These lists are 95% of the time PAID FOR. Companies pay to be featured in them, same as the Forbes 30 under 30, which is another largely paid for endorsement that people seem to look up to. You could make up a company name, offer $5,000-$10,000 to Forbes to feature you.
Our company right now (actually a great company) was added to a list of “Best Places to Work in XXXXXX”, but sadly most of my coworkers think they won some sort of competition, and not that our company paid $5,000 to be featured by some random rating company in Pennsylvania.