Discover Story Rich Workplaces

Nashville Edition

5 min readNov 16, 2020

This is the first release of our new program to find story rich and culture strong companies in America.

New insight for Job-Seekers. More visibility for values-driven cultures.

Do you want to grow your career with a company whose culture is focused on helping employees at all levels thrive and succeed?

One sign to look for is whether or not a company and leadership are committed to delivering a positive employee experience. Employees and candidates want to know — do you stand for something AND walk the talk on values?

Employee stories and reviews are trusted by candidates as evidence of being an employer of choice. We’ve looked at both to find employers who are Culture Strong and Story Rich!

Our GoodSeeker Top Story-Rich Employers list is a great resource for top talent!

Out of the 350+ companies we researched in Nashville, the 20 on our list stood out for their commitment to culture, values, and celebrating employee success. We also like how they put employees at the center of their brand story.

Why is it important to work for story-rich employers?‍

Great cultures are built with stories. Sharing organic employee stories builds trust and increases transparency and visibility for all — three things that give employees and candidates confidence that they can be successful. Working for a story rich employer means that your talents have a greater chance of being recognized.

This list showcases companies in Nashville that put employees at the forefront, uplifts employee voices, honors your talents, and shows thanks to your dedication.

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Our Rankings

Story Power is the overall score of a company determined by our scoring methodology. A perfect score is 10. The majority of companies had scores below 3.0.

Criteria for scoring:

Voice on Values (20% of score):

How engaged are past and present employees in sharing their experiences on review sites like Glassdoor and Indeed. We looked at the ratio of total reviews (Indeed and Glassdoor) compared to total current and past employees (LinkedIn). A higher percentage of reviews indicates more people who feel strongly about a company. When more employees share stories about their company, that’s a good indicator that the company values individuals and promoting employee voices.

Visibility of Values (10% of score):

Do these companies make it easy for people to see what they stand for and how they hold themselves accountable? According to GlassDoor’s 2019 Mission & Culture Survey, over 77% of adults across four countries (the U.S, UK, France, and Germany) would consider a company’s culture before applying to a job there, and 79% would consider a company’s mission and purpose before applying. That’s why we included this in our search criteria and gave companies more points when these attributes were front and center. These companies are trying their best to keep culture alive even while employees work remotely.

Reviews on Culture (20% of score):

How do past and present employees rate company culture. We focused on Indeed and Glassdoor culture ratings. We know reviews play a major part in candidates’ decisions when it comes to job-seeking. They trust what peers say a lot (even ones they don’t know). When our Voice on Values ratio is high (had to be 10% or more to make our list) these ratings become more reliable. But we know that reviews rarely tell the full story of what it’s like to work for a company. A Fractl study shows that “just over 10% of people admitted to lying or stretching the truth when it comes to online reviews.” So we did not base our analysis on review sites alone. We looked for stories.

Website Stories (25% of score):

Does the company use prime website space to promote employee authenticity and employee success? ‍Blogs and pages dedicated to showcasing and spotlighting employees and the impact they make are great to see. Companies that conduct values based awards programs and regularly celebrate employee accomplishments on their “public” website scored higher in our rankings. It’s evidence that a company sees the connection between their talent and brand.

Spotlights on Social (25% of score):

‍We looked for employers actively promoting employee contributions on social media. Since social media is the communication channel of choice for prospects and candidates, it says a lot when a company publicly highlights their employees for all to see. Celebrating team success on social media takes employee appreciation to a new level.

Overall, here’s how we did this:

We selected all companies with headquarters in the Nashville area with over 100 employees using LinkedIn data. We then looked at a combination of weighted culture ratings across Glassdoor and Indeed. Companies had to have a 3.4 or greater to be considered.

For “Voice on Values” we looked at the ratio of total reviews compared to current and past employees from LinkedIn data. Only companies with at least a 10% voice on values ratio were considered. For example, an employer with 500 employees, 40 reviews and a 4.5 culture rating would not have made our list. Not enough voices to back up the rating!

Next, we looked for evidence of clear values noted on the website within one click of the homepage. Then, we assessed whether or not an employer actively promotes employee success stories on their website (or careers pages) and on social media.

Finally, we weighted each criteria and scored each employer to create our final list. These organizations show a commitment to culture, values, and making employees feel like their story matters — we promote them as a Culture Strong and Story Rich Employers.