Amgen has once again been named by FORTUNE magazine as one of the "100 Best Companies to Work For." This year, Amgen ranked number 39, and of the five biotechnology/pharmaceutical industry companies appearing on this elite list, Amgen ranked third. Amgen has been selected as one of the "100 Best Companies to Work For" a total of seven times.

The complete list of companies and related stories will appear in the Jan. 23 issue of FORTUNE, available on newsstands Jan. 16 and on fortune.com today.

FORTUNE noted that Amgen provides staff members with generous benefits, such as a 90-percent company contribution toward health-insurance premiums, an automatic 5-percent 401(k) company contribution with a 5-percent match, plus 16 paid holidays.

FORTUNE’s annual list is the result of an analysis performed by the Great Place to Work® Institute based on two criteria: an evaluation of the policies and culture of each company, and the opinions of the company's employees. The latter is given more weight -- two-thirds of the total score comes from employee responses to a 57-question survey, which goes to a minimum of 400 randomly selected employees from each company.

The surveys ask about things such as attitudes towards management, job satisfaction, and camaraderie within the organization. The remaining one-third of the score is based on an evaluation of each company's demographic makeup, pay and benefits programs, and culture.  Companies are scored in four areas: credibility (communication to employees), respect (opportunities and benefits), fairness (compensation, diversity), and pride/camaraderie (philanthropy, celebrations). 

Companies that are at least seven years old and have 1,000 or more employees are eligible for the list. More than 100,000 employees from 466 companies participated in the survey this year.

To view the entire list of "100 Best Companies to Work For," click here.