These American Companies Are Getting Employee Engagement Right

Business Insider highlights shining examples of US companies that care about employee satisfaction.

Suresh Banarse, the People Director at YO! Sushi, summed the key to employee engagement up perfectly, when he said: "happy team, happy guests".

Your employees are a vital part of a successful customer experience strategy as they're generally the main - and sometimes the only - contact point between your brand and your customers.

If your employees don't feel engaged, the service they provide is most likely subpar and can lead to a deterioration of customer numbers. Vice versa, if a customer has a complaint, a happy and engaged employee can turn the experience around and ensure continued loyalty.

SEE ALSO: 9 Innovative Ways to Increase Employee Engagement

Business Insider and employer-information website PayScale have partnered up to uncover which US companies have the highest level of employee satisfaction and are getting employee engagement right.

Unsurprisingly, tech giants Facebook and Google take the top two spots in the list, due to a combination of great perks - such as free meals, laundry facilities and WiFi enabled shuttle buses to and from work - and a generous median salary.

The ranking of all the companies featured, which were taken from the 2014 Fortune 500 list, was determined by looking at the following criteria: high job satisfaction, low job stress, ability to telecommute, high job meaning, experienced median pay, and salary delta.

Besides Facebook and Google, which other companies should you look at for employee engagement inspiration?

Following in the footsteps of the tech giants is biotech company Amgen, which describes itself as "a place where we can make a positive difference in people's lives". The firm took a massive leap in the list as it was ranked 20th last year.

Rounding out the top 5 for 2015 are energy corporation Chevron, which leaped forward from a 29th spot last year, and pharmaceutical firm Bristol-Myers Squibb, which was also named a best company by Working Mother magazine.

Also making the top 10 this year are biopharmaceuticals company Celgene, tech giant Cisco, healthcare company Johnson & Johnson, energy firm PG&E and data managers NetApp.