VA earns honors as one of “America’s Best Employers” for 2022

VA recently earned the honor of being named one of America’s Best Employers in 2022. The distinction was announced by Forbes in early February.

Determining rankings

To develop the rankings for America’s Best Employers 2022, Forbes partnered with market research firm Statista to independently survey 60,000 Americans working for businesses with at least 1,000 workers.

Participants were asked to rate their willingness to recommend their employers to friends and family. These evaluations also included references to other employers in their respective industries, and whether those comments stood out either positively or negatively.

In total, 1,000 employers were recognized across 25 different industry sectors, including health care, retail, education, manufacturing, engineering, information technology and government services. The list was then divided into two rankings: 500 large and 500 mid-size employers.

What makes a top employer

Two years of the COVID-19 pandemic has transformed the career priorities of many Americans. Whether working virtually from home or reporting to a physical location, how we perceive our jobs and how we decide what makes an employer a good fit for us has changed dramatically. Those changes have impacted what makes a top employer, too.

The pandemic has, of course, taken its toll on health care workers. Since mid-February 2020, nearly one in five U.S. health care workers has quit. Reasons include burnout, not enough pay and limited opportunities. Another 12% have been laid off, according to a survey completed in October 2021.

Despite these problems, the health care sector ranked highly among respondents to the Forbes/Statista survey. Medical providers dominated the ranking of large employers – with many hospital workers saying performing purposeful work fulfilled them.

“I don’t think there’s anything that I’m more proud of than the fact that, in the midst of the pandemic, VA didn’t weaken or slow down,” said VA Secretary Denis McDonough during a recent visit to the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center in Charleston, South Carolina. “No, VA got strong and took care of Vets when they needed it most.”

The VA difference

More than 9 million Veterans count on VA for quality health care, and we start every day with a fresh commitment to make life better for the men and women who protected our country. It’s our mission, and we know it’s up to all of us to make sure Veterans can enjoy the health and happiness they deserve.

But being a top employer also means making sure employees are well cared for, engaged, supported and empowered to provide Veterans with timely access to world-class health care. We’re moving forward with major steps to make every VA job a good job.

Steps we are taking include:

• Working with Congress to raise pay, maximize bonuses and increase incentives for employees to stay on.
• Increasing opportunities by growing future leaders and opening the door for higher general schedule grades and promotions.
• Speeding the hiring process by better leveraging hiring authorities and improving the national onboarding process.
• Offering greater flexibility to work outside the traditional workspace whenever and wherever possible.
• Helping cover the cost of child care by increasing the income cap to receive a child care subsidy through VA.
• Investing in measures to improve well-being by listening to employees and developing recommendations for how to address burnout, promote work-life balance and more.

Work at VA

Come for the mission, stay for the benefits, and join one of America’s Best Employers by taking the first steps toward your VA career.

• READ more about America’s Best Employers.
• EXPLORE what it means to work at VA.
• LEARN about our careers and culture.
• SEARCH for a VA career near you.