Australia’s most sought-after company

PROFESSIONAL networking site LinkedIn has revealed Australia’s 10 most sought-after places to work. Is your employer on the list?

Pictured at the Google offices in Sydney today is Stephanie Borgman who is a talent scout for Google and goes to all the universities to get talented techies to apply for the Google internship.

PROFESSIONAL networking site LinkedIn has revealed Australia’s 30 most sought-after employers. The winner probably won’t surprise you.

Last month, recruitment firm Randstad named Virgin Australia as the country’s most attractive employer based on a survey of 12,000 Australians.

According to LinkedIn, however, the dream employer for most professionals is mining giant Rio Tinto, which returns to number one after topping the list in 2013.

Google came in second place, followed by BHP Billiton — which appeared in the list for the first time — with Microsoft and Leighton Contractors rounding out the top five.

Ironically, Rio Tinto has been slashing jobs this year as chief executive Sam Walsh goes on a cost-cutting drive to remove duplication. More than 1000 jobs on the east and west coasts are thought to be in the firing line, according to The Australian.

But it just goes to show that even as the mining boom winds down, professionals still have a keen eye on Australia’s lucrative resources sector — mining, oil and energy companies were consistently rated the most attractive by LinkedIn users.

The ranking is based on user interactions with company pages and surveys measuring ‘reach’ and ‘engagement’ — that is, how familiar people are with the companies, and how interested they are in working there.

The analysis also took into account weighted member actions like viewing employee profiles, visiting company pages and following companies. The reach and engagement scores were then averaged to get a company’s InDemand score.

LinkedIn has more than seven million registered users in Australia and more than 364 million worldwide. While the Randstad awards were based on a cross-section of 12,000 Australians of working age, the LinkedIn study is skewed towards professionals.

According to LinkedIn, the Australian results were in stark contrast to the US, where internet technology and e-commerce companies such as Google, Apple and Amazon took out the top places.

Nevertheless, tech companies are on the rise in Australia, moving up the list since 2013. Apple has jumped eight places in two years, while Google and Microsoft moved up one and two places, respectively.

Rio Tinto spokesman Bruce Tobin said the company was proud to be the number one employer for 2015. “LinkedIn is a key communications platform to connect with the thousands of talented and highly motivated people in Australia who are interested in our company,” he said. “We are grateful for the support and interest of our 215,000 followers on LinkedIn.”

Four Australian-based companies made the top 10 this year, and all of the top 10 companies — rounded out by Qantas, Apple, Chevron, Lend Lease and Thiess — have at least 9000 employees. All have operations outside of Australia.

Tim Grogan, talent brand strategist at LinkedIn, said companies with strong “talent brands” outperform their peers on the stock market. “Currently 77 per cent of Australian talent acquisition leaders say talent brand has a significant impact on their ability to hire great talent, and we believe this is set to grow,” he said.

He added that strong employer brands can halve a company’s cost-per-hire, and companies with strong employer brands have a 28 per cent lower turnover rate than those with weaker brands.

AUSTRALIA’S MOST IN-DEMAND EMPLOYERS FOR 2015

1. Rio Tinto

2. Google

3. BHP Billiton

4. Microsoft

5. Leighton Contractors

6. Qantas

7. Apple

8. Chevron

9. Lend Lease

10. Thiess

11. Shell

12. Origin Energy

13. Santos

14. Accenture

15. Commonwealth Bank

16. Deloitte

17. WorleyParsons

18. BP

19. John Holland

20. Macquarie Group

21. IBM

22. NBN Co

23. Westpac

24. NAB

25. Virgin Australia

26. ANZ

27. Lion

28. Hewlett-Packard

29. Coles

30. UGL

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