Great workplaces
15 Dallas-area employers make new Forbes list for best company culture
Dallas-based Topgolf is one of the best local employers for company culture, Forbes says.
Fifteen Dallas-area companies have just been praised on Forbes' inaugural ranking of "America's Best Employers for Company Culture."
Forbes partnered with market research firm Statista to survey over 218,000 workers at companies with at least 1,000 employees throughout the U.S, and relied on data from the past three years of employee surveys (with an emphasis on the most recent data and recommendations from current employees). Companies don't pay to be included, Forbes noted.
Among the final list of 600 U.S. companies, 30 Texas employers were praised for providing "a unifying company culture that inspires a sense of purpose and loyalty among employees."
The 15 Dallas-Fort Worth-based companies that made the list are:
- No. 58 – The Container Store, Coppell
- No. 73 – Lewisville Independent School District, Lewisville
- No. 117 – Southwest Airlines, Dallas
- No. 123 –Topgolf, Dallas
- No. 170 – McKesson, Irving
- No. 190 – Kimberly-Clark, Irving
- No. 245 – Jacobs Solutions, Dallas
- No. 312 – Brinker International, Coppell
- No. 350 – Texas Health Resources, Arlington
- No. 482 – Toyota North America, Plano
- No. 562 – Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART), Dallas
- No. 567 – AT&T, Dallas
- No. 569 – Energy Transfer, Dallas
- No. 591 – American Airlines Group, Fort Worth
- No. 597 – Aimbridge Hospitality, Plano
Notably, Dallas' top-ranked company, The Container Store, filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in December 2024, but the president said at the time that the company was not shutting down and the stores and website would continue to operate as normal.
Lewisville ISD landed at No. 73 nationally and second in the Dallas area; it was the only local school district to make the list. Likewise, Texas Health Resources, Arlington (No. 350 nationally) was the only local hospital to make the cut.
Dallas-based Southwest Airlines landed at No. 117 nationally, but Fort Worth-based American Airlines just barely made the list of 600, coming in at No. 591.
According to the report's research, employers with a successful company culture don't rely on "surface-level perks" such as free lunches, wellness apps, and flex days to inspire employee engagement. Instead, employers that focused on conflict resolution and coaching their managers saw a reduction in employee burnout and an increase in "perceptions of fairness and leadership care.
"In fact, the researchers noted that when 'senior leaders changed how they led — how they ran meetings, gave feedback, made decisions and responded to challenge — trust scores rose by an average of 26 percent,'" the report said.
Other Texas employers with great company culture
Elsewhere in Texas, two San Antonio businesses, three Austin employers, and 10 Houston-area companieswere included on the Forbes list.
The two San Antonio-based companies that made the cut are beloved Texas grocery chain H-E-B (No. 445), and municipal electric utility company CPS Energy (No. 551).
In Austin, the entrants were Austin Community College District (No. 56), Dell Technologies (No. 207), and Keller Williams Realty (No. 352).
The 10 Houston-area companies that earned national acclaim for their company culture include:
- No. 15 – Houston Methodist, Houston
- No. 47 – MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston
- No. 220 – Stewart Info Services, Houston
- No. 325 – BP, Houston
- No. 332 – Baylor College of Medicine, Houston
- No. 492 – Chevron Phillips Chemical, The Woodlands
- No. 525 – Insperity, Houston
- No. 558 – NRG Energy, Houston
- No. 586 – Waste Management, Houston
- No. 593 – LyondellBassell, Houston
