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

UK students are currently voting for their Ideal Employers, those they would most like to work for. Uiversum’s 2011 Ideal Employer rankings are due to be released on March 24th at the 2011 Universum Awards.

When: Thursday 24th March 2011, 3pm-10pm
Where: The Montague on the Gardens Hotel, London

As well as the awards and dinner, Universum presents three seminars to inspire you in your employer branding activities:

Future Shock! Generations at Work and the Challenges of Managing a Multigenerational Workforce
Paul Redmond, Head of Careers and Employability, University of Liverpool

Building Stakeholder Engagement to Support your Employer Brand – A Facilitated Discussion
Helen Bostock, Director, Global Head Graduate & Embark Resourcing & Development, Barclays Wealth

Conflict, Scrutiny and Opportunity: Attracting the Very Best to the British Army
Colin Cook, Marketing Director, Army Recruiting, British Army

Please contact Michelle Boyde, michelle.boyde@universumeurope.com to book your place.

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

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.

By Christopher Van Mossevelde

Compared to men, women around the world anticipate less in annual earnings. In the 16 countries where Universum conducted its research, and based on the answers of 224,542 university students, female graduates’ salary expectations are generally below that of men’s. In Austria, female graduates’ salary indications were on average 21 per cent less than their male counterparts. In Italy, it was 20 per cent less, and in Poland and Germany, it was respectively16 per cent less. Austria is the country where the ‘gender pay gap’ can be considered the highest, followed by the other above mentioned countries. Where the differences were smallest, however, were in the Netherlands and Sweden (seven per cent), Norway (five per cent) and the UK (four per cent). The results do not represent current salary levels, yet are an indication of what graduates expect to earn in their first job after graduation. More importantly, the results emphasise that the ‘gender pay gap’ begins with female graduates looking forward to earning less. Read the rest of this entry »

Morgan Stanley is ranked 14 by UK business students

It is an exciting time for talented graduates to join Morgan Stanley. There will be great opportunities available in the future for those entering the investment banking business now.

By Michelle Boyde

“It is easy to be a star when things are good, but it’s a greater challenge working in today’s markets and it is now when the truly outstanding individuals will shine.”

Interview with Stephanie Ahrens, Executive Director in Graduate Recruitment EMEA at Morgan Stanley.

Read the rest of this entry »

The students that are the most satisfied with their university are from the University of Oxford, according to the results of a student survey conducted by Universum earlier this year.
Read the rest of this entry »

 Just recently in the McKinsey Quarterly there was a piece entitled, “When job seekers invade Facebook”. It was about how many corporate managers, with the so-called “job jitters”, are rushing to join online social networks in order to build their social capital during these tough economic times. Read the rest of this entry »