Universum held the Universum Awards last Thursday, March 24th, at The Montague on the Gardens in London. The sponsor of the event was Graduate Promotions.

We were proud to invite a number of companies to UK’s number one event for employer branding inspiration, knowledge sharing and recognition of the UK’s Ideal Employers. The Universum Awards was a chance for people to inspire themselves in their employer branding work and network with other professionals and members of university career services. More importantly, it was the time of year to celebrate those companies with the strongest and most sophisticated employer brands.

The afternoon began with thought provoking seminars with speakers from the University of Liverpool, Barclays Wealth and the British Army. In the evening, the awards ceremony and dinner were a great opportunity to celebrate the employer branding success of this year’s most attractive employers, as voted for in the Universum Student Survey 2011.

Below are the employers that are perceived by the students as best in industry and ideal.

Best in Industry
PwC – Auditing & Accounting                       
HSBC – Banking                                                 
L’Oréal – FMCG                                                   
Accenture – Management Consulting                   
Google – Software & Computer Services  

Ideal Employers
Business & Commerce      
1. Apple
2. Google
3. HSBC

Highest Climber
RBS - Business & Commerce  

Ideal Employers
Engineering & IT 
1. Google
2. Microsoft
3. Apple

Highest Climber
Citi – Engineering & IT

Universum Awards UK 2011  – Image Gallery

By Michelle Boyde

You always need to be a little bit sceptical about CSR and what it really means. It’s a buzz word, one to take care with. This week Credit Suisse, the Swiss investment bank, announced it is forcing hundreds of US managing directors to give 2.5 per cent of their 2010 bonuses to charity.

Donating to charity is always a good thing – as long as the people who need help receive it.  But we know CSR is important to young people: students seek this in an employer – 19 per cent in the US and UK and 30 per cent in Switzerland (source: Universum Student Surveys).

When something appears to be forced, you have to question how this will affect the employer brand. Would it have been better to not have handed over such large bonuses in the first place and made a sizeable donation to charity alongside?

And are we really over scrutinising the banks? I am confident we are not.  Will students see this as an attempt to soften public perception or a genuine charitable activity?

By Michelle Boyde

The FT reports today that the gender pay gap has fallen to a record low, from 12.2 per cent to 10.2 per cent, according to data from the Office for National Statistics.

In the 2010 UK Student Survey, Universum asked respondents what criteria they classed as diversity in relation to the work place. Ethnicity was the number one dimension of diversity (59 per cent), followed by gender (41 per cent). On closer inspection, 46 per cent of female students believe it’s a factor of diversity, but only 36 per cent of men.

But this rather begs the question: do the other 54 per cent of women and 64 per cent of men not see gender as a matter of diversity in the work place?

Companies need diversity of all types to be innovative and leaders in their field. And, creating an EVP which is true and transparent which appeals to both genders is a challenge for many employers. But finding the skills you need in a diverse group of people is critical and only a strategically planned employer brand can deliver this in the long term.

We know there should be more women in senior positions and they certainly should be earning equal to their male peers. The 41 per cent of students who don’t count gender as a matter of diversity, is this because they simply assume gender should no longer be an issue, or may Gen Y continue to proliferate the gender imbalance in the work place?

By Michelle Boyde

Across the UK, 32 per cent of students want a career where they are “dedicated to a cause or feel I am serving a greater good”. This bodes well for General Electric and Siemens. 

David Cameron has said that £60m of spending earmarked for upgrading British ports to make them suitable for handling large offshore turbines will go ahead.  Cameron wants the UK to be a world leader in offshore wind energy.

This will generate 70,000 jobs for these employers. That’s a lot of recruiting and currently only 3.9 per cent of UK students was to work in the energy/power sector. However, if they can leverage the ‘green’ angle correctly and use it to strengthen two already strong employer brands, they have the opportunity to appeal to students, as well as have the jobs available for them.

By Michelle Boyde

Over the decade Universum has conducted research in the UK, work/life balance has always been our student’s top career goal. In fact, it’s a global career goal with only markets such as Poland, Russia, China and India ducking out of this trend. As much as the phrase is thrown around, most employers would struggle to define precisely what work/life balance entails. For many people, it may be a case of work/life integration. For those that see working at home as a route to achieving this, it continues to be a challenge for many of us in the UK.  The Trades Union Congress (TUC) reports this week that one fifth of UK employers, 4.5 million people, would like to work from home but are not permitted to do so by their employers. How to achieve work/life balance, and of course what it is, will continue to be a point of discussion.

5,800 students from Russell Group universities select their “Ideal Employers”
 Apple and Google were the undisputed winners in Universum’s Ideal Employer rankings this year, released on April 15th, according to a student poll of nearly 12,000 students – yet look at Russell Group’s students only and the choice of employers change. Read the rest of this entry »

The UK Universum Awards took place on April 15th at Regent’s College, situated in the beautiful Regents Park, London. The evening celebrated the top Ideal Employers of business and engineering/IT students in the UK. However, students studying natural science, humanities/liberal arts/education and law also have their favourite employers and the winner are: Read the rest of this entry »

By Michelle Boyde

Today’s Guardian touches on internships and how UK employers financially exploit young people. It reports that one in three UK interns are working for nothing. However, with high-unemployment and a wealth of new graduates scraping around for constructive work experience to enhance their CVs, this is not overly surprising. Universum data has continued to show internships to be a popular channel for learning about employers. In 2009, over a quarter of students wanted to take part in an internship. The question is: will recent experiences have disillusioned students about the benefits of internships? The brand new results from the Universum UK Student Survey 2010 are released April 15th and are sure to give us an indication. It’s possible, however, that high-unemployment will see our young people prepared to ‘intern’ in the name of experience whether they are paid or not.

Student salary expectations from around the world

By Christopher Van Mossevelde

In a survey on career expectations, Universum asked 224,542 students in 16 countries what they expected to earn in their first job after their studies. The results show that Swiss students expect to earn the most (£48,092 per year), followed by the Danish (£43,134), Norwegians (£38,686) and Germans (£34,171). Read the rest of this entry »

Employer Image Rankings

By Christopher Van Mossevelde

With all the talk about the iPad, whether you’re a fan or not, Apple is strongly associated with attractive/exciting products and services, a quality that contributes to their employer brand and lures top talent to want to work for them. Read the rest of this entry »