Is it a red flag? I kinda think so.
The best place to work award requires a participation fee. It is doubtful, no matter what the Times may say, that once you have paid to be placed in this glorified listicle that you won’t make it on there somewhere.
This is a valueless metric, as I have worked in 2 of these “illustrious” organisations and an ugly pattern emerges from the people in the organisation clamouring to taste this smegma of recognition
Perception is more important than Reality.
The perception team (or however you’re wanting to brand HR) are uniformly concerned , not with the wellbeing of employees, but with covering up their screams. Without doubt these places will also have glassdoor scores in the 4+ range because the employees have been “asked”, possibly at gunpoint, to review bomb glassdoor after some brave soul has revealed the ugly truth about their dystopian hellscape. Ironically the improvement in the score is then touted at a company meeting in a self congratulatory manner. “Look how happy you all are” and “The beatings will continue until morale improves”
This kind of perception baiting disenfranchises employees to the point where they must don the waxen mask of goodthinkfulness (Yes I’m leaning hard on the Orwell metaphors, but they are appropriate) in order to reach the company's self image goals
Think I'll just avoid companies on that list.