USA, USA, and UK/Netherlands took the top spots in the annual Best Employers ranking.

If there were an Olympics for the best employers in Argentina, the countries standing on the podium at the medal ceremony would be USA, USA and UK/Netherlands. Only instead of 1st, 2nd and 3rd place, all three would be taking home the gold according to the annual ranking by Argentina business magazine Apertura.

In the 2011 Best Employers in Argentina ranking, Apertura focuses on five key areas of HR practices in Argentine companies: professional careers, compensation, work environment, work hours and employee training. Foreign companies dominate the rankings with names like American Express, Ford, Dow, PepsiCo, Toyota, P&G, DuPont, Dell and Cisco Systems all in the upper echelons of each category: 1,000+ Employees, 200-1,000 Employees and Under 200 Employees.

In the final analysis, after all of the yoga classes, free lunches, stock options, deep-tissue massages and flex time were taken into account, three winners emerged: Google (Under 200 Employees), Coca-Cola (200-1,000 Employees) and Unilever (1,000+ Employees). Both Coca-Cola and Unilever retained their #1 ranking from the 2010 survey while Google knocked off Microsoft in the Under 200 category.

Cronista’s Pablo Ortega says some unique characteristics of the Big 3 include a work environment where employees can reinvent themselves (Google), flexible schedules, vacation “soft landings” and the ability to work at home (Coca-Cola) and a work environment where 95% of active employees would recommend a friend work in the same company (Unilever). (Full Story in Spanish)