The top 25 places Australians want to work revealed: How to make your business more attractive to staff

Dominic Powell / Friday, May 19, 2017

Accounting firms and financial groups have taken out the top spots on LinkedIn’s 2017 list of the top 25 companies Australians want to work at, and experts say SMEs can learn a thing or two from their tactics.

The list is compiled from data gathered from Australian LinkedIn members and engagement with individual companies, including the number of job applications, employee engagement, and employee retention.

Accounting firms PWC and KMPG took out the top two spots again this year. Both of these companies have big employee bases, with each employing between 6500-7000 Australian staff.

LinkedIn believes the focus on employee wellbeing and flexible work at the two consulting firms makes them a regular favourite for job-seeking Aussies.

Banks Westpac and Commonwealth took out the third and fourth spots, while retail conglomerate Wesfarmers and airline giant Qantas took out the next two places.

Rounding out the top 10 is engineering company CIMIC Group, big four accounting firm Deloitte, financial company Macquarie Group, and telco giant Telstra.

After making the top 10 last year, companies UGL and Lion being booted to lower rankings.

Director of talent and learning solutions at LinkedIn ANZ Jason Laufer said in a statement the companies on the list feature a “strong employer brand” which is crucial to their recruitment.

“We know that a company’s culture and purpose are key drivers for attracting great talent, but also retaining employees,” Laufer said.

“Companies that are developing and sharing content through their employees’ networks are actively demonstrating their employer brand to potential candidates.”

What SMEs can learn from the big players

Human resources expert at HR Staff’n’Stuff Danielle Stone believes the top 25 companies share a number of themes which make them attractive to potential employees.

These include an efficient on-boarding program, work flexibility offerings, a focus on wellbeing, and beneficial leave programs.

LinkedIn’s analysis is only based on companies with more than 500 employees, so the large majority of SMEs would be ineligible to make the list. However, Stone believes there’s a number of ways small business owners can take a leaf out of the big end of town’s book to make their workplaces desirable to new candidates.

“It’s relatively simple for SMEs to adopt some of these sorts of principles to ensure employee engagement and make the business a place that people are proud to work at,” Stone says.

“For instance, every business should have a well-planned induction program for all new employees, even if it’s only for their first day.”

In Stone’s opinion, it’s all about SMEs thinking outside the box when it comes to attracting future employees, noting most small businesses don’t have the resources to put a concentrated focus on employee engagement strategies.

“It’s about looking at the culture you’re trying to create and doing everything you can to try and attract the right sort of people to keep building that culture,” she says.

However, she warns business owners shouldn’t always take these tasks into their own hands, advising businesses to speak to their staff about what they want, and use that as a basis to build their strategy.

“Some business owners try and determine what the staff want and come up with all these ideas which invariably miss the mark,” she says.

“Doing a simple employee engagement survey and finding out what’s important to staff and employees is where business owners should start.”

The full list of LinkedIn’s top 25 Australian companies are below.

1	PwC Australia	13	Scentre Group
2	KPMG Australia	14	Downer
3	Westpac Group	15	Lendlease
4	Commonwealth Bank	16	REA Group
5	Wesfarmers	17	AMP
6	Qantas	18	Vodafone Australia
7	CIMIC Group	19	National Australia Bank
8	Deloitte Australia	20	Origin Energy
9	Macquarie Group	21	Cotton On Group
10	Telstra	22	Lion
11	Virgin Australia	23	Woolworths Group
12	Suncorp Group	24	BHP
		25	Bank of Queensland