Having written “Employer Branding: 5 reasons why it matters & Five Steps to Action” in 2010, a lot has happened since then – Employer Branding has become of one of the most important strategic concerns for the majority of the world’s largest companies. Companies now realise that business success depends on the quality of one’s workforce and their ability to deliver on business objectives. Simply said, without the right competence companies will fail on their business plans. Read the rest of this entry »

Congratulations to Finnair, Kone, Fazer, Google, Microsoft, Nokia, VTT, ABB, Suomen ympäristökeskus (SYKE)…and all the other top 100 Ideal Employers. UNIVERSUM Finland has just released the results of its student research today. You can read more about the results on the Finnish blog or go to our corporate site to see the full rankings. Should you have any questions about our student research in Finland, feel free to contact the Finnish team.

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.

For the 10th year in a row, IKEA is the first choice employer for Swedish business students in the Universum career study known as FöretagsBarometern. For the first time ever, IKEA also came in second place among civil engineers.

“Ikea’s top position is the result of its strategic and long-term efforts in employer branding”, explained Daniel Wägerth, EB specialist at Universum.

The results of FöretagsBarometern were released last Tuesday, during the Universum Awards–the prize ceremony to recognise and celebrate attractive employers.

Learn more – news in Swedish

“Until there is a cure for diabetes, this Danish company will stay busy”. Novo Nordisk is Denmark’s flagship company and employer-of-choice among professionals in business and engineering/natural sciences. Being one of the world’s leading producers of human insulin, insulin analogues, injection devices, and diabetes education materials, it comes as no surprise that it’s also an attractive employer.

In addition, even its sister company, responsible for “brewing your beer, washing the mustard stain off your shirt, turning corn into ethanol for your car, or even treating your medical condition…” is the second employer-of-choice for engineers and natural scientists – well done Novozymes. It’s  the company that produces more than “700 kinds of enzymes, microorganisms, biopolymers, and proteins used by more than 40 industries in 130 countries worldwide!”

Last week Denmark released the results of its professional survey and the list of the most popular companies. Borsen and TV2, among many others, covered the story. To find out who else topped the charts, click here.

“Google yes, Bank of America and JP Morgan, no. Wall Street isn’t where most idealistic young professionals aspire to work.”

MarketWatch interviews Kortney Kutsop, EB specialist, on the results of the US professional survey. Click here to listen to the interview.

• One in five employees selects Google as an attractive employer
• Popularity of financial-services continues to plummet

On November 14th, Universum USA released the results of their Professional Survey 2011. The Wall Street Journal covered a story entitled “Young Workers Like Facebook, Apple and Google”, written by Rachel Emma Silverman. The WSJ published the top 100 ideal employers based on the overall target group of 6,700 early-career professionals. The top five ideal employers are: 1) Google, 2) Apple, 3) Facebook, 4) U.S. Department of State and 5) The Walt Disney Company.

Below we present the key research highlights. If you want to know more about how America’s professionals perceive employers, please feel free to contact Universum.
Read the rest of this entry »

It’s a historical moment for Apple, as it supersedes the world’s leading wireless operator – China Mobile. Seventeen-thousand young professionals carried out more than 48,000 individual company evaluations, judging them on their employer credentials and image, and have nominated the company that has been described as having an “I” for revolutionary technology – Apple.

In the business ranking, Apple takes over the top spot from China Mobile (now third) by climbing three positions, while SGCC keeps its second place. In the top 10 ranking, Chinese companies dominate – seven out of 10 employers are Chinese: Bank of China, PetroChina Company, Sinopec, CICC and Alibaba. Read the rest of this entry »

Something historic happened last month: Raj Rajaratnam, a US hedge fund manager of Srilankan origin, was convicted for fraud and conspiracy in the biggest insider trading trial on Wall Street. Rajaratnam’s network of high-level contacts at such big names as Goldman Sachs, McKinsey, and IBM took the assets of his hedge fund Galleon to $3.7 billion in a fashion not much unlike a Hollywood movie.

Scandals and stories like these can make you wonder: Have these financial crises (definitely a plural by now) impacted Wall Street’s ability to recruit the best talent?

Universum’s annual survey of American MBA students reveals some interesting facts that are relevant to this question:

• 42% perceive an employer’s “good reputation” to be the most attractive.
• Goldman Sachs was ranked the 4th Ideal Employer (compared to 3rd in 2010) and J. P. Morgan was ranked 9th (compared to 7th in 2010).
• No Wall Street firm in the Top 25 dropped by more than 2 positons.
• No Wall Street firm in the Top 25 climbed up the ranking from 2010.
• Work/life balance is no longer the #1 career goal (decreased in importance by 6%), replaced by competitive or intellectual challenge!

Does that mean that the students are slightly less interested in Wall Street but the impact is not significant? Is this more a correlation than causation?

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 »