LinkedIn on Wednesday released its list of the Top 50 Companies in the United States highlighting the "companies where Americans want to work"—and the list includes a number of big tech companies that are actively expanding into health care.

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About the list

For the list, LinkedIn sought to identify where U.S. job seekers want to work and which companies are retaining their employees. To do so, LinkedIn's editors and data scientists analyzed data on U.S. LinkedIn members, including their:

• Interest in a company;
• Engagement with employees from a company;
• Job demand; and
• Employee retention.

Overall, the top 10 companies where U.S. LinkedIn members want to work are:

1. Alphabet;
2. Facebook;
3. Amazon;
4. Salesforce;
5. Deloitte;
6. Uber;
7. Apple;
8. Airbnb;
9. Oracle; and
10. Dell Technologies.

Click here to view the full list.

Many tech companies look to health care

While the list featured only one company that is primarily focused on the health care industry—Johnson & Johnson, which ranked 27th—a striking number of the top companies are actively expanding into health care.

In particular:

• Google-parent company Alphabet and its life-sciences research arm, Verily, have partnered with at least 19 health care organizations, building technology such as a robotic surgery system for Johnson & Johnson and a Type 2 diabetes monitoring system for Walgreens;

   

  Read our rundown of Alphabet's health care ambitions

• Amazon has acquired the direct-to-consumer pharmacy business PillPack, hired a slew of former health care leaders, and moved forward with a high-profile venture to jointly manage the health of its employee population alongside JPMorgan Chase and Berkshire Hathaway;

   

  Read our predictions on what 'Amazon health care' could look like in five years

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  Win talent in a candidate-centric market

   

• Apple has hired dozens of doctors to expand its digital health products, is partnering with providers to help researchers expand recruitment for clinical trials, and rolled out a long-anticipated Apple Watch equipped with an electrocardiogram (ECG); and

   

  Read our rundown of the ways Apple wants to transform health care

• Lyft, which ranked 19th on the list, has struck partnerships with nine health care systems, including high-profile affiliations with 141-hospital system Ascension and Denver Health. (Uber, which ranked 6th on the list, has similarly robust aspirations to team up with health systems to provide health care transportation.)

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  Read our dive into why Lyft is betting its future on health care

These ambitious health care goals have led to a wave of hiring. In a LinkedIn blog post, Jaimy Lee noted that between 2017 and 2018, the number of employees with health care skills listed on their profiles (like "health care management" or HIPAA) increased by 22% at seven large tech companies: Alphabet, Facebook, Amazon, Salesforce, Uber, Apple, and Lyft.

Some of those hires include especially big names. Google, for instance, hired former Geisinger CEO David Feinberg to lead the company's health care initiatives; Lyft hired Megan Callahan from Change Healthcare and McKesson; and Uber hired Aaron Crowell, formerly of One Call Care Management, to head up Uber Health.

Why tech companies need the skills of health care workers

Even as tech companies are seeking to expand into health care, they still have much to learn about the industry, Lee writes.

After all, the tech mantra of "move fast and break things" doesn't always work in health care, as Matt Arnold, principal analyst at Decision Resources Group, noted. He said, "You can end up with dead patients. These are industries and skill sets that have much to learn from each other."

In particular, tech companies need to learn about health care regulations and business dynamics, including long buying cycles, demand for evidence-based practices, and complex payment and reimbursement systems, Lee writes.

That said, tech companies also have something the health care industry needs: the ability to create a good customer experience, Lee writes.

"Health care really has everything to learn from tech, and its iterative, agile approach," Arnold said. "This is all new stuff to the health care industry. They are not famous for providing a good user experience" (Roth, LinkedIn, 4/3; Lee, LinkedIn, 4/3).

Get 1-page cheat sheets on how "best places to work" organizations are chosen

Is your organization recognized as a "best place to work?" If not, you could be missing an important tool to recruit new employees—and a big opportunity to spotlight your employee engagement work with current staff. Download our cheat sheets to learn exactly how influential publications decide who makes the cut (and who doesn't):

• Glassdoor's "Best Places to Work: Employees' Choice"
• Forbes' List of "America's Best Employers"
• Fortune's "Best Workplaces in Health Care and Biopharma"
• Modern Healthcare's "Best Places to Work in Healthcare"

Get all the Cheat Sheets