Fortune has released its Best Companies to Work For list for 2026 and we just realized we didn’t cover it at all last year. Shrug, it’s all just marketing anyway. But we did cover it the year before and just like in 2024, it’s the humble not-so-little Southfield, Michigan favorite Plante Moran who’s got bragging rights as the highest ranked accounting firm on the list.
As for the four biggest accounting firms in the world, partners and accounting students with intern offers who constantly name drop their firm will be happy to hear all four made the list. Deloitte made it the highest this year, taking that distinction back from PwC who topped 2025’s list at #20.
Wow PwC’s got a little dark for a second there didn’t it?
Other notable entries on the list, in numerical order:
8. Accenture
37. Ryan, LLC
38. Intuit
39. Bain & Company
40. BDO USA
In case you’re wondering how these rankings are calculated, give the methodology a look. TLDR Great Place To Work collects and analyzes employee surveys.
Using our proprietary Trust Index™ survey, we measure the core of what we know creates great workplaces — key behaviors that drive trust in management, connection with colleagues, and loyalty to the company.
The survey enables employees to share confidential quantitative and qualitative feedback about their organization’s culture by responding to 60 statements on a five-point scale and answering two open-ended questions.
Employees tell us whether leaders are accessible, communicate honestly and clearly, and if their actions match their words. They tell us whether they feel respected as individuals, if they receive training benefits, appreciation, support for their well-being and opportunities to contribute. They tell us whether they believe their company is fair related to pay, profits, promotions, recognition, favoritism and opportunities. They tell us if they are proud of their work, their team, and their company and if they feel they make a difference, and their work is meaningful. And they tell us whether they enjoy the people they work with, feel cared for and can be themselves.
List rankings are based on this employee feedback, which we analyze to determine the extent to which this experience is shared by the full workforce. Great Place To Work measures the differences in survey responses across demographic groups and roles within each organization to assess both the quality and consistency of the employee experience. Statements are weighted according to their relevance in describing the most important aspects of an equitable workplace.
Now that you’ve read that, give their privacy policy a quick look. Surveys are supposed to be anonymous, just don’t go writing a bunch of bad stuff that can be traced back to you in those open-ended questions.
For those of you who’ve taken these surveys, are you honest?
