For the fourth year in a row, business students from around the world
rated Google as the company they would most like to work for. The World’s Most Attractive Employers 2012
report, produced by employer branding firm Universum, asked tens of
thousands of business students from the 12 largest economies in the
world to identify where they would like most to be hired out of school
from a list companies based around the world.
Included on the
final list of the most attractive companies are major tech giants like
Google, bank holding companies like Goldman Sachs and accounting firms
like KPMG. 24/7 Wall St. analyzed company financials, brand valuations,
and ratings of these companies by current employees to identify how they
manage to be so attractive to potential employees. Based on Universum’s
2012 list, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the 13 companies everyone wants to
work for.
One
factor many of these companies have in common is the fact that they
have been able to market themselves as very innovative. In an interview
with 24/7 Wall St., Camille Kelly, Vice President of Employer Branding
at Universum, explains that this generation of students in particular
prioritizes being on the cutting edge of technology.
“Innovation
means to a student that there is going to be new challenges, and that
they’re going to continue to be able to work on cutting-edge
technology,” she says. Of the 13 companies identified as most attractive
for prospective employees, five made the Thomson Reuters list of the
100 most innovative companies in the world. Kelly adds that in the case
of Google, which did not make the Reuters list, the tech giant branded
itself as a very innovative company.
By far, the industry with
the most representation on this list is accounting. All of the Big Four
accounting firms — PwC, Ernst & Young, Deloitte, and KPMG — are not
only all on this list, but in the top ten. Kelly explains that
accounting firms have been able to, despite the lack of glamour in their
industry, successfully brand the business as well as their specific
companies as attractive, lucrative places to work.
The 13 most
attractive companies are, for the most part, also powerful global
brands. Of the 13 companies voted as most attractive by the students,
eight are on Interbrand’s 2012 list of the 100 most valuable global
brands. BrandZ, which produces a similar list, also ranks seven of these
13 companies among the 100 most valuable global brands.
Kelly
explains that “there is definitely a strong relationship between a
strong consumer brand and a strong employer brand” because any prestige
and stability are important to students. As a result, prospective
employees are more likely to be attracted to companies with familiar
products.
Being financially successful also appears to impact the
degree to which companies are considered attractive. Most of the 13
companies reported healthy earnings and strong growth over the past
several years. For example, Apple’s revenue has more than quintupled in
the past few years.
These companies also tend to have highly
regarded workplace environments. Companies like Apple, Google, and Ernst
& Young, regularly receive accolades for being great places to
work. According to a Glassdoor survey of employees, seven of these 13
companies are in the top 50 places to work in the U.S.
Based
on the World’s Most Attractive Employers, a report by New York-based
global employer branding firm Universum, 24/7 Wall St. identified the 13
companies students most-wanted to work for in 2012. We also reviewed
Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For and Glassdoor’s Best Places to
Work in order to identify the best workplaces for current employees. We
considered two studies on the value of the companies’ core brands, one
by Interbrand and another by BrandZ. Additionally, we also considered
information on the world’s most innovative companies from Thomson
Reuters’ Top 100 Global Innovators. Revenue and profit listed for these
companies was for the most recent full fiscal year.
1. Google(REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson)> Interbrand rank: 4
> Number of employees: 53,546
> Revenue: $37.9 billion
> Net income: $9.7 billion
Google
tops the list of the World’s Most Attractive Employers, a position the
company has now held for the past four years. The company also ranks
first on Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For, and it isn’t hard to
see why. Fortune points out that the company’s headquarters, dubbed the
Googleplex, contains bocce courts, a bowling alley and 25 cafes company
wide. “Employees are never more than 150 feet away from a well-stocked
pantry,” one Google employee told the magazine. The company is also
generally known for its laid-back corporate environment, with one of the
company’s philosophies, “you can be serious without a suit.” Employees,
even those not at the top, have also reaped financial success. Software
engineers at Google were paid a base salary of $128,336 in 2012, well
above the average of $92,648 for all software engineers.
2. KPMG> Interbrand rank: n/a
> Number of employees: 145,000
> Revenue: $22.7 billion
> Net income: N/A
For
the third consecutive year, KPMG was named by business students as the
world’s second most desirable company to work for, according to
Universum. Of this achievement, Chairman Michael Andrew noted that
“attracting top students into our firms enables us to bring in the best
talent, expertise and knowledge to our clients.” The company earned at
least $20 billion in revenue in both fiscal 2010 and fiscal 2011 from
its auditing , advisory, and tax services businesses. However, in its
survey of top employers, Forbes ranks KPMG the lowest among the Big Four
accounting firms.
3. Procter & Gamble(AP Photo/Al Behrman)> Interbrand rank: n/a
> Number of employees: 126,000
> Revenue: $83.7 billion
> Net income: $10.8 billion
Procter
& Gamble, the maker of household name products such as Crest
toothpaste and Tide laundry detergent, has a host of job opportunities
for business graduates in many of its departments. And P&G’s alumni
have gone on to very successful careers. Prominent alumni include
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt, and
Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman. But the largest consumer goods company
in the world has had challenges recently. Profit has declined for the
last several years, and the company announced in February it planned to
slash 5,700 jobs over a four-year time frame as part of a plan to cut
$10 billion in costs.
4. Microsoft> Interbrand rank: 5
> Number of employees: 94,000
> Revenue: $73.7 billion
> Net income: $17.0 billion
Alongside
Apple, Google and IBM, Microsoft is considered one of the top five
brands in the world by both Interbrand and BrandZ. The company, which
offers widely-used products such as Windows, Xbox, Skype and Microsoft
Office, has been a top choice among business students in each of the
past three years, according to Universum. Further, Microsoft has been
listed in Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For each year since 1998,
although the company ranked just 76th in Fortune’s 2012 report.
Additionally, the company had a mediocre quarter to begin fiscal 2013.
Revenue in the first quarter fell by 8% and operating income fell by 26%
year-over-year, while earnings per share fell from 68 cents in the
first quarter of fiscal 2012 to 53 cents in fiscal 2013. The company’s
stock has risen by 13.8% in the last 12 months, about the same as the
S&P 500 index.