U.S. News names Aveanna Healthcare best Georgia company to work for

Aveanna Healthcare is the top company in Georgia to work for, according to the latest U.S. News and World Report rankings. The Atlanta-based health services company is one of just 27 local companies to make the list, outranking Coca-Cola and Home Depot.

“‘Best’ is a subjective term relative to career satisfaction, and there are many aspects that factor into someone’s decision to apply for a job with any given company,” the news outlet reported.

“But some universally desired factors can contribute to a good workplace, such as quality pay, good work/life balance, and opportunities for professional development and advancement,” it continued.

U.S. News and World Report considered only certain public companies in the Russell 3000 index for its rankings. Companies needed to have at least 75 U.S.-based Glassdoor reviews to be eligible and excel across a series of metrics.

“To consider what the selected publicly available data says about how a company supports the everyday experience of its employees, we leveraged Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and translated it into an ‘Employee’s Hierarchy of Needs,’” the outlet said.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, as described by CNN, is a hierarchal motivation theory penned by American psychologist Abraham Maslow in 1943. It is often referenced in business management theories, as well as educational models.

From that theory, U.S. News crafted six metrics for its rankings: quality of pay and benefits, work-life balance and flexibility, job and company stability, physical and psychological comfort, belongingness and esteem, and, finally, career opportunities and professional development.

The outlet then reviewed more than 5,500 survey responses received from June 2023 through March 2024 to determine which of the metrics its readers valued most. That allowed U.S. News to weight each metric accordingly. Quality of pay and benefits proved the most influential with a weigh of 23.35%, with the least influential metric being career opportunities and professional development (11.04%).

Founded in 2016, Aveanna Healthcare employs more than 33,000 people and garners $1.92 billion in annual revenue. The company scored highest in professional development, earning five stars. Its lowest score was for the quality of pay metric at two stars.