Google Named the World’s Most Attractive Employer

Global employment branding expert Universum released its “The World’s Most Attractive Employers 2012 ” (WMAE 2012) rankings, and for the fourth consecutive year in a row Google took the number one spot. The WMAE rankings are divided into two categories: business, which reflects the top employers for business students and engineering, which displays the most attractive engineer employers.

The rankings were based on the responses of more than 144,000 job seekers from the world’s 12 largest economies. KPMG, the global network of firms that provides audit, tax and advisory services, came in at no.2 for the second year in a row. Cincinnati-based Procter Gamble increased from last year’s ranking as the third most attractive employer in the world in 2012.

“The Google fever is still hot!” said Universum’s CEO Petter Nylander. “Students are still attracted to Google’s relaxed and creative work environment, international atmosphere and innovative products. Google lets the students know that they offer great benefits that are hard for other companies to match.”

Google also took first place in the engineering for the fourth consecutive year in a row. IBM and Microsoft landed in second and third place, respectively.

The rankings not only revealed the most attractive companies, but some dramatic trends:

• The automotive industry is increasing in popularity. Seven of the top 50 World’s Most Attractive Employers are automotive companies.
• Oil, gas and energy companies attract engineering students. Several energy companies, such as GE, Shell, BP and Exxon Mobil, improved their rankings among engineers.
• Management consulting —McKinsey Company and The Boston Consulting Group — rose in the Business index.
• International careers attract students.
• More social media outlets are being used to communicate with employers. Fourteen percent of all students visit online communities each hour while 57 percent visit social networking sites at least a couple of times per day. This is an average of 23 minutes per visit spent on these sites.