Internet giant Google has lost its mantle as Australia's best employer to NetApp, an IT company specialising in storage services that ranked second last year.

Google slipped from first to fourth place on BRW magazine's second annual roll of best places to work.

Three of the top five companies in the Top 50 Best Places to Work list are technology-related firms, suggesting that nerds have the most fun at work.
Guinness maker Diageo now take the second from being fourth last year. Melbourne-based Microsoft technology partner OBS, came in third -- improving its tenth spot in 2009. Sentis, an education and training company, is number five.

The list was gathered based on research by the Great Place to Work Institute Australia. More than 16,000 employees from 160 companies were surveyed.
Aiming to reveal the key measures of employee job contentment, the research showed health and training opportunities were the best forms of company incentives. Flexible working hours is the norm amongst 78 per cent of the sample.

With a strong focus on work-life balance, NetApp encourages a healthy lifestyle by subsidising gym memberships.

The IT company also has a generous stock option plan that comes with four weeks of paid maternity leaves and two days paternity leaves.

Its referral program rewards employees $US2500 ($2867) for each successful candidate.

Charity work is a large portion of NetApp's culture as employees are given an extra five days of paid leave per annum for community service.

Employees can also submit to about 80 hours of training each year and as much as $US5000 is being alloted for tertiary education.