The University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) ranked No. 6 overall in Maryland and No. 2 among higher education institutions in the state in Forbes magazine’s survey of the Best Employers by State, which was released Aug. 21.
Seventy organizations in Maryland were singled out in the survey, with NASA, Microsoft, and Wegmans Food Markets ranking 1-2-3, respectively, and the University of Maryland, College Park at No. 4. General Dynamics was ranked fifth.
Other higher education institutions on the Maryland list were Towson (No. 17), the Community College of Baltimore County (No. 25), and Johns Hopkins University (No. 26). The University of Maryland Medical System ranked No. 20.
To create the list, Forbes partnered with market research firm Statista to survey more than 160,000 employees who work for a company of at least 500 people within the United States. Survey respondents — hailing from all 50 states and Washington D.C. — were asked how likely they were to recommend their employer on a scale of 0 to 10 and were asked to evaluate their workplace based on criteria including wage parity, work culture, paths to professional advancement and whether the employer takes action on serious issues, such as sexual harassment. Participants also were asked to evaluate their previous employers (within the last two years) and organizations they knew within their industry or through friends or family who work there.
Responses were tallied and incorporated into a scoring system, along with survey data from the past three years. Greater weight was given to the more recent data and to the responses from current employees within the state. Companies that received the highest scores in each state made our final lists, with each state ranking between three and 102 employers, depending on the size of the state and the number of responses received. Some employers were ranked in multiple states.
Ultimately, 1,417 companies made it onto at least one of the Forbes state lists, which yielded a combined 2,500 rankings.