The country was in the middle of the pandemic when Forbes began the process of making its third annual list of America’s Best Employers by State.
So, perhaps it’s only fitting that, of the 30 companies selected to represent New Jersey, 15 of them were primarily based in health care, whether it was as a hospital system, pharmaceutical company or part of the medical testing community.
Forbes partnered with market research company Statista to compile the final list of 1,330 companies — divided into 51 rankings, one for each of the 50 states, plus the District of Columbia.
The list was compiled by surveying 80,000 Americans working for businesses with at least 500 employees. Surveys were conducted on a rolling basis from October 2020 to June 2021 and were anonymous, allowing participants to freely share their opinions.
Barry Ostrowsky, CEO of RWJBarnabas Health, said the system was proud to be honored for the second consecutive year.
“As New Jersey’s largest private employer — with more than 35,000 employees, 9,000 physicians and 1,000 residents and interns — inclusion on the list for the second consecutive year is confirmation of our commitment to providing a supportive and inclusive working environment for all our employees, especially throughout the ongoing challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.
“I continue to be proud of and grateful to every employee for their dedication to providing quality, compassionate care during these difficult times. Through their heroic efforts, we continue to advance our mission of addressing both the clinical and social determinants of health to create and sustain healthy communities throughout New Jersey.”
Dennis Lennon, vice president, human resources, at Atlantic Health System, another organization on the list, said it was honored by the recognition.
“For many of our team members, choosing a career in health care was a decision to answer a calling to serve their communities,” he said. “Our obligation to every one of our 18,000 doctors, nurses and caregivers is to provide them with an extraordinary workplace that fosters trust, inclusion and creativity and encourages them to be their unique selves as they join their fellow team members in building healthier communities.”
New Jersey had 90 companies on its list — but only 30 were headquartered in the state. The rest had a significant presence. For purposes of this content item, we counted only those headquartered in the state.
A look at the 30 companies honored, divided into those primarily focused on health care and others:
Health care:
- Merck (Kenilworth)
- Johnson & Johnson (New Brunswick)
- Inspira Health (Mullica Hill)
- Becton Dickinson (Franklin Lakes)
- Sanofi (Bridgewater)
- RWJBarnabas Health (West Orange)
- CareOne (Fort Lee)
- Bayada Home Health Care (Pennsauken)
- Atlantic Health System (Morristown)
- Cooper University Health Care (Camden)
- Virtua (Marlton)
- University Hospital (Newark)
- Novartis (East Hanover)
- Hackensack Meridian Health (Edison)
- Quest Diagnostics (Secaucus)
Other sectors:
- Public Service Enterprise Group (Newark)
- Princeton University (Princeton)
- Educational Testing Service (Princeton)
- Selective Insurance (Branchburg)
- Cherry Hill Public Schools (Cherry Hill)
- New Jersey Transit (Newark)
- NJM Insurance (West Trenton)
- ADP (Roseland)
- Prudential Financial (Newark)
- Rutgers University (New Brunswick)
- Cognizant (Teaneck)
- State of New Jersey (Trenton)
- CommVault Systems (Tinton Falls)
- Wakefern (Keasbey)
- Konica Minolta (Ramsey)
