By Forbes Staff,Shefali Kapadia

Copyright forbes

Delta Employees join forces to build a kid’s playground in Los Angeles.
Rank Studios for Delta Air Lines

Securing the doors for takeoff is an essential safety protocol onboard any Delta Air Lines flight. But back at corporate, the metaphorical doors are always open. Delta’s “open-door policy” enables employees to communicate with leaders directly through email or in person, says Allison Ausband, executive vice president and chief people officer at Delta Air Lines. In addition, each corporate market has a designated senior leader who regularly visits employees, providing updates on the business and answering any questions. Those leaders also listen to employees and take their concerns seriously—so much so that Delta has even introduced new benefits programs as a direct result of employee feedback.

“We want and need to hear from our people about what’s working well and what needs improvement,” Ausband says.

These open lines of communication, says Ausband, have been well received by employees, and have led to a more positive work environment. The strategy has also helped Delta Air Lines earn the No. 2 spot (up from No. 6 in 2024) on our list of the World’s Best Employers 2025.

To determine this annual ranking, Forbes partnered with market research firm Statista to survey more than 300,000 employees in over 50 countries who work for multinational corporations employing more than 1,000 workers. Respondents were asked how likely they’d be to recommend their company to family or friends, and to rate it on such criteria as benefits, talent development, work environment and training opportunities. Participants could also rate previous employers (within the past two years) and companies they knew through their own industry knowledge and through friends and family who worked there.

Survey responses were analyzed and tallied—along with data from the previous three years—with a heavier weight put on the more recent data and on the evaluations from current employees. While the number of honorees per country varied based on the population and qualifying companies in each area, the 900 companies with the highest scores earned a spot on our list.

Delta stands out as the only company in the transportation and logistics industry to crack the top 50 on the list. The second-highest in the sector was Air France-KLM (No. 84), followed by ocean shipping giant A.P. Moller-Maersk (No. 114) and Southwest Airlines (No. 125).

Industries such as logistics, along with manufacturing, retail and some trades, tend to struggle with structural or cultural hurdles, says Jess LaRochelle, senior manager of executive search and talent consulting at W Talent Solutions. These industries often have leadership models that are stuck in the past or demonstrate a lack of flexibility due to the nature of the sector’s work, which often requires employees to be on site. Transportation and logistics employers also face an aging workforce, with the median age of workers being just above 43 years old, a year older than the overall workforce, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

“Many are making strides, but culture and communication still lag behind what employees want,” LaRochelle says of companies in these industries.

To reduce this gap between old-school industry norms and what employees need now, Delta, according to Ausband, utilizes a communication approach deemed “listen-act-listen.” After receiving feedback through employee engagement surveys about the need for more financial guidance and support, the airline launched an Emergency Savings Program in 2023, in which employees could attend financial wellness training and earn $1,000 for a rainy-day fund. To date, more than 40,000 employees have participated in the program, according to Ausband. In addition, the company heard employees asking for more flexibility related to its employee pass travel, so Delta adjusted privileges to allow for an additional travel companion.

Meanwhile, industries such as professional services, technology and healthcare tend to excel at keeping employees content. “These sectors have embraced flexibility, career development and strong internal communication to stay competitive,” LaRochelle says.

That finding rings true on Forbes’ latest list, in which three of the top 5 companies are in the IT software and services industry, with Microsoft at No. 1 for the second year in a row, Alphabet (Google) at No. 3 and Adobe at No. 4.

For Adobe, it’s the company’ “spirit of innovation” that has inspired many employees to stay with and grow at the company, says Gloria Chen, Adobe’s chief people officer and executive vice president of employee experience. Chen herself has been at the company for more than 25 years.

As a software company, Adobe is “always looking ahead to the next big thing,” Chen says. “Now, in the AI era, that drive is as strong as ever.” Indeed, AI has taken the enterprise world by storm. In a McKinsey study published in March, 78% of respondents said their companies use AI in at least one business function, with 63% using the technology in at least two functions.

Siemens employees at the Hannover Messe 2025 trade fair in Germany
GIULIA IANNICELLI for Siemens

Siemens (No. 41), which doesn’t shy away from change, has also embraced AI, says Nanda Burke, global head of talent and organization at the company. She notes that Siemens is continuously reinventing itself, “and we invite our people to do the same.” One such invention is the new SiemensGPT, which lets employees chat, interact and create their own bots, Burke says. Since last October, employees have created more than 15,000 bots.

With AI rapidly catching on in many workplaces, AI-people collaboration has become “a core competency” among the strongest employers, says Larry Durham, president of St. Charles Consulting Group. He sees leading organizations using AI for tasks such as pattern detection or analysis, affording employees more time to focus on creativity and relationship-building. “Employees report higher job satisfaction because they can focus on meaningful, strategic work,” Durham says.

Incorporating AI and encouraging employees to engage with the technology also gives workers a chance to learn new skills. And without skill development, employees tend to feel stagnant and stuck without clear pathways to grow, says Durham. “Employees leave when they can’t see how to expand their capabilities beyond their current role.”

Meanwhile employers are keenly aware that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to retain employees. The most recent data from BLS shows that the median length of time an employee stays with their company is 3.9 years, the lowest tenure since 2002. So, while there is no magic formula to keeping employees engaged and content, the companies on this year’s list are working toward those goals every day.

For the full list of the World’s Best Employers, click here.

Methodology

To determine the World’s Best Employers 2025, Forbes partnered with market research firm Statista to survey more than 300,000 employees in over 50 countries. The surveys, which were conducted online, were independent of any corporations so that participants could remain anonymous. Survey respondents were asked where they worked via an open-ended question with an autofill option, and corporations were eligible for this ranking if they employed more than 1,000 people and operated globally.

The participants noted how likely they were to recommend their employer to family and friends, and rated the company on such criteria as salary, career advancement opportunities, work-life balance and company reputation. Survey respondents could also evaluate former employers (within the past two years) and companies they knew through their own industry knowledge and through friends and family who worked there.

The responses were then tallied and put through a scoring system that included data from the previous three years, with heavier weight given to the more recent data and to the evaluations from current employees. The corporations that earned the highest scores made our final ranking. And while the number of honorees per country varied based on the population and qualifying companies in each area, ultimately 900 companies made our list of the World’s Best Employers 2025.

As with all Forbes lists, companies pay no fee to participate or be selected. To read more about how we make these lists, click here. For questions about this list, please email listdesk [at] forbes.com.

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