The 100 Best Companies to Work for in Israel

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How we ranked the top 100 companies to work for:

The ranking, which was performed for Haaretz’s TheMarker Magazine by CofaceBDI, is based on opinion surveys of about 300,000 employees in Israel, as well as employer data from the 12 months ending December 2021.

The ranking is based on several weighted sets of data: internal employee surveys at more than 100 companies; a comprehensive survey of human-resources directors at leading companies; and figures provided by those companies regarding their own employment conditions.

The ranking represents a mix of scores that employees gave their own workplaces as well as their opinions and perceptions of other companies, based on their answers regarding where they preferred to work. The survey was conducted over the course of the year, and throughout the country, in order to avoid bias and ensure the results encompass a wide range of opinion. The final results are adjusted based on the relative size of the companies.

The ranking methodology is primarily the result of company employee surveys, which were carried out at no charge. Very few companies disallowed their employees to participate in the survey: 98 of the 100 ranked companies permitted their workers to participate.

In an effort to rank the most important workplace parameters for Israeli employees, a preliminary survey was conducted among a representative sample of employees (more than 2,000). Researchers then conducted the full survey of roughly 300,000 employees, the results of which were weighted according to that preliminary survey.

High tech, high tech, high tech: That’s the message of this year’s ranking of the best places to work in Israel. Tech companies captured the list’s top rungs, winning seven of the top 10. All told, 41 of the 100 companies on the list are in the sector.

High tech has been hot for years, and in large measure it defines the job market in Israel. Either you’re a high-tech employee – or you’re not. And if you’re not, there’s a fair chance you’re wondering why your pay is so low and how much you would be getting for that same job if you were only able to reach the Promised Land.

Israel’s business press has covered the sector’s record highs, and the industry has bitten back as well. But when the popular Israeli satirical television show “Eretz Nehederet” (A Wonderful Country) addressed the subject, it was obvious that a broader cultural phenomenon here had entered deep into the mainstream. The show’s skits were entertaining, but companies across a broad swath of sectors were less than amused, and have been racking their brains as to how they might stem employee defections to high-tech jobs where conditions are better.

Places less prominent than “Eretz Nehederet” – the Knesset, for example – have also fueled interest in high tech. Foreign Minister Yair Lapid has repeatedly expressed his ambitious vision for a million Israelis in the sector. And the government itself plans on adding 170,000 new high-tech positions by 2026, as part of a goal that high tech employ 15 percent of the Israeli workforce.

As of January, 370,000 Israelis were employed in high tech at an average salary of 27,310 shekels ($8,000) per month, the Central Bureau of Statistics reported. The average salary in Israel as a whole was 11,784 shekels at that same time.

Tech-ish

Microsoft Israel, whose image has undergone a thorough makeover in recent years, has competed formidably for the country’s top talent and took the ranking’s top spot for the third straight year.

For its part, Salesforce, which debuted on the 2020 list, jumped 12 slots to 3rd place in 2021. The U.S.-based software firm, which trades on Wall Street at a value of some $178 billion, has more than 700 employees in Israel.

But the biggest jump from the prior year – from 92nd to 40th – was achieved by Tipalti, which develops supplier payment-automation solutions. The company raised $270 million in December at a total company valuation of $8.3 billion, and it has a global workforce of nearly 1,000 people, including 350 in Israel.

The prominent non-tech outliers in the top 10 hail from the financial sector – Direct Insurance and Bank Hapoalim. In the prior year’s results, Direct came in second to Microsoft, but it slipped three spots in 2021 – and also slipped 3 percent in its net profits for the year. The top 10 are rounded out by Israel’s largest government-owned company, and one of the country’s largest employers: the Israel Electric Corporation. Apparently, some things never change.

COVID-19 and Stability

The rankings are based on surveys of hundreds of thousands of employees and on employer data obtained over the course of 2021. Companies that did not participate in the survey are marked with an asterisk in the rankings: Google (at No. 13) and Intel (at No. 18). Their placement in the 11-20 range attests to their continuing ability to attract employees even despite their drop in the rankings.

While the Israel Electric Corporation managed place in the Top Ten, two other public-sector companies dropped like a stone. Israel Police plummeted 46 spots to No. 96, and the Ashdod Port sank 26 notches to No. 86.

One clear advantage of working in the public sector is stability and industry calm, but these have evidently become less important issues for workers. In the 2020 rankings, employees faced threats from the coronavirus pandemic and ranked employment stability as their third-most important parameter. But fear of instability appears to have faded, as that criterion has since fallen to 6th place while self-fulfillment and professional challenges have again risen to the fore.

The public sector needs to figure out how these issues can be addressed, and how these workplaces might give employees greater flexibility, if they wish to attract employees and staunch the flow of senior staff people to private companies.

In more insights gleaned from the 2021 results, the financial sector saw a sharp drop in rankings. For instance Israel Credit Cards, also known as Cal, slipped 18 spots to No. 41, and Bank Leumi and Phoenix Insurance each fell by 15 slots, to No. 33 and 58, respectively. Still, Migdal and Clal Insurance moved in the opposite direction, respectively climbing 22 and 19 spots. Phoenix has a relatively skilled workforce, which makes the firm vulnerable to losing staff to higher-ranked high-tech companies.

Early efforts to address this stiff competition can be seen in an April announcement by the Isracard credit-card company, which said it would provide up to 60 million shekels in stock options to its employees over a three-year period. The firm, which returned to its pre-pandemic revenue levels in 2021, slipped seven spots on this year’s list, and it remains to be seen whether its options offer will increase the company’s attractiveness in the coming year.