Dive Brief:
-
Tech giants Google, Salesforce, Facebook, Apple and Amazon—all key players in retail—topped professional networking site LinkedIn's first Top Attractors list, which leverages data accumulated from hundreds of millions of LinkedIn members to identify the companies where professional across the globe most desire to work.
-
Apple ranks number four on the Top Attractors list. LinkedIn notes that most retail workers at Apple stores enjoy restricted stock units in the company (an unusual benefit for hourly workers) and report satisfaction based on flexibility and working with talented co-workers. Apple has also hired 65% more women in a recent 12-month period, LinkedIn adds.
-
Amazon, which has been the subject of reports criticizing working conditions in its warehouses as well as in its white-collar offices, came in at number five, thanks to its above-average compensation, its tuition subsidies for education related to in-demand fields, and its Amazon Women in Engineering mentorships, according to LinkedIn.
Dive Insight:
For this report, LinkedIn crunched a bunch of numbers, including “billions of actions taken on LinkedIn by our 433+ million members,” according to its blog. The site looked at companies with more than 500 employees and based its conclusions on exclusive LinkedIn data like applications for jobs, company reach, member engagement, new hire staying power and an editorial lens, according to a press release.
The study found a few key reasons employees are drawn to companies: They’re attracted to growing organizations rather than more stable, “blue chip” firms; they’re attracted to tech-focused companies; and they appear to value strong leadership in the CEO spot, with 65% preferring to work for a company with a strong CEO than have a “fancy title.”
In addition, almost half of professionals would rather have flexibility in their jobs than perks or even higher salaries, LinkedIn found. Nearly half of the U.S. companies on the list have flexible work policies.
“LinkedIn is uniquely equipped to determine where the world's professionals want to work—and we know it based on the billions of actions they take, not on self-reported surveys,” Daniel Roth, LinkedIn executive editor, said in a statement. “We felt that the Top Attractors list couldn't come at a more urgent time. Companies around the globe are forced to keep pace with an accelerating rate of technological and economic change. Having and keeping the right people is what is going to separate the winners and losers. And the better these top companies get at attracting, the harder it is for competitors to catch up."