How we compiled the 2022 edition of Best Workplaces for Innovators

For the fourth year, Fast Company is recognizing more than 100 organizations, leaders, and teams that have created cultures of innovation in 2022. Despite fierce headwinds (an increasingly distributed workforce, the Great Resignation, supply chain challenges), the companies on this year’s Best Workplaces for Innovators list found ways to collaborate and invent. Working with our research partner, Accenture, here’s how we selected these companies. METHODOLOGY Between January 13 and March 25, 2022, more than 900 companies applied to Best Workplaces for Innovators, detailing a particular example of internal innovation and answering questions about investment, company-wide programs and processes, and workplace culture with an emphasis on DE&I initiatives. All applicants were assessed separately by Fast Company editors and Accenture researchers, and the two sets of scores were then combined to create a ranked list. The judging panel reviewed the top 125 companies and reached consensus on the No. 1 company. All category applications (more than 600 in total) were judged solely by Fast Company editors. JUDGING PANEL Saikat Chaudhuri, faculty director, Management, Entrepreneurship, & Technology Program, University of California, Berkeley Paul Daugherty, group chief executive of technology and CTO, Accenture Stephanie Mehta, CEO, Mansueto Ventures Kristin Reilly, chief people officer, Wonder Jana Rich, founder, Rich Talent Group Stefan Seiler, group head of human resources, UBS Jordan Taylor, cofounder and CEO, Medley