John Lewis Wins Randstad Award for Most Attractive Employer in UK

LONDON, September 12, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

Co-operative retailer and high street favourite John Lewis has won the inaugural Randstad Award for Most Attractive Employer in the UK.

The parent company of Major Players, a recruitment consultancy specialising in a wide range of marketing jobs, Randstad is a Dutch powerhouse and the second largest recruitment and HR services firm worldwide.

The professionally-led research found over half of the 7,746 (53%) British jobseekers and workers surveyed picked John Lewis as the company they would most like to work for, perceiving the company to have strong management and a pleasant work atmosphere.

The top three voted most attractive companies to work for in the UK were:

1. John Lewis
2. Cadbury
3. Marks & Spencer

Long-term job security was listed by respondents as the overall most important factor when seeking an employer (68%). Other significant factors included competitive salary and benefits (54%), a pleasant working atmosphere (52%) and an interesting job (48%).

A company's financial health (42%) was also a priority.

Typical gender values seemed to hold true, as Randstad's research found that men look for financially sound companies with strong management and career prospects, whereas women prefer organisations that offer flexible working, accessibility, atmosphere and interesting job content.

Randstad also found that interesting jobs, accessibility and flexible working are generally bigger priorities for older workers. Younger people look more for career prospects and training at companies that have a strong image and reputation.

Mark Bull, Randstad's UK CEO, commented, "The last few years have seen rapid changes in both job-seeking behaviour and recruitment practices. When organisations are in a position to recruit new staff they are all chasing after the top five per cent of talent. It has never been more important to have a strong employer brand to attract the key skills required to meet the challenges UK plc faces. The stronger a company's employer brand is, the more likely it is to grow and flourish.

"With skills shortages continuing to intensify, insights from the Randstad Award research will help employers find out why potential candidates choose one company over another and what factors determine the attractiveness of a workplace."

The Randstad Award was first launched in Belgium in 1999 and this marks the first time it has been awarded in the UK - so well done to John Lewis, Cadbury and Marks & Spencer!

Globally, the Randstad Award is the largest piece of employer branding research out there, based on the views of over 100,000 jobseekers and workers in 14 countries. It has become a coveted accolade due to the unrivalled scale of the research on which it is based.

About the Randstad Award

The Randstad Award aims to reward and encourage the best practices in building the best employer brands, as chosen by workers and jobseekers in search of employment opportunities within leading organisations.

The Randstad Award program is based on a robust research platform that gives unique insight into the key drivers of talent attraction within the UK and across the world. Randstad has been working with globally respected research company ICMA International for over 10 years. In 1999, Randstad and ICMA launched the first Randstad Award program in Belgium to measure employer brands. Based on its success, Randstad has expanded the research program into 14 countries around the world and the UK for the first time.

Randstad Award Methodology: the Randstad Award survey is based on the perceived attractiveness of companies in a specific market. The 150 largest employers per country are selected, each with at least 1,000 employees. The number of respondents on average per market is 7,000. This is a representative sample to measure attractiveness of the 150 companies. Samples are based on national demographics (age, region, gender, education level) with a slight emphasis on respondents aged below 40, potential workers being the target audience of the survey. Each sample is representative of age, region and gender, and includes students, employed and unemployed workforce aged between 18 and 65 years old. The UK survey was conducted in February 2012 amongst 7,746 respondents.

If you would like to know more, the complete global Randstad Award report, including results by gender, age and education, is available at http://www.randstad.com/award.