LinkedIn Top Companies is an annual list that helps professionals identify the top workplaces to grow their careers. The ranking, put out by LinkedIn News, is determined by a carefully weighted methodology using exclusive LinkedIn data analyzing the career paths of millions of professionals, globally.
Following are some frequently asked questions about the Top Companies list.
The methodology is built on research around what it means to build a great career, matched to unique LinkedIn data. There are eight pillars, each revealing an important element of career progression inside a company and all based on LinkedIn data:
-
Ability to advance: Tracks how employees get promoted both at the company and when they land a new position externally, based on standardized job titles.
-
Skills growth: Looks at how employees across the company are gaining skills while employed at the company, using standardized LinkedIn skills.
-
Company stability: Tracks attrition over the past year as well as percentage of employees that stay at the company at least three years.
-
External opportunity: Looks at Recruiter outreach across employees at the company.
-
Company affinity: Tracks connection volume among employees, controlled for company size, as a means to measure how supportive a company’s culture is.
-
Gender diversity: Measures gender parity within a company and its subsidiaries.
-
Educational background: Examines the variety of educational attainment among employees, from no degree up to Ph.D. levels, reflecting a commitment to recruiting a wide range of professionals.
-
Employee presence in the country: Measures number of employees relative to other companies, as a means of focusing on companies that provide a diverse work environment and more opportunities for career advancement and networking.
Important to know
Only parent companies are eligible for the list; data on majority-owned subsidiaries are wrapped into the total score for the company. All staffing and recruiting firms, educational institutions and government agencies are excluded. LinkedIn and LinkedIn’s parent company, Microsoft, are also excluded.
We will produce Top Companies lists in 12 markets in 2026: Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, UK, and United States.
To better serve all job seekers and feature a greater range of companies, we publish two categories of Top Companies lists in select markets. Note that the methodology does not differ between lists. Companies on both lists are ranked according to the same eight pillars.
- Midsize: Companies headquartered in the country with less than 5,000 global employees and at least 250 in country.
- Large: Companies with 5,000 or more global employees and at least 500 in the country (no headquarter requirement).
Due to data liquidity requirements of our methodology, we are unable to showcase small businesses at this time. But we are always exploring options to expand the franchise in future years. We do regularly feature smaller (minimum of 50 employees), fast-growing companies in our annual Top Startups list, which was published in October 2025.
Learn more
Top Companies list is published annually, every April.
All honorees receive a badge on their LinkedIn company page at launch, identifying them as a LinkedIn Top Company.
Badges are displayed to members according to their country and the member's language preference. The
Badges are valid for one year. LinkedIn reserves the right to revoke and remove this badge before the one-year mark in its sole discretion when there are, for example, violations by the honoree of our Pages Terms, Professional Community Policies or User Agreement.
Being a client of LinkedIn is not a consideration for the Top Companies list and does not impact or influence a company’s ranking. This list is put together by the LinkedIn News team using a methodology built on research around what it means to build a great career, matched to unique LinkedIn data.
Learn more