The Orange County Business Journal’s 2026 Best Places to Work report recognizes 91 employers that have earned high marks from the people who know them best—their employees.
The annual ranking is the culmination of months of surveys conducted among workers and management at hundreds of Orange County employers. The final list is based on a proprietary scoring system developed for the Business Journal by Houston-based Workforce Research Group (see page TK).
Companies are ranked in three categories: small (15 to 49 U.S. employees), midsize (50 to 249 employees) and large (250 or more employees).
The rankings are based on two surveys.
Management completes an employer survey covering workplace policies, practices, benefits and demographics.
Employees complete an engagement and satisfaction survey evaluating leadership, planning, culture, training, compensation and benefits.
Some of the perks listed by employers included, catered daily lunches, full stocked coffee bars, yogurt bars, complimentary snacks, birthday treats, happy hour, chair massages, indoor basketball court, $150 decoration allowance, dry cleaning and car detailing services and allowing dogs at work.Nearly every type of employer in Orange County was eligible to participate, including locally based companies, subsidiaries of out-of-area firms, professional services firms, banks, government agencies, nonprofits, hospitals and universities.
Among the returning companies from last year’s list are The Koll Co., Working Wardrobes, The Wooden Floor, Octane, Syntiant, Technologent, Swinerton Builders, CannonDesign, Sundt Construction and C.W. Driver Companies (see stories, pages 1 and 14).To qualify, organizations had to employ at least 15 workers and have been in business for at least one year.
Visit www.bestplacestoworkorangecounty.com for details about this year’s rankings and information on entering your company in next year’s program. There is no cost to participate. Survey reports are available for purchase from Workforce Research Group.
Contacts
OCBJ: Research Director Desmond Celo at (949) 584-1332, or celo@ocbj.com.
Workforce Research Group: Abigail Akers at (281) 214-2660 or aakers@workforcerg.com.
