Insider knowledge: how does an organisation become a ‘Best Place to Work’?

Quick answers:

An analysis of Glassdoor's 2026 Best Places to Work (rankings based entirely on employee reviews) reveals three leadership behaviours consistently linked to higher retention and engagement:

1. Honest, transparent communication over false certainty during periods of change
2. Psychological safety, demonstrated through visible leader vulnerability and accountability
3. Leadership presence that reinforces dignity, trust and internal growth opportunity

'Employer brands aren't invented, they're surfaced,' says Taylor Meadows, Head of Employer Brand Strategy at Glassdoor. 'If the story you sell to candidates is fiction and doesn't truly reflect how employees experience the company, people see through that immediately.'

When Glassdoor released its 2026 Best Places to Work list, based entirely on company reviews, the ranking reflected one of the most trusted sources of workplace insight: authentic employee experiences. The consensus? The future of work depends on whether employees believe their leaders are listening, acting and investing in them as people.

To better understand why certain organisations rose to the top, we convened industry-specific peer cohorts of VP+ talent leaders through the Indeed Leadership Connect programme. Meadows facilitated these candid conversations, which explored the leadership behaviour, strategies and trade-offs shaping employee experience.

Below are the strategic takeaways, by industry, with examples of how organisations can act now to become a 'best place to work.'

Efficiency at the cost of connection often creates a retention problem down the line.

Healthcare: Why purpose-driven workers leave when leadership falls short 

Healthcare stands apart from other industries in one defining way: employees feel called to it. 

'The care and compassion required for many of these jobs comes from deep within; a genuine desire to help others. To do this successfully, workers expect that back from their employers,' says Meadows.

What best-in-class healthcare employers do differently:

1. They make leadership visible during stressful moments.

Across high-performing healthcare organisations, leaders emphasise visible, human leadership, especially during moments of stress. This includes intentional community-building, slowing down for personal check-ins and reinforcing connection beyond transactional work.

'We've all got jobs to get done. But, if I may, I'd argue that we can't forget the importance of connection and community at work,' Meadows notes.

In practice, this looks like a CEO who makes the rounds across all care settings. Or an on-site flea market and food trucks to get people out from under fluorescent lights and take a break from chaotic schedules. As one talent leader put it, communication is cheap currency.

2. They treat onboarding as a retention intervention. 

The first 90 days are the highest-risk window for new-recruit attrition – and also the time it is most preventable. Best-in-class healthcare onboarding practices centre that early employee experience around human connections through:

• Pairing new recruits with a formal buddy for the first six months
• Scheduling executive-led virtual sessions where new-recruit feedback is acted on (and communicated back) in real time
• Building in structured check-ins at 30, 60 and 90 days
• Collecting new-recruit preferences before day one (favourite foods, sports teams, hobbies) to make first impressions more personal

While AI creates efficiencies, overreliance can have the opposite effect. One TA professional described a ticketing system that removed nearly all human contact from onboarding, leaving new recruits unsure who their HR partners were or who to go to with questions. Efficiency at the cost of connection often creates a retention problem down the line.

👉 If you do one thing: Consider reviewing your current onboarding timeline and identifying the first moment a new recruit has direct, candid access to a leader. If that moment doesn't exist in the first 90 days, create it. A virtual session where a senior leader takes live questions and acts on feedback costs little but makes all the difference.

Tech and business: The importance of building trust during uncertainty 

Tech and business leaders entered 2026 navigating AI disruption, restructuring and prolonged uncertainty. If your team are bracing for another change, they're searching for clarity and stability.

What best-in-class healthcare employers do differently:

1. They're transparent when communicating about change. 

Leaders acknowledged that employees don't expect all the answers, but they do expect honesty. During restructures or strategy shifts, high-performing organisations clearly explain what's known, unknown and undecided.

2. They invest in employee development during periods of ambiguity.

In Indeed's 2026 Sentiment Survey, 34% of jobseekers say access to upskilling courses would help them overcome career challenges.

In the generally unstable state of the world right now, the most powerful gift an employer can give an employee is career growth. If people see a path forward within your walls, they're much more likely to stay, especially when the market is noisy,' advises Meadows.

3. They model psychological safety from the top.

'Psychological safety is a buzzy term, but it's the insulation that keeps the house warm, so to speak. When you hear employees owning mistakes, offering feedback or communicating concerns, you've done something right,' says Meadows. Because, when that space isn't made for questions or concerns, turnover can grow. And according to SHRM, replacing an employee can cost 50–200% of their salary.

Common practices organisations discussed include:

• Explicitly communicating two-way feedback expectations between managers and direct reports to invite and normalise input
• Leaders sharing examples of feedback they received and acted on
• Identifying emerging themes from pulse surveys and assigning executive sponsors to each. 'When you add a face to feedback, it creates trust and belief that it's actually being addressed,' says Meadows.

👉 If you do one thing: Try scripting your next change announcement using the known/unknown/undecided framework.You don't have to have all the answers. Consider sharing the communication with a skip-level employee first to make sure it feels honest. When leaders model this framework and managers repeat it, employees won't fill in the gaps with worst-case scenarios.

Consumer services and supply: 3 success strategies for frontline-heavy workforces

Consumer services and supply leaders face the most operational constraints: fixed schedules, physical presence and frontline-heavy workforces. 

'A lot of companies say their frontline workers are the heart of the business,' says Meadows. 'The real test is whether decisions actually reflect their best interests, like scheduling flexibility, useful benefits and incentivised pay structures.'

Although workers in this industry can't exactly control their hours, they can still control how the work gets done.

What best-in-class healthcare employers do differently:

1. They help fight 'chaos fatigue' with innovative benefits.

More and more employees are using mental health benefits so they don't have to pay out of pocket. Innovative benefits like therapy coverage, childcare support, elderly care and financial training outperform traditional perks. One unexpected support: Meadows reports higher ratings among employers who vocally support employees doing extra gig work on the side.

2. They reframe flexibility as autonomy and growth, not scheduling.

While true location and schedule flexibility are limited in this industry, leaders focus on removing unnecessary rigidity and giving frontline managers discretion to support individual needs.

Others noted that making career pathing visible early on can set realistic expectations and drive loyalty. Gen Z candidates in particular are evaluating growth clarity as much as compensation, Meadows explained.

Implementing cross-training, short-term assignments and education support are helpful strategies. One leader found them most effective when employees can see how they directly connect to real work. Consider internal skills profiles that match people to projects so workers can put their development into practice.

3. They understand that respect and dignity matter.

Employees care deeply about being treated with respect, regardless of role level. This is especially critical to frontline workers in consumer services who absorb the friction of the business, from difficult customers to physical demands and unpredictable days. 

That sense of being valued is what makes the work sustainable. According to the 2025 Indeed Work Wellbeing Report, employees in high‑wellbeing environments are 2x less likely to be actively job-hunting and 60% more likely to stay with the company for a year.

As one leader summarised in a cohort: 'People-first leadership is making employees feel seen, heard and trusted to manage their work and life.'

👉 If you do one thing: Consider surveying your frontline employees on which benefits would reduce their daily stress then commit to acting on the top answer within six months. The sequence of 'ask, listen, act, tell' is what 'people-first' looks like to someone working on fixed shifts or in consumer-facing roles.

How to measure whether your leadership is working, from behaviour to benchmarks

Across industries, best-in-class workplaces share the same core leadership behaviours:

• Honest, human communication
• Fostering psychological safety with real action
• Leadership presence that reinforces dignity, trust and internal growth opportunity

Shifts won't happen overnight but, the sooner you start, the sooner you can track progress. Consider the metrics below to gauge whether you're moving in the right direction.

Metrics to watch for more effective leadership

• How do we measure trust and psychological safety? 

→ Retention and voluntary turnover rate

When employees don't trust leadership, they leave. Track efforts in boosting trust with decreases in voluntary turnover rate and increases in retention.

• How do we gauge onboarding quality? 

→ 90-day attrition and time-to-productivity 

Companies with strong onboarding programmes improve new-recruit retention by 80% and have over 100% better time-to-proficiency, according to an onboarding study by Brandon Hall Group research.

• How do we measure manager quality? 

→ Engagement scores and absenteeism

In Glassdoor's 2026 Best Places to Work, supportive frontline managers consistently surface as the strongest predictor of engagement. Meanwhile, absenteeism and sick-day frequency can be related proxies for workforce stress levels.

• How do we benchmark transparent change communication?

→ Productivity during transition periods 

This one is harder to measure directly, but proxy metrics include performance review scores and project completion rates during times of change, as well as internal survey data on whether employees feel informed. 

The organisations on Glassdoor's Best Places to Work achieved their rankings by taking action consistently, visibly and with their people in mind. For leaders, that starts with whatever you choose to do next.

To find out more about winning companies, take a look at this year's 2026 Best Places to Work list. To join similar presentations and discussions, find out more about Indeed's Leadership Connect and Director Connect programmes

Indeed provides this information as a courtesy to users of this site. Please note that we are not your recruiting or legal adviser, we are not responsible for the content of your job descriptions, and none of the information provided herein guarantees performance.

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