Being International Women’s Day last month, we thought it was suitable to feature women’s favourite employers. Understandably, men and women have a different selection of top employers, but some companies manage to successfully appeal to both.

Apple & Google are equally charming

Employers like Google and Apple successfully manage to generate equal appeal among both sexes, whereas companies like Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan are mostly for men and L’Oréal for women.

There are differences between countries, yet in Germany both men and women love their car manufacturers such as Audi and BMW Group. One exception, the exclusive sports car producer, Porsche, seems to appeal more to men than women.

3 Factors that influence female choices

1. Products & Services
It’s apparent that affinity to the company’s products & services is a strong determining factor when choosing future employer. For women that like cosmetics, it’s only natural that they would choose L’Oréal. The same goes for men that fancy cars – BMW, AUDI and Porsche are attractive career options.

2. Company culture
The company’s culture plays a huge role in deciding employer. For example, are the investment banks Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan associated to providing work/life balance? If it’s more important for women than for men, it’ll certainly affect their career choice. Due to women still taking on more of household responsibilities, such as looking after the children, employers that offer work flexibility are seen as being a good match.

3. Career goals
Research shows that men typically aspire to be leaders or managers, more so than women, and are also focused more on the money. Women, however, tend to lean towards achieving work/life balance and finding a job that gives them some self-fulfilment, especially one that allows them to be dedicated to a greater cause. Because money matters more to men, investment banks, again, are seen as being an ideal place to land a job.

Something to think about

If you are an employer tying to diversify your workforce, make sure that you consider these factors and see how you can emphasise more on the qualities of your employer brand that would appeal to the opposite sex.

Based on the preferences of over 160,000 career seekers, with a business or engineering background from the world´s 12 greatest economies[1], Universum releases the global talent attraction index: “The World’s Most Attractive Employers 2011”. The index, split in the business category – preferences from business career seekers – and engineering category – preferences from engineering career seekers – reveals the current level of attractiveness that companies have as employers – and therefore their potential to lead the world of tomorrow.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Fred Cohn

The nature of organisational leadership is evolving from a rigid hierarchical model to a more empathetic, people-oriented style. Forward-looking companies are instilling leadership practices that foster collaboration, aiming to give all employees a sense of personal involvement of the organisation’s operations. These new values are especially important to the newest generation of workers: Millennials don’t want to work within a dismissive, unfeeling corporate structure. Instead, they seek positions in companies whose leadership will inspire them and value their contributions. Read the rest of this entry »

We just released the results of our Pan-European employer image survey, which is conducted at the top 100 academic institutions across the continent.

More than 20,000 students conducted over 60,000 employer evaluations. Taking into account their votes, Apple beats Google for business students while Google takes the top spot away from Apple for engineers – tough rivalry between the two most admired employer brands. Read the rest of this entry »