Best Places to Work in IT 2026 – Computerworld

Top 10: Retention & Engagement

Fostering deeper connections and employee well-being

Diversity efforts continue despite backlash

Organizations are still taking steps to foster belonging and encourage diverse perspectives across their IT teams, despite political backlash over formal diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies. This year’s honorees cited a wide variety of initiatives to promote diverse company cultures, including efforts that celebrate employee differences (88%), recruitment strategies aimed at attracting diverse employees (83%), and formal diversity and inclusion training (80%). Initiatives to create employee resource groups based on common goals and interests rose this year, reaching 91%, compared to 86% in 2024. However, just 35% of the companies supported internships targeting women and minorities this year, compared to 50% last year.

Data Intensity, the No. 7 small company in this year’s survey, takes diversity seriously, given the global nature of its remote-first IT workforce, which is spread across the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and India. The managed services provider specializing in Oracle solutions has launched several employee resource groups and holds regular diversity events.

Co-CEO/technology chief Clint Harder takes diversity efforts a step further by working in the company’s Hyderabad, India, office for one to two months every year. “It helps me understand cultural differences, so we can acknowledge the differences and figure out a way to use them to our advantage,” Harder says. “Being face to face with that team helps them understand that I believe in them and appreciate the cultural differences.”

Top 10: Workplace Culture

A commitment to foster belonging and encour­age diverse perspectives

Minority representation in IT is down year over year, to 32% this year from 36% in 2025. But ongoing efforts to entice more women into the IT workforce seem to be working. Women made up 30% of the IT workforce among the respondents this year, up from 27% last year. The percentage of women IT managers is also climbing, reaching 31% this year, compared to 26% in 2025.

At Dayforce, around half of the 40 or so IT managers are women, with nearly the same ratio for the full IT staff. Rasmussen says the company is very intentional about diversity in hiring — selecting an equal number of male and female candidates for interviews whenever possible and giving all of the company’s hiring leaders access to unconscious-bias training to ensure that they are equipped to make objective and inclusive hiring decisions.

The company’s virtual-first policy, which doesn’t require people to be in-office, also helps attract and retain women employees. “Some women opt out of the workforce because they don’t have flexibility,” says Rasmussen. “We are committed to helping them balance their personal and work lives.” — Beth Stackpole

Profiles of three Best Places companies

The Best Places to Work in IT 2026

See the top workplaces for tech pros at large, midsize, and small organizations.

Large organization rankings

5,000 or more employees

Midsize organization rankings

1,001–4,999 employees

Small organization rankings

1,000 or fewer employees

How we chose the best places to work

Computerworld conducted the 32nd annual survey to identify the best places to work for IT professionals. On April 15, 2025, it began accepting nominations from organizations that met the following criteria: a minimum of 100 total employees and at least five IT employees.

Beginning on April 15, 2025, prior program participants and newly nominated organizations received a 59-question company survey covering a variety of topics, including workplace culture, IT growth, workplace modernization, IT employee retention and engagement strategies, benefits, and IT career development and training opportunities. The survey included a mix of closed- and open-ended questions.

The nomination and company surveys were conducted online. The responses to the company survey were collected and tabulated by a third-party research vendor, Research Results, Inc., in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. The company survey closed at the end of July 2025.

For the purposes of this program, small companies are those with 1,000 or fewer employees, midsize companies those with 1,001 to 4,999 employees, and large companies those with 5,000 or more employees.

Scoring the responses from the company survey involved weighting the results in accordance with an established scoring system that was reviewed internally and vetted by a panel of industry veterans from within and outside of Computerworld/Foundry.

The survey process was managed by Jen Garofalo, research director in Foundry’s Global Services group.

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