50 of the most admired HR leaders

With this year’s focus on diversity and inclusion, these companies are on the forefront in using diverse talent to leverage efforts to drive business strategy and performance.

With unemployment still at record lows, employees still have the “upper hand” when it comes to choosing an employer that best reflects them and where they want to work.

For years, Human Resource Executive has partnered with management consulting firm Korn Ferry to compile a list of companies that are “Most Admired for HR,” focusing on a specific best practice that distinguishes the best companies from the rest.

This year, appropriately, the focus is on diversity and inclusion. Companies that are on the forefront in becoming more diverse and inclusive are more effective at leveraging their efforts to drive business strategy and performance.

Diversity is no longer just a matter of regulatory compliance or even social justice. It’s a clear and present business-performance issue. Organizations that lag behind their competitors in diversity will find it more difficult to attract top talent, to break into new markets, to innovate and to build a good reputation among employees, customers and outside stakeholders.

Methodology

The process of developing this report on corporate reputations started when Korn Ferry and Fortune determined the “World’s Most Admired Companies,” an annual list they’ve produced since 1997. They began with the Fortune 1000—the 1,000 largest U.S. companies ranked by revenue—and non-U.S. companies in Fortune’s Global 500 database with revenues of $10 billion or more. They then selected the highest-revenue companies in each industry, surveying a total of 680 companies from 30 countries.

To create the 52 industry lists, Korn Ferry asked executives, directors and analysts to rate companies in their own industries on nine criteria, from investment value to social responsibility. To arrive at HRE’s “Most Admired for HR” rankings, Korn Ferry recalibrated the Fortune attribute scores, isolating four criteria that have a bearing on HR—management quality, product/service quality, innovation and people management.

To see the results of the top 50 companies with the most admired HR, please continue.

Companies 50-46 ⇒

Nick Otto is HRE’s senior digital editor. He is a professional communicator with more than a decade of demonstrated accomplishments in newspaper and trade publishing. He has spent the past five years covering the employee benefits space and holds bachelor’s degree from the University of Florida. He can be reached at [email protected] or follow him on twitter @Ottografs.