From Starbucks to Spotify, the 2018 LinkedIn Top Companies represent the companies where professionals most want to work across the U.S. — based on the actions of LinkedIn’s more than 546 million professionals (over 146 million in the U.S. alone). They are respected brands and innovators, and all attract outsize attention by jobseekers.

The Top Companies list is based on the billions of actions taken by LinkedIn members and looks at four main pillars: interest in the company, engagement with the company’s employees, job demand and employee retention. (We exclude LinkedIn and Microsoft from all LinkedIn Lists. You can learn more about our methodology here.)

Join the conversation about this year’s list using #LinkedInTopCompanies.

Here are this year's top 50 companies in the U.S.

Endless expansion: Seattle-based Amazon, the second-largest private employer in the U.S., soon will pick a second headquarters in North America, and the guessing about which city will win has been fierce. Amazon’s offline presence is growing, too, driven by the $13.7 billion purchase of Whole Foods and a move into cashier-less stores, called Amazon Go. Stubbornly frugal, Amazon still sits many employees at bare-bones desks made out of wooden doors — but the desks now can be powered up to standing-desk height. Amazon’s inventors have won more than 2,300 patents since the start of 2017, covering everything from Kindle cases to predictive restaurant ordering.

Global headcount: 566,000

Onboarding, Seattle style: Join Amazon, and you’ll get a 90-minute crash course in Customer Obsession 101 as part of your onboarding, as this feature story attests. There’s some tasty Anchorhead coffee in the back, to keep you alert.

The behemoth: Few companies carry the reach of Google, the largest Alphabet division. The company controls the market for search and, with Facebook, much of digital advertising, too. Not even an internal culture war seems to have dissuaded jobseekers. Google receives 1.1 million applications annually and is planning to open or expand offices in nine states, hiring thousands more, in the coming years. Its enviable perks include free cafes and espresso bars, and at some offices, bouldering walls, sky-high dog parks and indoor fire pits.

Global headcount: 80,110

Who’s near the boss: In a sign of its influence, the team that now sits closest to Google CEO Sundar Pichai at headquarters is Google Brain, the A.I. research lab that could power Google’s next advancements, the New York Times reports.

Building communities: Facebook has dominated headlines — from its alleged mishandling of Russian ads and potential misuse of member data to an announcement that it will overhaul its News Feed. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said its 2 billion monthly users can expect to see more updates from friends and family and less from brands and publications. It’s a risk — Zuckerberg said it could affect engagement in the short run, but that doesn’t seem to be slowing down the social media giant. Facebook is worth over $512 billion and boosted its headcount by 47% last year.

Global headcount: 25,100

Expanding benefits: Facebook extended its bereavement leave policy last year to up to 20 days, a policy developed after Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg suddenly lost her husband.

Island life: Cloud-based business software giant Salesforce encourages employees to partake in its "ohana" culture, which means family in Hawaiian. “When you’re only focused on the product and not on the culture and not on your community, that’s when you can have a problem,” CEO Marc Benioff has said. Thirty-five percent of Salesforce employees are minorities.

Global headcount: 30,000

Taking responsibility: Recode called Benioff a “woke CEO,” with a mission to speak out on social issues. He has called for more government regulation of tech and social media, comparing the industries’ addictive wares to cigarettes. He’s also rejected what’s become a Silicon Valley norm with companies boasting beers on tap in break rooms: Salesforce banned office drinking, calling alcohol a drug whose presence is unfair to some employees.

Supercharged: Tesla doesn’t make small bets, one reason it attracted 500,000 job applicants in 2017. Last year, the company built the world’s biggest battery, while CEO Elon Musk announced plans for electric semis and the world’s fastest production car. Its challenge now is ramping up production of its mass-market Model 3 sedan. Such ambitions require an ever-growing team, from scientists to roofers. Tesla’s known for quick decision-making: Engineers can ship code “without eight layers of approval,” one former employee told LinkedIn.

Global headcount: 37,000

Beats the bus: The automaker started a carpool program that allows employees to drive a Tesla to work — and keep it on weekends. Another notable benefit: Every employee is granted stock, including staffers on the factory floors.

Seeding innovation: Every launch provides new opportunities for fans and competitors to question whether the world’s most valuable brand can keep up the magic. Last year’s $1,000 iPhone X won accolades for its TrueDepth camera but also prompted questions about its price. To better compete with rivals, Apple has been expanding its engineering and IT headcount, which are up 8% and 4% in 2017, respectively, according to LinkedIn data.

Global headcount: 123,000

Apple sauce: Apple employees get a 25% discount on the company's devices. Moms get 18 weeks of paid maternity leave (dads, six weeks), and Apple will pay to freeze your eggs if you're looking to defer parenthood.

Tower of strength: Comcast NBCUniversal, the telecom and entertainment behemoth, hired more than 36,000 new employees last year, attracting them with expanded parental benefits, free Xfinity TV and Internet and even complimentary Universal Studios park passes. This year, the company opens the Comcast Technology Center, the latest work of British starchitect Norman Foster. The $1.5 billion, 1,121-foot tower will be the Philadelphia home for teams of engineers as well as NBC 10, Telemundo 62 and a 217-room Four Seasons.

Global headcount: 164,000

Grabbing gold: At the recent Winter Olympics, NBCUniversal delivered every competitive moment live — more than 2,400 hours of coverage across 102 events over broadcast, virtual reality, 4K (high-resolution) and even Snapchat.

Making magic: Jobseekers looking to be part of the digital media revolution should look no further than the House of the Mouse. Its chief Imagineer, CEO Bob Iger, has been furiously rethinking the fabled media giant. As traditional TV continues to lose viewers to streaming options, Disney has been quickly adapting. It acquired most of 21st Century Fox (pending federal approval) and has plans to launch two streaming services this year, one under the ESPN banner and another for Disney Studio content.

Global headcount: 199,000

Creativity a must: Among many cool job postings, Disney is looking for a Star Wars content strategist, a director of creative innovation for ESPN and a research scientist in A.I./machine learning for Walt Disney Imagineering.

Profit and prophet: Developers and engineers flock to Oracle’s gleaming Redwood Shores campus to contribute to a company that provides enterprise software and hardware for some of the world’s most important businesses (the reach is remarkable: 430,000 customers in 175 countries). In return, employees have access to an "as-needed" sick-time policy, an employee stock purchasing plan as well as on-site dry cleaning, car detailing and oil changes.

Global headcount: 138,000

First class: In January, 550 students walked into the Design Tech High School on Oracle's corporate campus. D.Tech is a public charter school focusing on STEM subjects. Oracle underwrote the $43 million new complex and its employees will work as student mentors.

Netflix and conquer: Netflix is changing how consumers watch (and watch and watch) shows and movies; it’s no surprise that top talent is trying to get in. Thanks to award-winning shows like “The Crown” and “Master of None,” Netflix is now worth more than $100 billion. That value is driven by its 117 million customers around the world, who have stuck around even after recent price hikes. Netflix isn’t slowing down its output anytime soon. The company expects to spend as much as $8 billion this year on content, with plans to release 700 original TV and movie titles.

Global headcount: 5,500

Beyond the perks: “Our version of the great workplace is not comprised of sushi lunches, great gyms, big offices or frequent parties,” says Netflix in its newly updated culture manifesto. “Our version of the great workplace is a dream team in pursuit of ambitious common goals, for which we spend heavily.”

Breaking new ground: Spotify continues to lead the music streaming pack with more than 159 million active users and 71 million subscribers, well ahead of Apple Music’s 36 million subscribers (its closest competitor). It’s cranking things to 11 this year. The company dropped strong hints that it will start producing its own hardware, and plans to go public in the U.S. this April. Spotify has been staffing up to keep up with this growth, recruiting heavily for engineering, information technology and design roles, according to LinkedIn data.

Global headcount: 2,960

Friend of the family: Spotify offers employees six months of paid parental leave, one month of flexible work for returning parents and foots the bill for egg freezing and fertility assistance.

Driving strong growth: Despite a tumultuous year in the headlines, Uber continues its command over both the ride-hailing space and the tech hiring market. Gross revenue grew to $37 billion in 2017, an 85% jump year over year, and global headcount expanded by more than 25% (including new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi). And the road for future growth looks clear after Uber settled a very public lawsuit brought by Alphabet’s Waymo subsidiary, which alleged theft of trade secrets.

Global headcount: 15,000

Fighting bias: Last year saw the release of Uber’s first Diversity Report, which wasn’t a glowing representation of the company’s culture. But execs say they are working on it. New culture norms, outlined in November on LinkedIn by CEO Khosrowshahi, stressed “celebrating differences” and “doing the right thing. Period.”

Gateway to business stardom: For those eyeing the corner office (or power cube), there’s no better launch pad than McKinsey. The prestigious consulting firm is a breeding ground for Fortune 500 C-level titles, counting executives like Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg, Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman and former Boeing CEO James McNerney as alumni. McKinsey is also famous (and, to some, infamous) for its influence within powerful corporations and governments all over the world.

Global headcount: 25,000

Cream of the crop: Getting a spot at McKinsey is no simple feat. The firm is said to receive an estimated 225,000 applicants every year for about 2,000 spots. What are they looking for? “In all 60 countries where we hire, we look for very smart problem solvers,” the company tells LinkedIn.

Designing success: Adobe may be best known for PDFs and Photoshop (which they say are used by more than 90% of the world’s creative professionals), but those are only two of the nearly 100 products Adobe offers in its software lineup. And in recent years, the company has woven in artificial intelligence and machine learning into more than 50 features across the suite via its Sensei framework. Adobe has been on a hiring streak, bringing on 5,000 new employees globally in 2017 with plans to add another 2,000 this year.

Global headcount: 18,000

Parity: Adobe reports it achieved equal pay between male and female employees in the U.S. in late 2017 and in India in January 2018. That brings the company to 80% parity across all employees — they aim for 100% by the end of the year.

Pushing into hotels: With eyes on an IPO, Airbnb is getting both its executive team and business model ready for Wall Street. Along with appointing its first-ever COO, ex-Yahoo exec Belinda Johnson, the company also expanded its reach to boutique hotels and plans to launch a loyalty program this year. Those moves require an ever-growing staff: Airbnb increased its headcount by 13% this past year and is on the hunt for engineering, HR and community manager roles, according to LinkedIn data.

Global headcount: More than 4,000

Cloud-based company: CEO Brian Chesky hinted in a recent interview that he has considered extending into the airline industry, as well. “We’ve seriously considered a lot of things around aviation, and we’ve spent a lot of time exploring different concepts,” he told The Sunday Times last month.

It's (always) showtime: The Department of Justice's move to block the $85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner by AT&T dimmed what was otherwise a banner year for the media and entertainment leader. Time Warner seems unfazed. It landed more than a dozen Oscar nominations (mainly for “Dunkirk”), stowed away shelves full of Emmys and grabbed four Golden Globes earlier this year for “Big Little Lies.” If you love TV and film, Time Warner is a great place to land, no matter how the drama with the DOJ ends.

Global headcount: 25,000

Edifice complex: Next year, Time Warner will move its corporate headquarters — and 5,000 employees — to a brand-new 90-story building in Chelsea that will have the highest outdoor observation deck in New York City.

Still scrappy: While Dell Technologies was founded in 1984 by then 19-year-old Michael Dell, the company still sees itself as a startup. Just a very large one — and one that generated $74 billion in revenue last year operating in 180 countries. Dell likes to fill positions internally but looks for a love of innovation and technology in new hires. It also devotes $4.5 billion annually to R&D investment. The result? The company has 22,275 patents or patent applications.

Global headcount: 140,000

Flexibility first: The Connected Workplace Program — Dell’s highest-rated perk, according to the company — allows employees to work where and when is best for them, focusing on the value of results. The company’s goal is to increase participation to 50% of its workforce by 2020.

Banking on great tech: JP Morgan Chase & Co., the biggest bank in the U.S., has delivered record results seven of the last eight years. CEO Jamie Dimon attributes the company's success to key investments in "people, systems and products." The firm spends billions each year maintaining and upgrading its technology. So, while the company needs to hire bankers, accountants and salespeople, it also has many openings for infrastructure engineers, mobile UX designers and data analysts.

Global headcount: 240,000

Curing healthcare: Early this year, JPMorgan Chase joined up with Amazon and Berkshire Hathaway to address healthcare for their U.S. employees “with the aim of improving healthcare outcomes and employee satisfaction while reducing costs,” the company tells LinkedIn.

A luxury empire: LVMH houses 70 renowned luxury brands, from Louis Vuitton (naturally) to Christian Dior, Sephora, Moët & Chandon and Hennessy cognacs. If you’re looking to work on the cutting edge of retail, LVMH has a glut of opportunities, whether it’s designing the latest fashions or reshaping how we shop. The breadth of the company is intentional: It allows each brand to respond to its particular market, and more importantly, “motivate our employees in the long term by encouraging them to exercise their entrepreneurial spirit.”

Global headcount: 145,000

Training the next generation: Looking to become a master tailor or watchmaker extraordinaire? Since 2014, LVMH’s “Institut des Métiers d’Excellence” has been training aspiring artisans in everything from silversmithing to viticulture.

New frontiers, new collars: The 106-year-old tech giant continues to shift away from its legacy hardware and IT services business lines in favor of cloud computing, A.I. and corporate cybersecurity offerings. To staff up in these high-growth areas, Big Blue has focused on hiring "new collar" workers, employees with nontraditional backgrounds, many of whom are based in parts of the U.S. that lack major tech industry presence.

Global headcount: 378,000

Global service: Employees have a chance to participate in IBM's Corporate Service Corps, a four-month, pro bono program that sends teams of eight to 15 employees all over the world to assist governments, companies and civic organizations with education, healthcare and economic development projects.

The Samsung way: In the past 25 years, Samsung has transformed itself from a low-cost electronics manufacturer with scant brand recognition to an international powerhouse, among the most profitable in tech. One secret: a culture of fast decision-making, notable for an organization with 18,500 employees in the U.S. alone. "For Samsung, speed is a strategy in and of itself," management professors from Seoul National University wrote in a 2014 book on the company. Despite recent scandals, the Korea-based firm continues to report record earnings, helped by memory chip sales, while churning out buzzworthy gadgets such as the Samsung Galaxy S9.

Global headcount: 310,000

Perks-a-plenty: Employees get time off for volunteering, and can enjoy other benefits ranging from back-up daycare services to student loan refinancing.

Great DNA: William Deloitte was the first accountant ever appointed as an independent auditor of a public company (Britain's Great Western Railway in 1849). Today, this Big Four firm does so much more than audits — including A.I., M&As and cybersecurity. This year the firm has plans to hire 70,000 people across the 150 countries and territories in which it operates.

Global headcount: 263,900

Family first: Deloitte has a 16-week family leave option that can be tapped into when employees have a new child, need to care for an ailing spouse or domestic partner or turn their focus to tending a parent.

Live the dream: Telecom giant Verizon has an intriguing offer for prospective employees: "Wake up to your dream job. Every day." From 5G networks to machine learning, Verizon is working to keep its customer churn to a minimum in a business famed for fleeting customer loyalty. It’s also working to keep employee churn low: Verizon offers employees generous tuition assistance, adoption assistance, performance-based incentives and discounts on their voice/data bill and equipment.

Global headcount: 155,400

Brand building: Last year, Verizon rolled out Oath, a content and advertising subsidiary pieced together from its acquisitions of AOL and Yahoo. Oath is looking for designers and developers, writers and editors, and a Paranoids Penetration Tester (information security).

Trading places: Goldman Sachs is going through a transition from a bank built on the back of a (lately stumbling) fixed-income and commodities trading business to one that plays hard in consumer and corporate lending. A proposal to the board indicated that Goldman expects those moves and others would generate an addition $5 billion in revenue in three years. That retooling calls for new people in new places; LinkedIn data, for instance, shows Goldman has been hoovering up finance and trading talent in the fast-growing investment hub of Salt Lake City.

Global headcount: 34,400

Mentoring success: New mothers are offered “maternity mentors” to support them through pregnancy and their return to work, while the Black Analyst Initiative seeks to grow the bank’s pipeline of black professionals by connecting them to a senior leader who serves as a coach.

Numbers that add up: With a client list that includes 419 of the global Fortune 500 companies, PricewaterhouseCoopers is a Big Four firm that goes beyond accounting and Oscar vote tabulation. PwC tells LinkedIn that in addition to looking for accounting and business students, the firm is courting people with backgrounds in STEM, particularly those who have "the ability to derive data and insight from cutting-edge technology." Modern skill sets demand modern work conditions and more than 90% of PwC employees now work flexibly at least some of the time.

Global headcount: 236,235

Debt relief: In 2017, PwC added identity theft protection to a stellar lineup of perks that includes a week off at the end of the year for everyone and a distinctive student loan paydown of $1,200 a year.

See more jobs at PwC

Case management: Consultants at BCG are known for taking on big challenges head on. But the first challenge: Landing a job there. The consultant recruiting process requires multiple rounds of interviews that include a case study often based on an actual BCG client challenge. Is it worth it? Pay, perks (health insurance, for example, that is completely paid for) and professional growth all say "yes."

Global headcount: 14,000

Gender agreement: BCG has doubled the number of female consultants since 2011. The company has fostered mentoring for women partners and has educated managers throughout the company about unconscious bias. It has also increased paid maternity leave to 16 weeks.

See more jobs at BCG

Please welcome to the stage: Entertainment juggernaut Live Nation bills itself as the largest producer of live music concerts, covering everything from promotion and ticketing to the splashy brand sponsorships that light up the arena around your favorite performers. The company offers a range of jobs, from security guards and ushers in concert venues to behind-the-scenes gigs for software engineers and brand marketers (molding the image of the House of Blues, for one).

Global headcount: over 10,000 full-time employees

Paying off: Live Nation is one of the just 3% of companies in the U.S. offering student debt assistance. The company matches employees’ student loan contributions up to $1,200 a year, maxing out at $6,000. Live Nation’s head of HR told USA Today that perks like this matter more than “cool stuff” like free food: “We want to make sure we’re doing things that are substantive.”

Opportunity knocks: Financial services firm Morgan Stanley is coming off a bumper year. The firm saw pre-tax earnings rise 18% and revenue, 10%. But its thirst for talent remains unslaked. Each year, the company fills some 6,500 roles globally, from investment banking to marketing to IT. Morgan Stanley combs the country for new analysts: Recent young recruits have come from nearly 300 colleges and universities.

Global headcount: 57,000

Sticking around: Professionals at Morgan Stanley tend to stay with the firm. The average tenure for employees is 7.6 years, according to LinkedIn data, significantly longer than the 5.1-year average tenure among this year’s Top Companies.

Skilling up: EY is a Big Four accounting firm looking to get much bigger. The company plans to hire 80,000 people (including 20,000 interns) this year. EY is looking for thousands of candidates with unconventional (read: non-financial) backgrounds, including people who focus on data analytics, artificial intelligence, robotics and automation. Last year, the firm rolled out EY Badges, allowing employees to earn digital recognition for new skills such as A.I., data science and data visualization.

Global headcount: 250,000

Parent company: EY offers 16 weeks of parental leave to employees who have welcomed a child through birth, adoption, foster care or legal guardianship and will be the primary caregiver.

A rapid trajectory: The reimbursement landscape hasn’t been kind to medical device makers, but Stryker has been posting impressive growth across products as diverse as knee replacements, surgical tools and spinal implants. The Kalamazoo, Mich.-based company also credits its success to its innovative medical technology, like the Mako robotic arm that’s designed to assist with knee surgeries.

Global headcount: More than 33,000

Wellness at work: Stryker opened an all-new office in Flower Mound, Texas, last year that’s designed with employees’ health in mind. The 89,000-square-foot space features activity-based workspaces (like standing desks), circadian lighting that adjusts based on time of day, a basketball court and healthier food options.

Good intentions: Cisco’s new intent-based networking platform launched last year and can detect malware in encrypted traffic. Described by CEO Chuck Robbins as “the most significant product launch in a decade,” the subscription-only service provides analytics to predict issues before they occur.

Global headcount: 73,711

Growth opportunities: For Cisconians who want to find a new role, the company offers opportunities to swap 20% of their job with someone else — or 100%. “We also allow employees to select their own job title in the employee directory. You never know what job title you may find,” Cisco tells LinkedIn.

Public outing: Following a year of disappointing tech IPOs, Dropbox’s planned initial public offering may be what turns the tide. The cash flow-positive cloud computing storage company, last valued at $10 billion, boasts an impressive 500 million customers and $1 billion in annual revenue. The San Francisco-based tech company is poised for even more growth with its premium product, Dropbox Business, which has more than 200,000 customers and is being hailed by many analysts view as “its most important business going forward.”

Global headcount: About 1,900

Food for thought: Employees refuel at the 4,000-square-foot Dropbox Tuck Shop, where six food stations serve up three meals a day.

Triple threat: The National Basketball Association includes more than just the NBA’s 82-game season and championships. Add the WNBA and the G League, its official minor league, to the mix, and you’ve got the zone covered. Employees in Basketball Operations look after on-court activities, but you can find a bevy of jobs away from the hardwood. An early adopter of social media with plans to incorporate the latest augmented-reality tech into the physical game, the NBA wants people who “live and breathe data” to work in groups like Fan Engagement and Data Strategy.

Global headcount: 1,525

The world’s game: The NBA is headquartered in New York City and New Jersey but has offices in 12 other markets, including China, India and Brazil. The brand has tremendous global reach: 215 countries and territories carry games and programming in 49 languages.

Future focused: A global management consulting firm with clients in 120 countries across 40-plus industries, Accenture sees its role as helping the world's biggest companies with their biggest problems. To make sure its employees are up to that challenge, Accenture spent nearly a billion dollars last year in instruction and professional development to help its workforce stay atop areas such as cloud, robotics and A.I. It also acquired 37 new businesses, including firms with expertise in information security and Agile development.

Global headcount: 411,000

Game on: Accenture developed a 25-level video game app, Sky Journey, in which players run an airport using real business solutions developed by the firm.

Just do it: The ubiquitous swoosh is instantly recognizable, underscoring Nike’s claim to be the world’s largest seller of athletic footwear and apparel. The reigning champ employs everyone from retail workers and designers to digital positions like Director, Data Telemetry and Experimentation. While many top Nike executives have been with the company for decades, a recent management shake-up stemming from inappropriate workplace behavior has thrown off the company's CEO succession plan and sparked a review of its HR systems and internal complaint process.

Global headcount: 74,400

Home team advantage: Nike is five years into an expansion of its Beaverton, Ore., headquarters that covers more than 4 million square feet and includes start-of-the-art facilities “inspired by movement.” Employees will enjoy a 47,000-square-foot fitness center named after Coach Mike Krzyzewski.

Beyond office walls: WeWork is working on its reach. It snapped up Lord & Taylor's Fifth Avenue flagship store as its new headquarters, acquired Meetup and broke into the fitness space, demonstrating its commitment to being about more than coworking. Still, coworking is the key to its success: It now has 230 coworking spaces used by more than 210,000 members in 21 countries, and added more than 2,200 employees worldwide in 2017 alone. Expect more locations to pop up in Asia, where the company already has a standalone China unit and has invested $500 million to push into Southeast Asia and Korea.

Global headcount: About 4,500

Working for the weekend: Employees get to attend an all-inclusive weekend getaway — dubbed Summer Camp — that’s meant to highlight the diversity of the WeWork community (members can purchase a ticket to join in on the fun). Last year’s Summer Camp in the United Kingdom at a country estate included morning yoga, roller disco parties and art projects.

Multidiscipline: The Chicago-based hedge fund started in Ken Griffin’s Harvard dorm room in 1990. It now has over $28 billion in assets under management. Citadel, the only hedge fund to make the list, believes in bringing software engineers, data scientists and finance veterans together to predict (and capitalize on) market trends. “Citadel after hours,” a program to help colleagues connect, has included buyouts of “Hamilton” performances in New York City and Chicago.

Global headcount: More than 1,600

Data-driven: Modeling its hiring process on the NFL and NASA, one way Citadel recruits is by hosting university competitions where students solve complex data problems for an opportunity to win $25,000 — and an interview slot.

Historical year: In 2017, Kering (formerly Pinault-Printemps-Redoute) became the world's second- largest luxury brand, behind LVMH and ahead of Richemont. Its revenue crossed the €15 billion mark, its highest ever, driven by Gucci, Saint-Laurent and Balenciaga. It has also been hiring to keep pace with that growth, expanding its headcount by 8% in the U.S. over the last year.

Global headcount: 44,000

Closing the gap: Kering was one of the first companies to sign onto the UN Women’s Empowerment Principles and has consciously promoted women to top positions: seven of its 11 board members are women. This trickles down through perks like flexible hours, telecommuting options and a global 14-week minimum maternity or adoption leave.

Tackling tough topics: The National Football League took a few hits this year. A former star player’s tragedy and some alarming studies added to the growing concern for player safety. In addition, the league leadership was reluctantly dragged into a culture war over player protests during the National Anthem. Even with TV ratings down, the NFL still laid claim to 37 of last year's top 50 broadcasts, according to Nielsen, and grew its 2017 headcount in media and communications by 11% and in marketing by 16%, according to LinkedIn data.

Global headcount: 2,500

Rooney Rule: In 2003, the NFL adopted a rule that NFL teams have to interview at least one minority candidate for head-coaching vacancies when an in-house successor was not named in advance. The rule has been applied across NFL jobs, according to Robert Gulliver, NFL’s chief human resources officer — not just for coaches.

Seamless payments: Square focuses on improving every step of a transaction — whether it’s providing sellers with a fully integrated register, giving people the ability to store and transfer money (yes, even Bitcoin), or reducing the time at checkout it takes for your chip card to process (i.e. going from 4.2 seconds down to 3.6 seconds — that’s 14% faster).

Global headcount: 2,000

Entrepreneurial spirit: Square’s employees learn to put themselves in their customers’ shoes from the first day. At the company’s orientation, dubbed “Square One,” new hires have to navigate everything that comes with running a business, from figuring out employee payroll to taking out a loan.

Vote of confidence: A global leader in “hire-to-retire” HR solutions, ADP staved off a bid last fall by activist investor William Ackman for three board seats. The vote signaled that shareholders believe the company is in a good place — its stock price has doubled in five years and revenues have risen to $12 billion a year. Today, it helps 39 million workers get paid punctually. Earlier this year, the outsourcing pioneer acquired WorkMarket, which has developed a platform that helps companies manage freelancers, consultants and contributors.

Global headcount: 58,400

Paying it forward: ADP gives employees paid time off to share their skills and expertise with nonprofits. The ADP Foundation will match employee charitable donations, dollar per dollar, up to $3,000 each year.

Beyond the bank: Capital One is one of the largest banks in the U.S., but it thinks the key to getting even bigger is watching trends in tech and consumer services. Last year it launched Tech College, a program designed to keep thousands of employees up-to-date on cutting-edge technology skills, including machine learning and cybersecurity. “We truly are doing the unexpected,” said Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer Meghan Welch. “We’re transforming our industry, we’re transforming the expectations customers have of their bank, and that’s all fueled and powered by technology.”

Global headcount: 49,300

Office guidance: Capital One built an app for employees to navigate and engage with their physical workspace. It provides them with on-demand access to everything from locating office snacks to booking conference rooms.

#Everywhere: Last year, Twitter became the de facto way the world learned where the U.S. was headed, thanks to President Trump’s embrace of the service. But the social network known for brevity has been expanding beyond just celebrity — and not just by doubling its character limit. It has launched innovative partnerships like TicToc by Bloomberg, a live-streaming 24-hour global news network. Twitter isn’t slowing down anytime soon: It says 2018 will be an investment year with plans to drive engagement and grow its sales team.

Global headcount: 3,800

On-the-job learning: A senior engineering manager who recently joined the company wrote that “Twitter’s invested over 60 hours in my development,” including courses in everything from code reviews to interview training to transgender allyship.

Beyond storage: Three years after Box’s lackluster IPO, CEO Aaron Levie is out to teach the world that the company is more than just a file storer. It’s now a content management platform with new products like an A.I. multimedia toolkit and services like a consulting unit called Box Transform. The company, which has 80,000 paying customers, also just had its first full cash flow-positive year.

Global headcount: 1,500

Focus on skills: No four-year degree? No problem. Box updated its job descriptions to only include qualifications that are necessary to be successful in the role. Having relevant skills is a “must-have;” graduating from a university is not.

A diversified business model: While J&J might be best known for its consumer health and beauty products (think Tylenol, Aveeno and Neutrogena), its financial strength last year grew from its strong pharmaceutical business, including drugs for blood clots, psoriasis and cancer. The New Brunswick, N.J.-based company also has a thriving medical device business in ophthalmology, electrophysiology and wound care.

Global headcount: More than 125,000

Benefits that are equally diversified: J&J’s suite of benefits include a host of offerings that make family life a bit easier for employees. Perks include $20,000 in financial assistance for adoption or surrogacy, 17 weeks of paid parental leave and breastmilk shipping for mothers who travel for work. Pet parents can take advantage of pet insurance for their fur babies.

More stores than ever: The Seattle-based coffee chain, which now has more U.S. locations than McDonald’s, is betting on brick and mortar. Last year the company shuttered its online store to double down on its mobile app and in-person experience at its 14,000 U.S. stores. To keep up with upscale competitors like Blue Bottle, Starbucks also plans to open 1,000 marketplace-like locations — complete with a full liquor bar — under the fancy Starbucks Reserve banner.

Global headcount: 277,000

Hire purpose: Ex-CEO Howard Schultz (who is now executive chairman) committed to hiring 10,000 refugees by 2022 in response to President Trump’s immigration policies. Last year the company pledged to hire 25,000 U.S. veterans and military spouses by 2025. What hasn’t changed? Eligible full-time and part-time employees (yes, even baristas) still get full tuition reimbursement when working toward a bachelor's degree at Arizona State University.

Water fight: "You'll be at the center of excitement," PepsiCo pledges to prospective employees, "shaping global trends like nowhere else." Does the food and beverage giant make good on that promise? Well, its products are enjoyed in 200 countries, and 22 of its brands — including Pepsi, Gatorade, Fritos, Doritos and Ruffles — each generate more than $1 billion in annual sales. Which takes a lot of salespeople. But many of the 22,000 hires the company plans to make this year will be in areas such as e-commerce, insights and health safety.

Global headcount: 260,000

Staging a comeback: Last year, PepsiCo rolled out Ready to Return, a pilot 10-week internship program designed for professionals looking to return to the workforce after taking at least two years off.

Exclusive Club: JLL — a commercial real estate firm with $6.8 billion in revenue — oversees high-profile projects like the upcoming Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. It wants its employees to feel just as excited about their own offices. Crain's Chicago Business named JLL's remodeled headquarters one of the city's coolest offices, citing the two-story employee space — called the Club — with views of Lake Michigan.

Global headcount: 82,000

Captain America works here: Roger Staubach, the former Heisman Trophy winner and Super Bowl MVP, is JLL's executive chairman. So, that job's taken. But JLL is still looking to staff up its operations, business development, and program and project management teams. For those already in the door, a simplified end-of-the-year employee rating system makes it easier for managers to recognize high performers.

Data for good: Tableau creates interactive data visualization products to help even those helpless at Excel make sense of large data sets. But Tableau’s work extends far beyond customers. In 2017, more than half of the Seattle-based company’s employees were involved in the Tableau Foundation, which leverages the company’s expertise in data viz to solve real-world problems. In the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, for example, company volunteers used location data scraped from social media calls for help to build the Harvey Rescue Map, which helped responders rescue thousands of people.

Global headcount: 3,489

Make art: Tableau’s Data Artist helps users create beautiful data visualizations. If you want a job making interactive visuals look like gallery-worthy art, this could be your dream gig.

Smart technology: Another fast mover in the medical device space, Abbott’s portfolio includes products like a cardiac device that allow physicians to track heart data remotely and a continuous blood sugar monitor that could drastically reduce the number of fingersticks diabetics need.

Global headcount: 99,000

Supporting employees in times of crisis: When Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, Abbott had 1,300 employees and 400 contractors on the island. The Chicago-based company quickly mobilized to provide everything from batteries and bug spray to financial assistance through its not-for-profit Clara Abbott Foundation. Employees also had the option to work on an every-other-day schedule while they focused on rebuilding their homes and communities.

Reporting by: George Anders, Bruce Anderson, Sandrine Chauvin, Amy Chen, Sasha Costello, Chip Cutter, Caroline Fairchild, Susy Jackson, Ross Krasner, Beth Kutscher, Lorraine Lee, Laura Lorenzetti, Scott Olster and Ashley Peterson.

Share the full list and your thoughts on this year's Top Companies list using #LinkedInTopCompanies.

LinkedIn data sourced from LinkedIn Premium Business Insights. Photo credits: Getty Images, Associated Press and the companies.

Correction: It’s the National Basketball Association, not the National Basketball League. Live Nation's headcount was misstated; it is over 10,000 full-time employees.