companies that do well at moving employees up might not move up everyone with parity. Firms that want to advance workers fairly must be purposeful in their approach to advancing women, as well as Black and Hispanic workers.
- Companies have considerable control over their performance. Competitors in the same industries with similar workforces and business models can have very different results based on how they manage talent.
The Index was designed to fill a key void in the marketplace: an outcomes-focused tool employees, employers, and policymakers can use to benchmark corporate progress in advancing opportunity across their workforce. It is rooted in the belief that when employers enable the full potential of their people—by providing good jobs and opportunities for advancement—their business does better. In recognizing the companies where workers and firms thrive symbiotically, and showing areas where each company can continue to improve, the Index seeks to spark a new focus on sustainable talent management across American business ratupoker.
