WilsonHCG’s 2021 Fortune 500 Employment Branding Report analyzes and ranks the employment brands of each Fortune 500 company. In its seventh year of publication, the ranking’s top spot went to Cisco Systems for the first time.
Covering 20,000 data points, researchers evaluated each Fortune 500 company on the following categories: recruitment marketing, career advertising, career pages, accolades, corporate social responsibility, and employee reviews and candidate experience.
HR Technology News: Whirlpool Corporation’s Chairman And CEO Marc Bitzer To Be Founding Member Of OneTen Coalition
This year’s report shows the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on employment branding and drives home the importance for employers to be transparent and overcommunicate.
“Our research showed the companies who invested in their people throughout the pandemic excelled in our ranking,” said John Wilson, CEO at WilsonHCG. “We expect to see this trend continuing. How companies dealt with their employees during the pandemic will be a factor in the decision-making process for candidates when selecting new opportunity.”
Taking a proactive approach to talent and catering employment branding efforts to all generations and segments of workers will differentiate the employers of choice in the new world of work, as will taking a strong stance when it comes to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB).
HR Technology News: TecHRseries Interview with Benjamin Granger, Ph.D., Sr. Principal at Qualtrics XM Institute
Key findings:
Employee-generated content valued in recruitment marketing: The average score in the recruitment marketing category was 10 points out of 17. Companies that scored above average embraced employee-generated content in unique ways, leveraged more social media channels and made greater use of talent communities.
Organizations with talent communities/networks doubled: Whether companies are anticipating a spike in hiring this year or are planning for future access to top talent, prioritizing a talent community and genuine engagement made the top of the list.
Career advertising hit by hiring freezes: Many companies halted hiring in 2020, so this category saw the greatest decrease in average points earned, dropping 50% from last year.
Rise of the bot: The number of companies with chatbots on their career sites doubled compared with the previous year’s research. This is a trend that will continue throughout 2021 as there are more candidates in the job market so the requirement to automate time-consuming tasks will become more apparent.
HR Technology News: The Reality Of Being Childfree In The Workplace