Google, Salesforce, Facebook, Apple and Amazon top LinkedIn list of best at hiring and keeping talent
According to a LinkedIn list, technology companies rule the roost of companies that people want to land jobs at, with Google, Salesforce, Facebook, Apple and Amazon taking the top five slots in the US.
The “LinkedIn Top Attractors” list focuses on companies that are “the world’s best hirers and keepers of talent” and uses an action-based methodology, looking at the billions of actions created by LinkedIn’s more than 433m users. The actions include job applications, engagements and new hire staying power — all normalized to “ensure that companies were measured against their peers versus the total universe of companies,” according to a post by LinkedIn’s executive editor, Daniel Roth.
Microsoft, which recently acquired the company, clocked in at number seven. The rest of the top ten were Uber (#6), Tesla (#8), Twitter (#9) and Airbnb (#10). Under Armour was the only sports brand in the top 40 in the US (#17), though Nike ranked #35 on the global list and Adidas was ranked #38. The only marketing and advertising company to crack the top 40 was Irving, Texas-based Epsilon (#21) and the sole PR/Communications company was Edelman (#29). Entertainment companies dotted the landscape as well with Netflix (#11), Viacom (#33), Live Nation (#34), HBO (#35) and Fox (#37) making the list.
Suzy Welch, former Harvard Business Review editor in chief and best-selling author, found the tech-heavy cut of the finding’s jib interesting but not entirely unexpected.
“Though comparatively small and wildly competitive, the tech industry is Shangri-la for workers of the world today. When I talked to Adam Grant, a professor at Wharton Business School and author of two best-selling books about management, about this finding, he wasn’t surprised. ‘Every industry in the world is being disrupted by technology. Would you rather join a company that’s leading the charge or watch yours go out of business?’ he says. ‘Tech companies have raised the bar on what it means to be a great place to work: not just free food and ping pong tables, but a chance to do creative work on important problems, collaborate with highly motivated, talented colleagues, learn from world-class experts, and have a real voice.’”
Welch also noted that most of those in the top 20 on the LinkedIn list are still being led by founders, which makes a difference, with Grant noting that: “If I could pick any company, I’d want to work where the founder is at the helm. It’s a clear signal that mission will come before profits, people will matter as much as technology, and values won’t change like the weather,” he says. “People are drawn to a company with a strong identity—they want it to stand for something distinctive and enduring. The founder is a symbol that it will.”
Another aspect that propped companies up were those that offered better perks and benefits such as extended parental leave, though that is an entree into a more important component — where, as Welch puts it, “companies who top the charts here seem to reflect what so many of us feel in our bones just by living and working in today’s ever-changing and uncertain economy: people are hungry for jobs that give them meaning, purpose, and a future. At a time when no career can really be planned and no job is ever really secure, we seek opportunities that are the most likely to offer immediate impact, an energizing culture, and a valuable credential.”