These are the ten companies rank highest for employee professional growth

A recent ranking by the Burning Glass Institute, Schultz Family Foundation and Harvard Business School’s Managing the Future of Work Project found W.W. Grainger and nine other companies to be those where workers can best find growth in their professional lives.

Industrial supply company W.W. Grainger received the first-place on this year’s edition of the American Opportunity Index, which its creators said “reveals which large U.S. companies are doing the best to advance the careers of their employees and grow the middle class” in the job market.

The index considered factors like hiring, pay, promotion, parity and culture at numerous major America-based companies over five years to determine the order of the list that Grainger placed first on. The ranking uses data about the “career trajectories” of over 5 million workers and pays particular attention to positions that don’t require a college degree, it said.

The American Opportunity Index gave Grainger, which employs over 26,000 people, scores of 4 for hiring, pay, parity and culture, and a score of 3 for promotion.

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“The foundation of the Grainger Culture is an unwavering belief that every team member deserves the opportunity to have a meaningful and fulfilling career. This recognition is a testament to our investment in attracting, developing and retaining the best people so we can continue to achieve our purpose – We Keep the World Working – for our customers and communities,” Grainger CEO D.G. Macpherson was quoted as saying.

The industrial supply company climbed two places from third last year to reach the No. 1 spot in 2024, according to the index.

The nine other companies that made the top-ten operated in the retail, financial, technology, transportation, food and insurance industries.

According to the American Opportunity Index, the companies that received the overall highest rankings this year included: 

1. W.W. Grainger

2. Costco Wholesale

3. Capital One Financial

4. Meta Platforms

5. ServiceNow

6. J.B. Hunt Transport Services

7. Coca-Cola

8. PepsiCo

9. MetLife

10. Bank of America

The 2024 placements of three of those companies – J.B. Hunt, PepsiCo and MetLife – marked jumps into the top-ten. They were No. 21, 19 and 16, respectively, last year, per the index.

The American Opportunity Index features a total of 395 major American companies, with 100 being dubbed the “top performers.”

When it came to 100 companies that ranked most highly specifically for pay, their workers received a whopping 130% more in compensation than those at companies that placed in the bottom 100 for that category, according to the American Opportunity Index.

Meanwhile, workers at employers in the top-100 for international promotion had 130% higher chances of getting moved up in their companies compared to the bottom-100, it also found.