Apple at the top, the 2018 verdict on who are Australia's most attractive employers...

As a global leader in the world of HR and talent acquisition, we fully understand the importance of a good employer branding and in many ways it sits at the core of our business.

In line with this, last year we reset our employer branding globally to bring back humanity to the tech-driven world of human resources, we call this approach Human Forward.

This new brand direction brings to life the promise to solve candidate and client frustrations by marrying high tech processes with the emotional intelligence only humans can bring and everything we do as a business anchors back to this.

Your organisation’s employer brand is the most powerful tool you have in attracting and retaining the people that can make your organisation a success. It’s not something you can dictate to the market, it is a conclusion the market draws based on the information you provide, the experience of your employees, and what the broader market says about you when interacting with your organisation and staff.

The challenge for most us is that we have a view of the strength of our employer brand which doesn’t always align with the market perception.

Randstad’s Employer Brand Research is the most comprehensive independent research on employer branding in the world. It provides unique insights into the world of work alongside employee and job seekers’ drivers and reveals the top employers and industries in Australia.

the 2018 picture

The 2018 Randstad Employer Brand Research reinforced Australia’s devotion to all things tech, with Apple named as the nation’s top employer and technology outshining the aviation sector for the first time in four years.

Apple was recognised for its innovation focus, financial stability and strong reputation. This was followed by Virgin Australia and Qantas which ranked second and third respectively, which were also valued for their perceived robust financials, focus on innovation and public reputations.

Unsurprisingly, technology was named as the most attractive industry in Australia, followed by early learning and engineering. The rankings reiterate the importance of organisations investing in innovation while maintaining their public image to engage employees and attract job seekers.

why are these sectors doing well?

Technology is ingrained into our everyday lives. From ordering food on the fly, to searching the latest jobs, the whole world is just a few taps away from your fingertips.

Apple has led the technology revolution, so it’s no surprise that Aussies looking to ride the wave of innovation see the Californian tech giant and the technology sector in general as a great place to develop their careers.

It’s also no surprise that the aviation industry continues to be named as one of the most attractive sectors year after year.  In addition to joining iconic companies, Australians love to travel and working for an airline offers not only the opportunity to travel the world, but also financial compensation and real opportunities for career development.

While innovation is increasingly important to Australians, work-life balance is the single most important reason for more than half of employees to choose their employer, a consistent finding since 2016 but for the first time ever it tops the list of wishes from employees and job seekers. It is something that is valued across the board by all workers but interestingly, its most highly valued by workers aged 25-44 (57 per cent) compared to their younger and older peers.

It increasingly demonstrates that workers aren’t solely focused on salary and long-term job security and it is the ability for companies to deliver genuine, consistent and balanced experiences that will prove to be the big winners in a competitive job market. Isn’t that also one of the feature showcase by many players in the winning Tech sector?

what does your company stand for?

In the current state of play, it’s no surprise that an alignment of personal values with a company’s culture is a key factor in an employee’s satisfaction working there, with industry research indicating 80 per cent of employees have left a company specifically because of its culture.

One of the biggest disconnects we see is a misalignment on what a company says it values and what it actually values. If we don’t deliver the type of company culture we promise, we risk experiencing higher staff turnover and lower engagement.

Despite these known risks, it happens time and time again and I cannot emphasize enough the need to do a regular employer brand health check. This includes making sure everyone in the business from the C-suite, the frontline, to new starters and long-term employees are aligned on the corporate values.

Do we believe in these values? Is there clear evidence that our employees are genuinely experiencing them on a daily basis? To make it authentic, we need to invest time and resources and we also need to make sure it is not only an HR or marketing exercise.

With Randstad’s long and successful track record in delivering employer branding insights since 2000, I encourage you to utilise this research to help you understand what matters most to Australians, identify your organisation’s strengths and gaps, as well as provide you with strategies to turn your brand into a powerful attraction and retention tool.

taking action

To download the complete 2018 Randstad Employer Brand Research report, click here.