2014’s Fortune 500 TOP 100 EMPLOYMENT BRANDS

Digital technology and media has shaped the way organizations present themselves to both consumers

and prospective employees. With accessible information and research resources, candidates expect

transparency from prospective employers. With the blending functions of marketing, human resources

and talent acquisition, companies are now focusing on the development, maintenance and promotion

of their employment brand. A strong and informative employment brand has been instrumental in the

attraction and engagement of passive and active candidates.

As this trend becomes more popular due to the positive effect it has on candidate experience, more

companies are utilizing spend and resources to market themselves and their career opportunities in

conjunction with traditional recruitment processes. Stronger partnerships with the marketing and

creative departments have helped talent acquisition gain momentum and experience a virality of their

brands, creating a competitive advantage in the war for talent. In the same sense, companies who

neglect their brand may experience more adversity in attracting and engaging top talent compared to

the companies that have embraced it.

The purpose of this report is to analyze how Fortune 500 companies are building and maintaining their

employment brand by scoring them on several relevant benchmarks. This report evaluates career

branding methods, including career pages, job boards, candidate experience, accolades, recruitment

marketing and social responsibility. Each section will be broken down, rated and assigned numerical points.

EMPLOYMENT BRANDING REPORT2014’s Top 100 Fortune 500 Brands

The WilsonHCG Research Institute™ is proud to present the first Employment Branding Report that evaluates

the employment brands of 2014’s Fortune 500 companies. As experts in employment branding, WilsonHCG

utilized our research resources and analysts to identify the best employment brands from this year’s Fortune

500 list and the industries leading the employment branding movement. Our detailed report breaks down the

compiled objective data and provides examples to showcase the criteria examined during our analysis.

12014’s Fortune 500TOP 100 EMPLOYMENT BRANDS

FORTUNE is a registered trademark of Time Inc. WilsonHCG makes no claim to this mark. FORTUNE and Time Inc. are not affiliated with, and did not endorse this report or any of its contents.

Data used in this report was collected from January 2014 through July 2014.

2014’s Fortune 500TOP 100 EMPLOYMENT BRANDS

table of

CONTENTSPlease see the following page for an overview of the

scorecard benchmarks and their corresponding pages.

04 08 12current state and industry insights

top 100 list career pages

16 20 24job boards candidate experience accolades

28 32 36recruitment marketing corporate

social responsibilitytakeaways

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These materials have been prepared solely for informational purposes and all information cited in the report is publically available via the World Wide Web, from sources believed to be reliable. As such, the information is presented “AS-IS” without warranty of any kind. For a full listing of all sources used please visit WilsonHCG.com/source. All trademarks, logos, service marks and trade names (collectively the

The top companies understand that employment

branding isn’t just about creating attractive

recruitment marketing material, rather that the

brand is apparent in all aspects of the recruitment

process. In order to attract talent equally in

different locales and across job functions, a

company must gather insights into candidate

values and understand how these candidates

are going to look for their next career opportunities.

To guarantee the right information is being

optimized, companies must evaluate all of the

areas that make up a full employment brand.

To stay competitive, organizations will need to

continue to push the envelope to guarantee

their brands are getting in front of talent first

and keeping talents’ interests focused on

them exclusively. In this report, we investigate

the key areas that support a well-rounded

brand. This includes career pages, job boards,

candidate experience, accolades, recruitment

marketing and social responsibility. Within each

category and for every element associated with

each category, a point system has been assigned.

In addition to naming the top companies, we also

identified which industries were best-in-class.

As you explore the report, the scoring

breakdowns and company examples will

provide educational content that helps other

organizations benchmark their own branding

efforts against the top Fortune 500 employment

brands. Take a look at the following pages for a

deeper insight into what’s attracting candidates

and gather ideas to help your organization

build a stronger employment brand.

Companies are realizing the importance of employment branding and discovering the major role it plays in attracting and engaging quality candidates to their organizations. Employment branding should be incorporated in all talent acquisition activities to create a 360-degree view of a company.

An employment brand attracts external candidates and retains

employees while improving the candidate experience and refining the

talent acquisition process. Each company’s brand has a unique style

that best illustrates the “personality” of the organization and provides

“insider” insights into the company culture, values and mission. It’s a

preview into what it’s like to work at a company and why employees

like to work there. Essentially, the purpose of an employment brand is

to bring the company to life and differentiate it from the hiring competition

to increase loyal fans, and therefore, candidates.

To support the continuation of branding in real-time, recruitment marketing

campaigns are key to showcasing the company’s employee value

proposition (EVP). All content developed around this utilizes the EVP

as a focus to ensure consistency no matter which platform the brand

is leveraging to get the word out. To maintain engagement and loyal

candidates, talent communities have emerged to provide a platform

to share segmented content and career opportunities. This platform has

also made it easier for candidates to share information with their own

networks and potentially recruit new talent community members.

of job seekers are wary of working for a company with a negative reputation. –Glassdoor Survey

current state of

EMPLOYMENT BRANDING

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83%

2014’s Fortune 500TOP 100 EMPLOYMENT BRANDS

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2014’s Fortune 500TOP 100 EMPLOYMENT BRANDS

RETAIL: While the retail industry is highly represented on the Fortune 500 list, strong career site content, including images and videos, was the only category that was highly rated.

And, although the career site was strong,

updated and engaging job descriptions

wasn’t. Retail suffers from poor ratings

on Glassdoor, including for the CEO. Most

do not provide details about corporate

social responsibility, career-specific

social media sites are lacking and many

did not receive accolades.

TECHNOLOGY: As one might expect, the technology industry often ranked within the top tier for most of the categories.

The technology industry ranked in the

career pages, candidate experience,

corporate social responsibility and

accolade categories. Contributing factors

may be due to the typical company

culture associated with tech companies,

capital resources and the push to find

top candidates from a limited talent

pool. It seems as if technology-based

companies optimize most aspects of

a complete employment brand.

HEALTHCARE: After concluding our research, the healthcare industry was top ranking in the recruitment marketing category, specifically healthcare focusing on pharmaceutical.

Recruiting in the healthcare industry can

pose a number of challenges, as many

candidates for this industry are not easily

swayed and/or found by traditional

means. Even job boards can be difficult

to yield quality results. Healthcare

optimizes recruitment marketing as a way

to get in front of and attract passive

jobseekers who will be the right cultural fit.

BANKING AND FINANCE: Banking and financial services were among the top industries represented on the Fortune 500 list, but the only category the industries had an influence on was job boards.

Many of these companies were lacking

in other areas of employment branding.

Although they rank high on mainstream

job boards, numbers are mediocre for

niche job boards. Additionally, grading

was low for corporate social responsibility

and accolades.

MEDIA/COMMUNICATIONS: With expertise in these channels, the media and communications industries have received high ratings for career site content, social media and videos.

Unfortunately, they are lacking in other

employment branding areas. The results

show that employee reviews on Glassdoor

rate the majority of these companies

2 or below out of 5. Additionally, these

companies don’t provide many details

describing their corporate social

responsibility. Very few have received

awards or accolades as well.

While each industry studied is known for

differentiators due to their strategic consumer

branding, these efforts are bleeding into

companies’ recruitment strategies. The way

in which technology has increased interactivity

coupled with the importance of employees’

work-life blend have contributed to a new

segment of branding for an organization:

the employment brand.

Industries’ overall employment branding efforts

have initially taken shape based on their

established consumer brand recognition.

Although some industries have stuck with

tried-and-true practices, others are leveraging

their expertise to boost their brand. We

found bold approaches in uncharacteristic

industries, while others were unexpectedly

conservative in certain areas.

industry

INSIGHTS

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