Senior Leadership and Employee Satisfaction

How would employees rate your company’s CEO? Is he or she an award-winning leader?

Glassdoor, one of the world’s largest job sites, has released winners of its annual Employees’ Choice Awards, honoring the Highest Rated CEOs in 2017 across North America and parts of Europe.
Unlike other workplace awards, the Glassdoor Employees’ Choice Awards are based on the input of employees who voluntarily provide anonymous feedback by completing a company review about their CEO’s leadership, along with insight into their job, work environment, and employer over the past year.

Why the Award Matters

“We know that CEO approval ratings correlate to overall employee satisfaction and trust in senior leadership, which contributes to long-term employee engagement, ultimately helping an employer’s recruiting and retention efforts,” said Robert Hohman, co-founder and CEO of Glassdoor.
As Recruiting Daily Advisor noted in an earlier article, touting awards can also help with candidate attraction.

And the Winners Are …

This year, the Highest Rated CEOs include six distinct categories across the United States, Canada, UK, France, and Germany.
The top 10 Highest Rated CEOs in the United States, at organizations with 1,000 or more employees, are:

1. Benno Dorer, The Clorox Company (99 percent approval)
2. Jim Kavanaugh, World Wide Technology (99 percent approval)
3. Michael F. Mahoney, Boston Scientific (99 percent approval)
4. Craig B. Thompson, Memorial Sloan Kettering (99 percent approval)
5. Martin Rankin, Fast Enterprises (99 percent approval)
6. Jen-Hsun Huang, NVIDIA (99 percent approval)
7. Bob Bechek, Bain & Company (98 percent approval)
8. Elon Musk, SpaceX (98 percent approval)
9. Brian Halligan, HubSpot (98 percent approval)
10. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook (98 percent approval)

The top five Highest Rated CEOs in the United States at Small & Medium Companies, with less than 1,000 employees, are:

1. Justyn Howard, Sprout Social (99 percent approval)
2. Taylor Olson, Slingshot (99 percent approval)
3. Brady Harris, Eliot Management Group (99 percent approval)
4. Lane Rankin, Illuminate Education (99 percent approval)
5. Ken McElrath, Skuid (99 percent approval)

In addition to these categories, there are Highest Rated CEOs awards for Canada, UK, France, and Germany.
To receive a 99 or 98 percent approval rating is truly an achievement. Among the more than 700,000 employers reviewed on Glassdoor, the average CEO approval rating is 67 percent.

Eligibility and Methodology

Employees’ Choice Award winners for both the 2017 Highest Rated CEOs and Highest Rated CEOs at Small & Medium Companies are determined using Glassdoor’s proprietary algorithm, taking into account the quantity, quality, and consistency of approved company reviews shared by U.S.-based employees between May 2, 2016 and May 1, 2017.
At a minimum, employers considered for the large list must have received at least 100 company reviews at Glassdoor, including at least 100 CEO approval ratings and at least 100 senior management ratings. Employers eligible for the small and medium list must have received at least 35 company reviews, including at least 35 CEO approval ratings and at least 35 senior management ratings during the eligibility period.
For reporting simplicity, CEO approval ratings are displayed as whole numbers, although calculations extend beyond the thousandth place to determine final rank order.