The 10 Happiest Places To Work In 2016

While finding happiness at work is largely a matter of your mindset, it's undeniable that some places are better at facilitating their employee's personal needs than others. If you were wondering which are the best, fear not, as Forbes has compiled their annual list of the happiest places to work in 2016.

Excellent companies are often ranked for their profitability, innovation or popularity, but rarely their culture or employee satisfaction. This is unfortunately reflective of many people's mindsets about work (which often conveniently forget that there are human beings doing these jobs, not robots).

The reality is that if you have a full time job, you will spend the better part of your life working. Nobody wants to hear that, but it's the truth. It's what you wake up to do for most waking hours, most days of the week. Sure, there's such a thing as work-life balance, but that's awfully hard to strike when work is undoubtedly taking up more of your time.

What does this have to do with employee satisfaction? Well, everything. The best companies are the ones that treat employees as people first. Interestingly enough, it's likely because they are so accommodating of people needing to get enough sleep and go to doctor's appointments and pick up kids from school and take time off that their product is better overall.

The company that aided Forbes in coming up with the criteria for deciding whether or not a company should make the list was CareerBliss, and they didn't just look at the basics (free lunch, on-site fitness centers, etc). They focused on “work-life balance, an employee’s relationship with his or her boss and co-workers, office environment, job resources, compensation, opportunities for professional development, and company culture.”

Many people are familiar with some of the major companies that are often lauded for having a high employee satisfaction (think: Facebook, Apple) but others may come as a surprise. Making the list for last year was Chrysler, Intel, and Texas Instruments, to name a few. The point is that you don't have to work at a major brand name company to be treated well, and though these are just a few of the companies that treat employees exceptionally well, it's important to remember that the fact that Forbes is even recognizing this as something to rank is a sign that we're headed in the right direction: one that is more sustainable and humane than ever.

Here are this year’s winners:

#10: SAP

SAP is a software solutions company located in Newtown Square, Pa.

#09: Amgen

AMGen is an American multinational biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Thousand Oaks, California.

#08: Adobe

Adobe Systems Incorporated is an American transnational computer software company. You probably know it best from Photoshop, Illustrator, inDesign and so on.

#07: Intuit

Intuit is an American software company that develops financial and tax preparation software and related services for small businesses, accountants and individuals.

#06: Google

Google is an American multinational technology company specializing in Internet-related services and products. These include online advertising technologies, search, cloud computing, and software.

#05: McAfee

McAfee is part of Intel Security Group, which is an American global computer security software company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It's the world's largest dedicated security technology company.

#04: Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments is a global semiconductor design & manufacturing company. (They produce the calculators you used in high school.)

#03: Chevron

Chevron works to meet the world's growing demand for energy by exploring for oil and natural gas, refines and markets gasoline, and produces chemicals.

#02: Broadcom

Broadcom Corporation was an American fabless semiconductor company in the wireless and broadband communication business.

#01: Johnson & Johnson

J&J is a three-sector health care company based out of New Jersey. They produce baby products, oral hygiene, skin/hair care, over-the-counter medications and vision care.

Check out Forbes to see the rest!

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