Students pick the world’s most attractive employer

Over 3 lakh students from 12 countries have chosen the most attractive employer

While all organizations, big and small, are trying to crack the talent challenge through innovation and novelty; it may be time to pause and ponder where the talent is queuing up to work. Universum Global’s 9th annual World’s Most Attractive Employer Rankings (WMEA) 2017 might just have the answer. Combining the voices of “more than 290,000 business and engineering/IT students from the world’s 12 largest economies”, the rankings list the employers that students find most desirable.

As one might expect, the “survey is the largest of its kind, delivering valuable insights to employers around the globe. The WMAE rankings recognize global organizations actively implementing preferable employer attributes catering to talented students in both business and engineering/IT professions.” To rankings hold special relevance to Indian HR professionals, as by the virtue of being the sixth largest economy in the world, a dedicated space has been allotted to understand the companies that students find most attractive in our country. “. The survey was conducted from October 2016 to June 2017, reaching 145,437 business students and 149,226 engineering/IT students.”

Bigger isn’t better

74% of the students globally want to work in a company with less than 1,000 employees. However, that did not stop Google from the most attractive employer to both IT and business students, all over the world. The business rankings became more diverse and included players from e-commerce, insurance, and logistics this year. The decline in the interest to work in FMCGs has been attributed to the fact that many of the brands did not speak to the students individually. For this year, “the top 3 preferred industries include management and strategy consulting, banking and financial services.”

The engineering/IT talent wants to enter the software, industrial engineering and manufacturing and aerospace fields globally. Despite having three big names in the top 20, “the automotive sector as a whole is not seen as a go-to industry for Engineering/IT students. Among engineering/IT talent in 2017, preferred industries include software, computer services, multimedia development and digital entertainment; few of which are surprising.”

What the talent is looking for

Globally, student goals for business and engineering/IT students had the goals of working for an international company as a top goal. These were followed by working for a national company, continue studying, starting my own business and working for a start-up. However, the motivations of the two groups for these motivations were different. While business students wanted higher future earnings, a creative and dynamic work environment, leaders who will support development, professional training and development and good reference for future career (in that order); engineering/IT students yearned for a creative and dynamic work environment, innovation, higher future earnings, professional training and development and secure employment (in that order).

Students all over the world, expect in Russia, India and Germany, strive for work-life balance as their number one career goal. While Russian students prefer job security, for Indian students the goal of making an international career leaves others behind.

Here are the global rankings as listed by WMAE 2017:

294,663 students from 1752 universities around the world submitted 1,721,074 evaluations between October 2016 and May 2017 to pick the top most attractive employers:

Business Rankings (Global):

Google
Goldman Sachs
Apple
EY (Ernst & Young)
PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers)
Deloitte
Microsoft
L'Oréal Group
KPMG
J.P. Morgan

Engineering/IT Rankings (Global):

Google
Microsoft
Apple
General Electric (GE)
BMW Group
IBM
Intel
Siemens
Sony
Samsung

Here are the Indian rankings as listed by WMAE 2017

29,208 Indian students from 128 universities were surveyed and 97,167 employer evaluations collected between November 2016 and April 2017. The results are as follows:

Business/Commerce Rankings (India):