Costello prof finds link between kindness and profit, establishing Forbes America’s Kindest Companies List

Imagine if just being kinder could bring your company greater profits. Seems simple enough. But can it be measured?

Forbes recently published America's Kindest Companies List. Created by Brett Josephson, associate professor of marketing at the Costello College of Business at George Mason University, the list rates public companies in the United States on employee experience, structural inclusion, and customer treatment, using data from open sources. Announced on November 4, this partnership between George Mason, Kindland, and Forbes is generating much discussion.

"We know from various studies that acts of kindness and kind behaviors in the workplace boost productivity and builds trust among teams. And when we talk about this work it's not about being nice. It's more about being willing to have bold, courageous conversations that are authentic and real, and leaves people whole," says Nance Lucas, executive director for the Center for the Advancement of Well-Being and chief well-being officer at George Mason.

Christine Landoll, BS Accounting '89, MS Taxation '92, director of business engagement and senior instructor of business foundations at Costello who served as the project champion for this initiative, says the university saw the value in helping bring this work forward. "George Mason was willing to take seriously the idea that kindness belongs in the future of business, not as sentiment, but as a subject for disciplined inquiry, honest debate, continued refinement, and lived practice."

The Idea: Create a list of the kindest companies in the U.S.

What started as an initiative between folks at Kindland and Forbes to highlight the generosity the Forbes 30 Under 30 honorees received that led to their success, became the catalyst for the list, asking the question of whether kindness could be measured. Kindland, a national initiative of the nonprofit organization Values-in-Action Foundation, which focuses on spreading positivity and kindness, reached out to Landoll at George Mason for her work with the Mason Chooses Kindness Initiative, to see if they could add academic rigor behind the idea.

Partnering a nonprofit with an R1 research university creates a pathway for an important dialogue that needs to happen in corporate America, says Landoll.

"This initiative is three years in the making. Recognizing kindness in the workplace is an important part of building a United States of Kindness," said Stuart Muszynski, president and CEO of the Values-in-Action Foundation and Kindland. "How people are treated at work matters. We're proud to recognize these companies and grateful to George Mason University for developing the research behind the rankings."

The Research: How can we define kindness?

The research started with one question: How do you define kindness in a corporate setting? A cross-collaborative team at George Mason, which included faculty from the Costello College of Business, the College of Engineering and Computing (CEC), and the Center for the Advancement of Well-Being, chose not to define kindness themselves, but rather reach out to those who can define it: working professionals.

Josephson took the lead on the research, crafting a model to study. "We conducted a survey of individuals with recent workforce experience which yielded four dimensions of perceived corporate kindness: employee well-being; ethical and fair treatment; social and community responsibility; and culture and inclusion," says Josephson, the principal investigator for the project, who also serves as the associate provost for learning initiatives at George Mason.

Josephson integrated data from Glassdoor, Denominator, and HundredX to measure employee well-being, ethical and fair treatment, and culture and inclusion. These three pillars became the backbone of the study, being weighed equally among companies.

What's different about this study?

This approach was unique in that the survey guided the process. "In many cases someone sitting in a boardroom establishes the criteria for a list like this, but this one started by asking people. That's really it. We started by asking people," says Christopher A. Carr, associate dean for outreach, student success, and engagement at CEC and a research affiliate with the Center for the Advancement of Well-Being, who served as a research advisor to the project.

In addition to defining the pillars of kindness, Josephson took the study a step further. Using financial data from 2023 to 2026 merged with the Corporate Kindness Index sample of firms, Josephson tested to see if there was an association between firm kindness scores and key financial performance metrics, such as return on assets, operating margin, and net margin.

"While just being kind is a great characteristic by itself, there's still a bottom line that needs to be considered," says Josephson.

The Impact: Kinder companies are more profitable

"This analysis provides credible, robust evidence that a firm's employee experience, as measured by the Corporate Kindness Index's Employee Experience component, is associated with stronger subsequent financial performance, independent of the firm's own trajectory (i.e., past performance), industry, and technology-sector status," says Josephson.

What does this mean for CEOs running corporations? Focusing on the kindness of the organization, especially toward your employees, can correlate to greater profits. Kindness has real bottom line implications, and senior leadership should take this seriously.

"Business does not operate apart from society. The health of business and the health of society are intertwined. If we want a healthier future of work, stronger organizations, and communities that flourish, then we have to prepare leaders who know how to value human relationships alongside financial outcomes," says Landoll. "That is also why the Mason Chooses Kindness initiative matters so much. Its purpose is to help create an enduring culture, at Mason and beyond, where kindness is understood as a strength, empathy is practiced intentionally, and people are challenged to lead in ways that elevate the humanity of others."

Looking Ahead: What's next?

The expectation of the team is that this list of the America's Kindest Companies will be updated each year, and the data used to measure will only continue to grow, inviting more companies that meet the requirements to be considered and highlighting the importance of studying corporate kindness.

"Mason might be one of the only public universities in the country taking this comprehensive approach on kindness. What's important about that is our students are graduating and going into companies and agencies in both the private and public sector exposed to this expectation of kindness based on George Mason's commitment," says Lucas. "We're living it here. We're practicing it here in our backyard. We have turned George Mason University into a laboratory for the study and practice of well-being, and kindness is highly intertwined in

boosting people's overall well-being," says Lucas. "We have a whole university that has made a commitment to this work." Carr, who sits on the Provost Mental Health and Well-Being Council, says he likes to refer to his work as an ecosystem of support, where he helps students succeed academically, find belonging with friends and in their community, and build their own identity. "I think a huge part of that ecosystem is to think about how we hand our students off after graduation? As a faculty member, as a researcher, as a student success champion, I want my students to be able to step into healthy, happy environments where they thrive after George Mason," says Carr. "Being a part of this team was an opportunity for me to contribute to that as a researcher. Currently there is no guiding beacon or focus on kindness, and the world could use more kindness."

"Creating this index is just the beginning," says Josephson. "My hope is that this list can be used by researchers to continue the discussion. We need to look further into this space because this will not only be good for business and profits, but it will be good for the world."

"This is not the last word on corporate kindness," says Landoll. "It is the opening chapter."

Learn more about this study at business.gmu.edu/kindness.