Top Companies 2019: Where India wants to work now

The 2019 LinkedIn Top Companies list reveals the 25 companies where Indians want to work — and stick around once they’re in — now.

Every year, our editors and data scientists parse billions of actions taken by LinkedIn members around the world to uncover the companies that are attracting the most attention from jobseekers and then hanging on to that talent. The data-driven approach looks at what members are doing — not just saying — in their search for fulfilling careers. The result of that data is Top Companies, our 4th annual ranking of the most sought-after companies today.

As always, we analyse India members’ anonymised actions across four main pillars: interest in the company, engagement with the company’s employees, job demand and employee retention. (We exclude LinkedIn and LinkedIn’s parent company, Microsoft, from all LinkedIn Lists. You can dig into the details of our methodology at the bottom of the article.)

You can also check out the Top Companies in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, the U.K. and the U.S. See who made the cut and join the conversation using #LinkedInTopCompanies.

(For more insights, read Raja Jamalamadaka’s analysis of Top Companies, Prabir Jha’s take on new-age ventures populating the list, Sid Pai’s perspective on tech and self-actualisation, and Shashank Shah's views on conglomerates' strong show.)

Here are this year’s 25 Top Companies in India.

Company insights, such as skills and top locations, are sourced from LinkedIn Talent Insights and reflect only employees on LinkedIn. We use headcounts provided by the company whenever possible. More details below.

Last year, Walmart acquired the Flipkart group, which also houses Myntra, Jabong and PhonePe.

Flipkart’s India headcount: 13,900 | Top India locations: Bengaluru, New Delhi, Mumbai | Fastest-growing skills: Spring Framework, Hibernate, HTML5 | Job functions with the most new hires: Engineering, Education, Product Management | What you may not know: Several “Flipsters” became millionaires after India’s largest e-commerce company got acquired for $16 billion. But even contractors and casual workers have a reason to rejoice: Flipkart outscores other gig-economy platforms on fairness of working conditions and wages.

See jobs at Flipkart | See people you may know at Flipkart

Headcount in India: 50,000 | Top India locations: Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai | Fastest-growing skills: Machine Learning, AWS, R | Job functions with the most new hires: Engineering, Operations, Support | Business as usual: Amazon had more than 1,950 job postings in India as on April 2, the highest in Asia-Pacific, despite a recent tightening of e-commerce norms. The company is spreading its wings in the offline world by bagging retail chains and setting up kiosks in malls.

Read more: Six in 10 smart speakers sold in India last year were Amazon Echos | See jobs at Amazon | See people you may know at Amazon

Headcount in India: 7,000 | Top India locations: New Delhi, Gurugram, Bengaluru | Fastest-growing skills: Microsoft Project, Construction Management, Telecommunications | Job functions with the most new hires: Operations, Business Development, Sales | Room for growth: OYO, which has 450,000 exclusive rooms globally, aims to overtake Marriott as the world’s largest hotel chain by 2023. Flush with money from its $1 billion fund-raise, the company is venturing into food-tech, event management and co-working by acquiring startups.

Read more: OYO raises strategic investment from Airbnb, pegged at $150-200M | See jobs at OYO | See people you may know at OYO

One97 is the parent of Paytm and Paytm Money.

Headcount in India: 7,200 | Top India locations: New Delhi, Noida, Mumbai | Fastest-growing skills: Human Resources, Channel Sales, Online Marketing | Job functions with the most new hires: Engineering, Sales, Information Technology | Informal culture: Paytm has done away with the concept of work appointments: employees are free to have impromptu meetings and occupy available rooms without blocking calendars.

See more about One97 Communications | See people you may know at One97 Communications

Headcount in India: 1,700 | Top India locations: Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Mumbai | Fastest-growing skills: Web Services, Android Development, Oracle Database | Job functions with the most new hires: Operations, Engineering, Business Development | Putting pedal to the metal: After the US and Brazil, India clocked the most mileage for Uber in 2018. The ride-hailing firm is doubling its product and engineering headcount at its Bengaluru and Hyderabad facilities.

See jobs at Uber | See people you may know at Uber

Headcount in India: 6,000 | Top India locations: Bengaluru, Mumbai, New Delhi | Fastest-growing skills: Information Technology, Market Analysis, Data Mining | Job functions with the most new hires: Operations, Business Development, Sales | Hungry for more: Swiggy’s valuation surged almost five-fold in 2018, from $700 million in February to $3.3 billion in December. In just 4.5 years, the company set up shop in 75 cities.

Read more: Swiggy in race to buy fast-growing rival | See jobs at Swiggy | See people you may know at Swiggy

Global headcount: 417,900 | Top India locations: Chennai, Mumbai, Bengaluru | Fastest-growing skills: PHP, Web Development, Cascading Style Sheets | Job functions with the most new hires: Information Technology, Engineering, Operations | Hiring binge: The country’s largest IT services company made a net addition of nearly 27,000 employees last year, up four-fold from 7,000 in 2017.

See jobs at Tata Consultancy Services | See people you may know at Tata Consultancy Services

Headcount in India: 4,000 | Top India locations: New Delhi, Gurugram, Mumbai | Fastest-growing skills: AutoCAD, Employee Engagement, Web Content Writing | Job functions with the most new hires: Sales, Operations, Business Development | Blazing growth: The food-tech unicorn claims to be clocking 21 million monthly orders in India, up from 3.5 million at the start of 2018.

Read more: Zomato sells UAE arm to Delivery Hero for $172M | See jobs at Zomato | See people you may know at Zomato

Alphabet is the parent company of Google, YouTube, and others.

Global headcount: 98,800 | Top India locations: Hyderabad, New Delhi, Bengaluru | Fastest-growing skills: Machine Learning, jQuery, Algorithms | Job functions with the most new hires: Engineering, Marketing, Media and Communication | Talent search: Google resumed campus hiring at the IITs in 2018, after giving the elite engineering schools a miss for two consecutive years. 

Read more: Google enters the video-gaming market | See jobs at Alphabet | See people you may know at Alphabet

Reliance Industries is the holding company of Reliance Retail Ventures and Reliance Jio, among others.

Headcount in India: 29,500 | Top India locations: Mumbai, Jamnagar, New Delhi | Fastest-growing skills: Java, C, C++ | Job functions with the most new hires: Engineering, Operations, Business Development | Round-the-clock assistance: Employees and their immediate family members get 24/7 assistance during times of crisis such as medical emergencies, road accidents and fire.

Read more: RIL may launch e-commerce operations soon | See jobs at Reliance Industries | See people you may know at Reliance Industries Limited

Headcount in India: 42,000 | Top India locations: Bengaluru, New Delhi, Mumbai | Fastest-growing skills: Cascading Style Sheets, Python, MySQL | Job functions with the most new hires: Consulting, Business Development, Accounting | Prepping for the future: The professional services firm is sharpening its focus on digital transformation capabilities: it acquired Pune-based digital design firm FCUX last December, and plans to hire 2,000 people across analytics, AI and blockchain in the next three years.

See jobs at EY | See people you may know at EY

Headcount in India: 5,500 | Top India locations: Bengaluru, New Delhi, Noida | Fastest-growing skills: Machine Learning, Matlab, Market Research | Job functions with the most new hires: Engineering, Sales, Information Technology | Earn and invest: Employees can set aside up to 25% of their salary to purchase the company’s stock at a discounted price every six months.

See jobs at Adobe | See people you may know at Adobe

Global headcount: 18,000 | Top India locations: Gurugram, New Delhi, Mumbai | Fastest-growing skills: Python, Big Data, R | Job functions with the most new hires: Business Development, Consulting, Information Technology | International exposure: Over 25% of BCG’s consultants work outside their native countries every year.

See jobs at BCG | See people you may know at BCG

Headcount in India: 21,200 | Top India locations: Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru | Fastest-growing skills: Financial Reporting, Financial Accounting, C | Job functions with the most new hires: Finance, Sales, Business Development | Rapid expansion: India’s fourth-largest private lender aims to grow its retail loan book by 75% in the next two years. How will it achieve that goal? Through measures such as on-boarding thousands of PDS beneficiaries and automating loan approvals.

See jobs at YES BANK | See people you may know at YES BANK

Headcount in India: 100,000 | Top India locations: Bengaluru, New Delhi, Hyderabad | Fastest-growing skills: Cascading Style Sheets, jQuery, HTML | Job functions with the most new hires: Information Technology, Engineering, Consulting | Future bets: The Big Blue is harnessing the power of emerging technologies to solve problems specific to India, whether it’s eradicating food wastage or predicting crop prices to help farmers.

See jobs at IBM | See people you may know at IBM

Global headcount: 298,700 | Top India locations: Bengaluru, Chennai, Pune | Fastest-growing skills: MySQL, JavaScript, Python | Job functions with the most new hires: Engineering, Consulting, Information Technology | Turnaround tale: Daimler AG’s truck vertical in India achieved break-even last year — a remarkable recovery for a business that reported “sick” just four years ago. It plans to launch as many as 52 new products in 2019.

Read more: Daimler prepares to battle Uber, Lyft | See jobs at Daimler AG | See people you may know at Daimler AG

Headcount in India: 1,700 | Top India locations*: Chennai, Bengaluru | Fastest-growing skills*: Rails, Ember, AI/ML | Job functions with the most new hires: Engineering, Sales, Product Management | What you may not know: Freshworks has an eye for people with alternate career interests: it employs marketers who host podcasts, engineers who are full-time musicians, and even social activists.

See jobs at Freshworks | See people you may know at Freshworks

Headcount in India: 150,000 | Top India locations: Bengaluru, Mumbai, Hyderabad | Fastest-growing skills: PHP, Cascading Style Sheets, C | Job functions with the most new hires: Engineering, Information Technology, Business Development | What you may not know: Accenture Operations in India allows its employees sabbaticals of up to a year for reasons ranging from family commitments to higher education. Women employees with children up to 15 months of age can take an hour off on working days.

See jobs at Accenture | See people you may know at Accenture

Global headcount: 7,000 | Top India locations: Bengaluru, Mumbai, New Delhi | Fastest-growing skills: Automotive Design, Human Resources, Banking | Job functions with the most new hires: Operations, Business Development, Engineering | Looking for the next spark: Uber’s homegrown challenger has displayed a distinct focus on green vehicles over the last few months. It mopped up $300 million from Hyundai as part of a partnership focussed on electric cars, soon after its EV arm raised its maiden funding round of ?56 million. The eventual goal: putting 1 million green cars on Indian roads by 2022.

Read more: Ola rolls out autos on UK roads | See jobs at Ola | See people you may know at Ola

Headcount in India: 85,000 | Top India locations: Mumbai, New Delhi, Hyderabad | Fastest-growing skills: Digital Marketing, Engineering, Tally ERP | Job functions with the most new hires: Sales, Finance, Protective Services | Culture shift: Designations such as assistant general manager, deputy general manager and general manager could soon be a thing of the past at the country’s second-largest private bank, which seeks to cut hierarchy and boost accountability.

See jobs at ICICI Bank | See people you may know at ICICI Bank

Headcount in India: 13,200 | Top India locations: Mumbai, Kolkata, New Delhi | Fastest-growing skills: Matlab, Cascading Style Sheets, Python | Job functions with the most new hires: Consulting, Business Development, Information Technology | Eclectic mix: Don’t let PwC’s audit and accounting DNA make you believe it’s a monopoly of chartered accountants and tax professionals. From journalists, doctors and design thinkers to data scientists and environmentalists, employees come from diverse backgrounds.

See jobs at PwC India | See people you may know at PwC India

Headcount in India: 20,000 | Top India locations: Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru | Fastest-growing skills: Tally ERP, Java, JavaScript | Job functions with the most new hires: Consulting, Business Development, Accounting | Foreign investment: The Big Four accounting firm places emphasis on international exposure: Nearly 3,000 KPMG employees have been on international assignments to more than 100 countries in just the last one year.

See jobs at KPMG India | See people you may know at KPMG India

Headcount in India: 52,000 | Top India locations: Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru | Fastest-growing skills: Financial Services, Cascading Style Sheets, Python | Job functions with the most new hires: Engineering, Operations, Programme and Project Management | Zero pay gap: The engineering conglomerate is one of the few home-bred companies to have achieved gender pay parity. It claims its “male to female remuneration ratio is at 1:1.”

Read more: Why L&T wants to take over Mindtree | See jobs at Larsen & Toubro | See people you may know at Larsen & Toubro

Headcount in India: 36,000 | Top India locations: Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai | Fastest-growing skills: NetSuite, C#, Oracle Cloud | Job functions with the most new hires: Engineering, Consulting, Information Technology | Forecasting growth: About 90% of Oracle's employees are located beyond the company's San Francisco Bay Area headquarters, according to LinkedIn data. India is Oracle’s sixth-largest market in the data management space and the company plans to open its first data centre here later this year.

See jobs at Oracle | See people you may know at Oracle

Global headcount: 35,400 | Top India locations: Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai | Fastest-growing skills: Machine Learning, Digital Electronics, HTML | Job functions with the most new hires: Engineering, Information Technology, Quality Assurance | What you may not know: Hyderabad is set to house Qualcomm’s largest facility outside the US. The US chipmaker will invest $400 million and create 10,000 jobs in this campus.

See jobs at Qualcomm | See people you may know at Qualcomm

Share the full list and your thoughts on this year's Top Companies list using #LinkedInTopCompanies.

Methodology

LinkedIn ranks companies based on four pillars: interest in the company, engagement with employees, job demand and employee retention. Interest in the company is measured by unique, non-employee new follows of the company’s LinkedIn page. Employee engagement looks at how many non-employees are viewing unique employees at the company. Job demand counts the rate at which people are viewing and applying to jobs at the company, including both paid and unpaid job postings on LinkedIn. Employee retention measures how many employees are still at the company at least one year after their date of hire, based on LinkedIn member profiles. To be eligible, companies must have at least 500 employees as of Feb. 1 and must have flat or positive employee growth over the 12 months (based on LinkedIn Talent Insights data). Only parent companies rank on the list; majority-owned subsidiaries and associated data are wrapped into its total score. All data is normalized based on company size. The methodology and insights time frame is Feb. 1, 2018 through Jan. 31, 2019. All data is aggregated and anonymised to protect members’ private information.

We exclude all staffing and recruiting firms, nonprofits, educational institutions, government agencies and government-owned entities. We also exclude LinkedIn and LinkedIn’s parent company, Microsoft, from any LinkedIn Lists.

About company insights

*Company insights were sourced from LinkedIn Talent Insights and include the parent company and majority-owned subsidiaries. Data reflects aggregated public member data from active LinkedIn profiles in the relevant country and includes full-time employee profiles associated with the parent company and majority-owned subsidiaries on LinkedIn. We exclude members who identify as part-time or contractors. Headcounts are provided by the companies directly or public filings, unless otherwise noted with an asterisk. Those headcounts are based on LinkedIn data. The insights reflect a 12-month time period looking back from February 2019. *Freshworks data for top locations and skills has been provided by the company.

Correction: Sabbaticals are provided to employees of Accenture Operations in India, not to all employees as previously stated.

Reported by: Dipti Jain & Abhigyan Chand