Potentialpark’s annual employer brand rankings honours global employers with the best talent communication across their career channels. The awards reveal global recruitment marketing trends employers need to know to attract the best people in today’s “talent crunch.”
Potentialpark’s annual rankings honours global employers who have the best digital talent communication across their career channels. The awards recognise top performers who excel across four broad categories: career website, applying online, social media and mobile experience. From 732 selected organisations from across the globe evaluated, 90 top employers qualify for the Global Ranking 2019 as representative employers with global talent communication strategies.
“The emergence of new career channels, new candidate behaviours, and expectations, as well as what evolving technology offers, have brought new opportunities to improve talent communication and candidate experience,” says Henrik Cullgren, CEO of Potentialpark, “We have seen the successful strategies implemented by global employers. To which, we are excited to celebrate this year’s most talent-friendly employers in our 2019 Global Rankings.”
This year, German engineering and steel production multinational thyssenkrupp wins first place in the Global Ranking with its well-defined communication strategy and working with the latest developments in the application experience and attracting talent.
“We’re really happy in being ranked first (globally) in digital talent communication! It shows that we put the candidate first in all we do, no matter what. And that’s a must when attracting talent,” says Kathrin Dennler, Head of Sourcing & Recruiting, thyssenkrupp AG. “We’re already looking forward to exploring new trends—particularly those that are meaningful to our candidates.”
Here are the top 10 global employers in digital talent communication:
| Rank 2019 | Employer |
| 1 | thyssenkrupp |
| 2 | L’Oréal |
| 3 | SAP |
| 4 | UnitedHealth Group |
| 5 | BASF |
| 6 | AccorHotels |
| 7 | Continental |
| 8 | Dell |
| 9 | ABB |
| 10 | Deloitte |
Rapidly evolving work structures compensate for talent crunch
There are a number of forces now at play in the world of recruitment which have a significant impact on the ability of organisations to acquire the right candidates. Global unemployment rates have fallen steadily (EU 6.9%, US 4%, AU 5.02%), resulting in a shrinking pool of available candidates. Furthermore, the skills and capabilities required today are changing at such an accelerated pace that finding the right candidate for tomorrow is more difficult than ever.
Global economies will need a surplus of 85.2 million workers by 2030. Leading global economies will miss out on $8.452 trillion in revenue if the gap isn’t filled. In parallel, we have the future of work (where artificial intelligence and automation are being adopted as mainstream) and the evolving way of working (such as the emerging gig-economy) which create greater incentives for organisations to innovate and adapt. Due to these interplay of forces, the shortage of talent which is now often referred to as the “talent crunch”, will become more acute in the coming 10 years.
Candidates have become more selective, yet less patient than before. Still, they are hungry for specific insights of the employers to see if they fit, but often the information employers provide is too general. On this journey in an increasingly digital landscape, effective communication and talent communication will be the key differentiator between those who stand out and those who miss out. The Potentialpark Study presents a comprehensive evaluation of organisations from the candidate’s perspective.
All eyes on employer review platforms
Within this context of intense competition, organisations continue to invest in social media channels to attract the attention of their ideal future candidates and showcase their latest job offers. Among the organisations evaluated, all are present on LinkedIn. More than half of the organisations evaluated are present on Facebook despite data privacy scandals. There is also a steady onward and upward trend with more organisations spending time and effort in managing their career-related Instagram accounts.
While social media remains relevant for candidate attraction and engagement, the major shift this year has been the emergence of employer review platforms. Today, 60% of candidates check company reviews, where job boards, for example, Indeed, and review platforms such as Glassdoor, are important channels for this purpose. At least 30% of candidates’ decision in applying to a company is influenced by these company reviews.
(Check out this guide on how to turn negative Glassdoor reviews into positive brand experiences!)
Job search convenience, thanks to Artificial Intelligence
The Potentialpark Study 2019 shows that candidates expect quicker and customised access to their job enquiries. Organisations are responding by providing better-organised, more easily accessible and more specific information to different target groups, such as through artificial intelligence, with the aim of facilitating candidate navigation through the sea of irrelevant career options.
More organisations have implemented a career matching tool on their websites. Candidates simply upload their CV or LinkedIn profile, and based on the information provided, the website will display links to suitable job openings. Some forerunners, although not many, are trying to develop their chatbot capabilities, utilising programs that guide users through structured conversations.
Applying made simpler
50% of candidates have given up on an online application before completing it (+8% since 2018), thus organisations keep adopting new measures to try to ease the frustration and facilitate smoother application processes. More organisations are offering applications through mobile. Moreover, the majority of organisations allow candidates to apply using their profile on professional networks such as LinkedIn. Yet, these attempts to facilitate quicker candidate applications have created a new challenge from organisations’ perspective; they now face a larger than ever influx of applications, making it more time consuming and difficult to find the perfect candidate, hence the increased delay in response time.
With the evolving landscape of HR communication, the competition in hiring the right candidate intensifies. From this point on, organisations need innovative recruitment strategies to keep up.
About the Potentialpark Study 2019
The Potentialpark Study 2019 is the world’s most comprehensive annual market study on digital career communication channels. A global survey was conducted between September to December 2018 and the findings represent over 43,900 responses across 117 countries. 4,599 digital communication channels were evaluated, representing 445 unique employers and their performance on 325 criteria according to their importance to the respondents. 90 selected employers are presented in the Global Ranking.
Contact: marketing@potentialpark.com