Aviva Ireland ranked first on the Sunday Independent and Statista list of Ireland’s 200 Best Employers for 2026, and second among super-large organisations on Great Place to Work Ireland’s list.
Those two employee-surveyed rankings define the best companies to work for in Ireland this year. This guide covers who placed where, how each list works, and what CSO pay and jobs data show for the same period.
Best Companies to Work for in Ireland
Who Tops the Best Companies to Work for in Ireland Lists in 2026?
Aviva Ireland holds first place on Ireland’s Best Employers 2026, the Sunday Independent and Statista ranking of 200 companies. The insurer published the result on 20 May 2026.
At the Great Place to Work Ireland awards on 25 February 2026, Aviva ranked 2nd among super-large organisations, up from 4th in 2025. It was the insurer’s third straight year in that band’s top five.
Great Place to Work ranks Irish employers in five size categories and runs Best Workplaces lists in more than 60 countries, so Irish placings can be set against the top employers in Singapore.
| Organisation | Size category | 2026 place | Track record |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aviva Ireland | Super Large | 2nd | Third straight year in the top five |
| AbbVie | Super Large | 3rd | 13th consecutive year listed |
| EirGrid | Super Large | 15th | Not stated |
| Cloudera | Medium | 1st | Not stated |
| CluneTech | Medium | 12th | Up from 25th; 11th consecutive year |
| Esri Ireland | Mid-Size | 4th | 10 consecutive years; Laureate Award |
| Core Optimisation | Mid-Size | 21st | Second consecutive year |
Source: Great Place to Work Ireland, Best Workplaces in Ireland 2026 (25 February 2026), via company announcements and regional press
AbbVie employs about 2,900 people across six locations in Ireland, more than 1,400 of them at Westport. Its announcement describes the super-large band as workplaces with more than 550 employees.
Source: AbbVie Ireland announcement, March 2026
GPTW vs Statista: How the Best Companies to Work for in Ireland Get Ranked
The two lists answer different questions. Great Place to Work surveys staff inside certified organisations, while Statista asks a panel of employees to rate their own employer and its rivals.
The Netherlands splits along similar lines between staff surveys, public polls and HR audits, as our Dutch employer rankings show.
Great Place to Work Ireland: Best Workplaces 2026
More than 30,000 employees gave feedback across 17 areas of workplace culture for the 2026 list. Great Place to Work Ireland CEO Jim Flynn congratulated 120 recognised organisations.
Entry requires Great Place to Work certification. The 2026 survey deadline was 10 November 2025, and 2027 entrants must launch the Trust Index survey by 2 November 2026.
Source: Great Place to Work Ireland, Best Workplaces in Ireland 2026, February 2026
Sunday Independent and Statista: Ireland’s Best Employers 2026
The 6th edition evaluated 1,100 companies, named 200 and sorted them into 26 industries. Respondents work at companies employing at least 200 people.
Each respondent scores their own employer from 0 to 10 on likelihood to recommend, then can recommend or advise against others in their industry. Statista gathered more than 95,000 evaluations in total.
The ranking page cites more than 12,000 employees surveyed, while the project notes state more than 10,000 respondents. The list grew from 150 companies in the 2024 edition to 200 in 2025.
Source: Statista Rankings, Ireland’s Best Employers 2026, 2025 and 2024 project pages
86% Call Their Employer a Great Place to Work: Inside Ireland’s 2026 Best Workplaces
Pride scored highest of the published measures, with 90% of Best Workplace employees proud to tell others where they work. Career aspiration scored lowest, at 79%.
87% believe customers would rate their service as excellent, 84% would strongly endorse their organisation and 83% receive ongoing professional development.
84% say they will give extra effort to get the job done. The published benchmarks include no burnout measure, which is tracked separately in employee burnout statistics.
Two measures come with national comparisons. 81% of Best Workplace staff want to stay long term, against under 60% in the typical Irish workplace.
86% call their organisation a great place to work, compared with around 60% at a typical Irish employer, per GPTW benchmark data published with The Irish Times.
Source: Great Place to Work Ireland, 2026 Best Workplaces benchmark data, 26 February 2026; The Irish Times special report, 26 February 2026
Most Trusted Leader and the Other 2026 Special Award Winners
| Special award | 2026 winner |
|---|---|
| Most Trusted Leader | Patrick Atkinson, Chadwicks Group |
| Great Place to Work Ambassador | Catherine Fitzgibbon, Core |
| Great Place to Work Team | Laboratory Supplies Ltd T/A Lennox |
| High Performing Culture | Seetec Ireland |
| Organisational & Leadership Development | The Doyle Collection |
| Talent Attraction | Guidewire Software |
| Employee Retention | Hilti Ireland |
Source: Great Place to Work Ireland, Special Awards 2026
Core marked 17 years in the Best Workplaces programme in 2026. Lennox has been named a Best Workplace for four consecutive years.
Does Company Size Change Pay in Ireland?
Enterprises with more than 250 employees paid average weekly earnings of €1,196.65 in Q2 2026, preliminary CSO estimates show. Firms with 50 to 250 staff paid €938.14, and those with fewer than 50 paid €837.54.
A year earlier, the same three bands paid €1,152.99, €912.78 and €803.79. Statista’s list covers companies with 200 or more staff, and the GPTW super-large band starts above 550.
Private-sector staff averaged €978.71 a week, against €1,261.16 in the public sector. Pay disclosure in job ads is tracked in salary transparency statistics.
Source: CSO, Earnings and Labour Costs Q2 2026 (preliminary estimates), released 25 August 2026
Weekly Earnings in the Sectors Where 2026 Winners Operate
Aviva Ireland works in insurance, CluneTech, Esri Ireland and Cloudera in software and data, and The Doyle Collection in hotels. The table shows the CSO sectors covering those lines of business.
| CSO sector | Q2 2025 | Q2 2026 | Annual change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Information and Communication | €1,674.21 | €1,730.61 | 3.4% |
| Financial, Insurance and Real Estate Activities | €1,451.68 | €1,499.23 | 3.3% |
| Accommodation and Food Service Activities | €470.59 | €506.78 | 7.7% |
| All Sectors | €1,007.58 | €1,046.88 | 3.9% |
Source: CSO, Earnings and Labour Costs, average weekly earnings, Q2 2025 and Q2 2026 (preliminary)
Information and Communication also had the highest average hourly total labour costs, at €61.40. Average weekly paid hours reached 32.8, and trials of shorter schedules appear in four-day workweek statistics.
Consumer prices rose 3.6% over the same 12 months, against 3.9% growth in all-sector weekly earnings.
Source: CSO, Earnings and Labour Costs Q2 2026, released 25 August 2026
2,839,300 Workers: The Labour Market Around the Best Companies to Work for in Ireland
Ireland had 2,839,300 people aged 15 to 89 in employment in Q2 2026, up 21,200 or 0.8% on a year earlier. The unemployment rate rose to 5.1% from 4.8%.
Quarterly estimates ran 2,794,100 in Q1 2025, 2,818,100 in Q2, 2,825,400 in Q3 and 2,832,900 in Q4, then fell to 2,794,500 in Q1 2026. The employment rate for ages 15 to 64 was 74.3%, down from 74.7%.
Source: CSO, Labour Force Survey Q2 2026, released 20 August 2026
Employers reported 30,000 job vacancies at the end of Q2 2026, down from 31,500 a year earlier. The vacancy rate held at 1.3%.
Source: CSO, Earnings and Labour Costs Q2 2026 (preliminary)
IDA Ireland client companies employed 312,468 people in 2025, up 1.5% and about 11% of national employment for a fourth year running. Of those jobs, 169,967, or 54%, were outside Dublin.
Source: IDA Ireland, Annual Report 2025
Client firms of Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland and Údarás na Gaeltachta together accounted for 554,608 jobs in 2025, or 20% of total employment.
Source: Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, Annual Employment Survey 2025
How Many Workers in Ireland Never Work From Home?
64.8% of people in employment, or 1,839,400, never worked from home in Q2 2026. That group grew by 43,800 in a year; office-attendance rules abroad are covered in return-to-office statistics.
Another 990,600 worked from home at least some of the time, 22,500 fewer than in Q2 2025. Of these, 529,800 usually worked from home, down from a peak of 846,700 in Q1 2021.
The remaining 460,800 worked from home sometimes, up from 457,600. Research on home-working productivity looks at output under these arrangements.
Source: CSO, Labour Force Survey Q2 2026, released 20 August 2026
FAQs
Which company is the best to work for in Ireland in 2026?
Aviva Ireland ranked first on the Sunday Independent and Statista list of Ireland’s 200 Best Employers 2026. It also placed 2nd among super-large organisations on Great Place to Work Ireland’s 2026 list.
How many companies are on Ireland’s Best Workplaces 2026 list?
120 organisations. Great Place to Work Ireland announced them on 25 February 2026, based on feedback from more than 30,000 employees across 17 areas of workplace culture.
Which sector pays the most in Ireland?
Information and Communication. Its average weekly earnings were €1,730.61 in Q2 2026, per preliminary CSO estimates, against €1,046.88 across all sectors. It also had the highest hourly total labour costs, at €61.40.
Do larger companies in Ireland pay more?
On CSO averages, yes. Enterprises with more than 250 employees paid €1,196.65 a week in Q2 2026, against €938.14 at firms with 50 to 250 staff and €837.54 below 50.
Can Reddit posts replace the official rankings of Irish employers?
No. Reddit posts are individual accounts with no sampling method. Great Place to Work’s 2026 list used more than 30,000 employee responses, and Statista collected more than 95,000 evaluations for its 200-company list.
Sources
https://greatplacetowork.ie/resources/who-are-the-2026-best-workplaces-in-ireland
https://rankings.statista.com/en/employers/rankings/best-employers-ireland-2026/
https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-lfs/labourforcesurveyquarter22026/keyfindings/
