Stamford's Synchrony is Only CT Company Ranked Among 100 Best Places to Work

The 2021 edition of the 100 Best Companies to Work For, published annually by Fortune magazine, showed that only a single Connecticut company earned a place in the rankings. Synchrony, a financial services company based in Stamford, stood alone among Connecticut companies, and ranked number 37 on the list.

For Synchrony, with just over 9,000 U.S.-based employees, the ranking reflected continuing progress compared with its corporate peers. It has moved up from number 44 in 2020, and number 51 in 2019. Among workplaces in the financial services and insurance sector, Synchrony ranked at number 12. The company has just over 16,000 employees worldwide. 

Officials indicated that during the past year, management increased health benefits, including those for mental health, and expanded financial support for parents and caregivers.

According to Fortune’s research data, 92% of employees say management is competent at running the business, and an equal percentage say the company is a great place to work, compared with 59% at a typical U.S.-based company.  In addition, 96% of employees indicated that “when you join the company, you are made to feel welcome,” and 94% of employees say they “feel good about the ways we contribute to the community.”

The company’s workforce demographics include 57% female, 43% male; 56% while, 20% Black, 12% Hispanic; 42% Generation X, 38% Millennials, 16% Baby Boomers, according to Synchrony’s most recent ESG Report. 

In 2020, Synchrony joined the bipartisan Make Time to Vote initiative and supported the Business Roundtable in calling for flexible, paid time off for voting. Synchrony also continued its partnership with the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness, committing to donate $500,000 over two years to BE HOMEFUL, a project that supports keeping families housed rather than entering the shelter system. And for the fifth year in a row in 2020, Synchrony hosted the Girls Who Code Summer Immersion Program (SIP) at three corporate sites in the U.S., including in Stamford.

“In September 2020, Synchrony reimagined the way our employees would work post-pandemic and made the bold decision to turn what was a temporary work arrangement into a long-term one. Simply put, we transformed our team of over 16,500 employees working from home into an energized, engaged, remote workforce,” the company explained.  Among its community-oriented responses to COVID, Synchrony doubled its match of employee charitable contributions to nonprofit organizations from 1:1 to 2:1 and awarded employees $500 reimbursement for home office set-up if they chose to work from home permanently.

Across industries, with a significant shift in workplace operations during the past year due to the pandemic, the Fortune survey revised its methodology significantly.

“We weighted 40% of this year’s score on how each company stepped up to support their people and communities, taking into account how significantly they were impacted by the pandemic; and 60% on employees’ confidential survey responses,” Fortune officials indicated.

Nationally, the tope 10 were Cisco, Salesforce, Hilton, Wegmanns, Rocket, UKG, Texas Health Resources, Camden Property Trust, Capital One and American Express.

With more than $149 billion in sales financed and 75.5 million active accounts, Synchrony highlights its “deep industry expertise, actionable data insights, innovative solutions and differentiated digital experiences” which aim to “improve the success of every business we serve and the quality of each life we touch.”

Companies must employ at least 1,000 workers in the U.S. to be considered for the ranking. The study is conducted by analytics firm Great Place to Work, which surveys over 500,000 employees to obtain the data to make the ranking.