These Hot Companies Are Magnets for Talent LinkedIn has published its "Top Attractors" list, examining the companies that lure and retain the most employees.
By Lydia Belanger •
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Major tech companies wield immense influence in our lives, shaping how we find information, correspond with others and complete errands and daily tasks. But the magnitude of the services that these companies provide isn't the only way to measure their success. They also share certain internal characteristics that make them desirable to job seekers.
LinkedIn has announced its first Top Attractors list, outlining which U.S. companies are the most coveted workplaces in 2016 among the network's 433 million members. The top 10 most attractive companies on the list are all tech companies, with Google at number one, followed by Salesforce, Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Uber, Microsoft, Tesla, Twitter and Airbnb. When it comes to the top-ranked companies globally, Apple switches places with Google, earning the top spot while Google sits at number four.
Related: These CEOs -- Including Some of Your Favorites -- Are the Most Highly Reviewed by Their Employees
To determine the rankings, LinkedIn looked at how its members behave, counting job posting views and submitted applications, non-employees' attempts to view and connect with a company's employees, a company's LinkedIn page views, the performance of a company's LinkedIn content and how long new employees stay with a company.
In analyzing the data, LinkedIn went beyond staging a popularity contest. After figuring out which companies get the most attention, the team dug deeper to find out why.
For one, the trendiness of the tech field is only part of why certain companies charted well. LinkedIn found that eight of the top 10 companies are still run by their original CEO. Prospective employees value name recognition, and long-term commitment leads to notability.
Other attributes that made LinkedIn members latch onto companies involve how they treat their employees. Workers want to enter a new job and earn rewarding responsibilities quickly. They're also wooed by perks -- everything from free food to generous vacation packages, or more surprising offerings such as paying for workers' gender-affirmation surgeries.
Along with such benefits, employees want flexibility. Many top employers allow telecommuting, while others accommodate long-term parental leave. Last month, LinkedIn surveyed 6,266 members and found that nearly half of them would accept a lesser title and salary at a new company in exchange for flexibility in their schedules.
As the academic year comes to an end and graduates line up their first jobs, many will gravitate toward the Top Attractors for all of the reasons described above, as well as for elite brand recognition. But those who work with less established companies, especially in the tech world, warn against jumping on the Google bandwagon.
Y Combinator co-founder Paul Graham has been disappointed to find out that a large percentage of graduates flock to a small group of companies, despite likely impending industry shifts. "They should be going to whatever company is the present-day equivalent of Google in 2001," Graham told Quartz.
Related: The Top 10 Companies to Work for in 2016
Most companies will never be Google, or even the next Google. But to attract and retain talent, they can take a few pointers from the Silicon Valley giants.
Here is the full U.S. list of LinkedIn's Top Attractors.
1. Google2. Salesforce
3. Facebook
4. Apple
5. Amazon
6. Uber
7. Microsoft
8. Tesla
9. Twitter
10. Airbnb
11. Netflix
12. Stryker
13. Visa
14. Adobe
15. Workday
16. Pandora
17. Under Armour
18. Tableau
19. BlackRock
20. Coca-Cola
21. Epsilon
22. Dell
23. McKinsey & Co.
24. Deloitte
25. Box
26. McKesson
27. Goldman Sachs
28. JLL
29. Edelman
30. Estée Lauder
31. Starbucks
32. Splunk
33. Viacom
34. Live Nation
35. HBO
36. Leidos
37. Fox
38. Cisco
39. Yelp
40. Morgan Stanley
