With the launch of the Best Companies to Work For, U.S. News is empowering the 51% of American workers who are searching for or considering new jobs to harness data in their employment decisions.
And with Americans changing jobs on average within four years, the Best Companies to Work For list can be an ongoing resource for job seekers.
Here’s how workers can use the lists and their underlying methodologies to find a job that’s a great fit by better approaching job searches, interviews and decision-making frameworks.
[Read: What Makes a Company Great to Work For?]
Dive Into Industry and Skill-Based Classifications
The Best Companies to Work For ratings include the ability to filter by specific industries, such as health care and research, hospitality and entertainment, and manufacturing and agriculture.
To help narrow down employers who offer notable benefits, job seekers can also search by Top Quality of Pay and Top Work Environment categories.
[Related:Discover the Best Companies for Pay and Benefits]
Understand the Categories and Prioritize What Matters Most to You
The Best Companies to Work ratings are measured across six categories. For each category, an employer receives a public rating from 1 to 5. The categories are based on psychologist Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs model. For example, if the quality of an employer’s pay and benefits equates to the hierarchy’s level 1, it equals the “food and shelter” of work. The categories are:
— Quality of pay and benefits
— Work-life balance and flexibility
— Job and company stability
— Physical and psychological comfort
— Belongingness and esteem
— Career opportunities and professional development
This allows workers to look beyond what is usually one of the only points of comparison on job offers: pay. Similarly, while you may want an employer that ranks highly in all six categories, not all employers and industries are set up to provide high-quality experiences across all categories simultaneously.
Figuring out what matters to you now in your work and personal life is harder but will lead to a more meaningful next career step.
For younger workers, career opportunities and professional development may be the most important factors. For workers with family caregiving responsibilities, considering the Best Companies to Work For: Family Caregiving list as well as work-life balance and flexibility factors might be most relevant. For workers craving security, job and company stability might be the most important criteria.
Evaluating the six categories to fit your personal needs will help you identify employers that have more of what you need in a company you work for.
Use the Best Companies List to Create a Baseline for Your Priority List
If your target employers are on the Best Companies list, it’s simple to see which ones rank highly on the criteria that matter for you — and allow that to guide your job search.
If your target companies aren’t on the list, the information can still help you create a baseline for evaluating potential employers.
For example, if you are in the energy and resources sector, find the areas in which the best employers excel and lag. Ask recruiters or interviewers about how they compare to those employers on the benefits or work attributes you care about.
Recruiters and hiring managers generally understand their competitors and should be able to speak to and explain where they exceed, are in line with or fall behind in the industry.
There may be a justifiable reason why one employer falls below the top employers in their market. It might be because of what the company values instead: for example, innovation over stability or high pay over workplace flexibility.
[Read: The Qualities of a Great Company, According to Workers]
Craft Recruiter or Interview Questions to Find the Best Company for You
Use the details in the Best Companies methodology section to craft recruiter and interview questions about the characteristics you want to prioritize.
The methodology includes detailed criteria that can be converted to questions. For example, “level of attrition at the employee management level” can become “how long have managers in the department been in their current positions?” or “how long has your executive team been in place?” Similarly, you can ask if the recruiter can share excerpts or highlights from internal survey data on topics such as career advancement, belonging or work-life balance.
Open-ended questions about what company employees like to brag about can also be helpful. Think carefully about what an interviewer chooses to promote. Does it align with your priorities? If it’s the tight-knit culture and stability of the management team, that might be less appealing if you are looking for a company that prioritizes internal mobility and change.
Again, what is highlighted gives job seekers a sense of the company’s values and priorities. And while those priorities may be great for some workers, they may not be right for you.
Finally, continue to use this list as a resource, not only in your future job searching but in your internal feedback to your employer about how it can continue to improve your company for current and future workers.
The Best Companies to Work For list can empower workers no matter where they are in their career journeys.
Madhuri Kommareddi is an experienced leader in the government, nonprofit, politics and financial services sectors. She serves on the expert advisory board for the U.S. News and World Report’s Best Companies to Work For ratings.
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How to Use the U.S. News ‘Best Companies to Work For’ Lists in Your Job Search originally appeared on usnews.com
