Glassdoor Reveals Employees' Choice Awards For The Top CEOs In 2021

Leaders at Boston Consulting Group, Southwest Airlines and Microsoft Among Top Ten Chief Executives

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Jun 16, 2021, 08:02 ET

MILL VALLEY, Calif., June 16, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Glassdoor, the worldwide leader in insights about jobs and companies, today announced the winners of its 8th Employees' Choice Awards, honoring the Top CEOs in 2021 across North America and parts of Europe. Unlike any other workplace award, 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 insights into their job, work environment and employer over the past year.

This year, the Glassdoor Employees' Choice Awards for the Top CEOs feature six distinct company categories across the U.S., Canada, UK, France and Germany. In the U.S., Glassdoor has revealed the 100 Top CEOs (honoring CEOs at employers with 1,000 or more employees) and the 50 Top CEOs at small & medium companies (honoring CEOs at employers with fewer than 1,000 employees).

"Over the past year, company leaders around the world faced unprecedented challenges to support employees during the COVID-19 crisis. Now, the employees have spoken and it's clear that these CEOs excelled and found new ways to support their people when the world of work flipped upside down," said Christian Sutherland-Wong, Glassdoor chief executive officer. "Through a challenging year, it's inspiring to see Top CEOs who, according to their employees, adapted to change, redefined visions and led with transparency while putting the health and safety of employees first. I extend my sincerest congratulations to this year's Employees' Choice Award winners."

The ten Top CEOs in 2021 in the U.S. are:

Boston Consulting Group's Rich Lesser (99 percent approval)
Adobe's Shantanu Narayen (99 percent approval)
MD Anderson Cancer Center's Peter Pisters (99 percent approval)
Southwest Airlines' Gary C. Kelly (98 percent approval)
Visa Inc.'s Alfred F. Kelly, Jr. (97 percent approval)
Microsoft's Satya Nadella (97 percent approval)
H E B's Charles C. Butt (97 percent approval)
Delta Air Lines' Ed Bastian (97 percent approval)
Red Hat's Paul Cormier (97 percent approval)
Booz Allen Hamilton's Horacio D. Rozanski (97 percent approval)

The five Top CEOs at Small & Medium Companies in 2021 in the U.S. are:

6sense's Jason Zintak (99 percent approval)
Logical Position's Michael Weinhouse and John Ganey (99 percent approval)
Apeel Sciences' James Rogers (99 percent approval)
Lower's Dan Snyder (99 percent approval)
South Carolina Federal Credit Union's Scott Woods (99 percent approval)

Glassdoor's Top 100 CEOs in 2021 Award features winning chief executives across diverse industries spanning technology, health care, finance, manufacturing, retail and more. This year, Boston Consulting Group's CEO Rich Lesser claims the top spot with a 99 percent approval rating. More than half (56 CEOs) of this year's Top 100 CEOs, including Rich Lesser, are on the list for the first time. Other newcomers include lululemon's Calvin McDonald (No. 19, 96 percent approval), Slack's Stewart Butterfield (No. 82, 92 percent approval) and Royal Caribbean Group's Richard D. Fain (No. 96, 90 percent approval). Five women are honored among the top 100 this year, including In-N-Out Burger's Lynsi Snyder (No. 20, 96 percent approval), Fidelity Investments' Abby Johnson (No. 44, 94 percent approval) and Progressive Insurance's Tricia Griffith (No. 65, 93 percent approval). Apple's Tim Cook (No. 32, 95 percent approval) is the only CEO to be honored all eight years.

On the 2021 list of the Top 50 CEOs at Small & Medium Companies, seven of the top 10 CEOs are newcomers to this list.

This year, there are 18 CEOs who are recognized by employees in multiple countries, including one CEO who made four lists — Microsoft's Satya Nadella (U.S. Large, UK, Canada and Germany).

When employees submit reviews about their employer on Glassdoor, they are asked to rate several factors tied to their employment experience. These include rating sentiment around their CEO's leadership as well as around senior management, among others. Specifically, when rating their CEO on Glassdoor, employees are asked to report whether they approve or disapprove of or have no opinion about their CEO's performance.

Across the approximately 1.5 million employers reviewed on Glassdoor, the average CEO approval rating is 73 percent.

Employees' Choice Award winners for the 2021 Top CEOs and Top CEOs at Small & Medium Companies are determined using Glassdoor's proprietary algorithm, taking into account the quantity, quality and consistency of Glassdoor-approved company reviews shared by U.S.-based employees between May 2, 2020 and May 1, 2021. At a minimum, employers considered for the large list must have received at least 100 company reviews, including at least 100 CEO approval ratings and at least 100 senior management ratings. Employers eligible for the small & 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, though calculations extend beyond the thousandth decimal place to determine final rank order. Complete award methodology can be found and downloaded here: https://www.glassdoor.com/Award/index.htm

SEE THE 2021 WINNERS: All winning CEOs across this year's six categories can be found by visiting:
100 Top CEOs – U.S.
50 Top CEOs at Small & Medium Companies – U.S.
25 Top CEOs – Canada
50 Top CEOs – UK
25 Top CEOs – France
25 Top CEOs – Germany

WHY IS GREAT LEADERSHIP IMPORTANT? According to Glassdoor Economic Research, trust in senior leadership is a leading factor of long-term employee satisfaction and highly-rated CEOs are statistically linked to companies with great cultures and financial performance.

INTERVIEWS + EMPLOYEE COMMENTARY: Interviews and employee commentary about winning CEOs, their senior management team and company culture are available upon request. Please email: [email protected].

EDITORIAL: Glassdoor has also published editorial content highlighting women and people of color among the Top 100 CEOs as we advocate for more diversity at companies everywhere. These posts include:

About Glassdoor

Glassdoor combines the latest jobs with millions of reviews and insights to make it easy for people to find a job that is uniquely right for them. As a result, Glassdoor helps employers hire truly informed candidates at scale through effective recruiting solutions like employer branding and employee insights products. Launched in 2008, Glassdoor now has reviews and insights for more than 1.5 million companies around the world. For more information, visit glassdoor.com.

SOURCE Glassdoor