Dive Brief:

• Ultimate Software, Workday, Inc., Salesforce, World Wide Technology, Inc. and SAP America ranked as the top five best places to work in technology for large businesses, according to a survey of more than 79,000 employees and 40 companies conducted by Great Place to Work.

• The small to medium sized businesses were lead by Asana, SendGrid, KnowBe4, Inc., BambooHR and Service Express, Inc.

• The survey also found that just under 70% of hourly workers feel there are few to no innovation opportunities at work, and just over 60% of African American workers said the same. When innovation experiences are available, employees are twice as likely to understand fairness in promotions and feel that "management involves them in decisions" and pays them fairly.

Dive Insight:

Notable names on the list include VMWare, Cisco and Dropbox, but notably absent from the list were some of Silicon Valley's largest: Microsoft, Google and Facebook, to name a few. 

Retaining employees is just as important as attracting new employees, and companies increase attractiveness with flexible schedules, incentives and ample insurance offerings. Employee retention can offset the cost of training because training for new employees at small to medium-sized businesses can range between $290,000 and $3 million annually.

Employees are three times more likely to show "confidence" in their leadership if they are involved in innovative initiatives, according to the survey. Transparent business models often results in a clear pathway to overcoming the cost function perception of IT.

However, when businesses are technical, innovation and creativity are often the result of company culture.

A healthy company culture directly impacts employee engagement. Engaged employees are 21% more productive than those who are not. Companies with engaged employees, such as the winners of this survey, have the potential to outperform competitors by 202%.