Employer Branding

Unprecedented Nordic index reveals dream employers

Universum releases the first official Nordic Ideal Employer ranking that highlights the most powerful employer brands in the Nordic region based on students’ perceptions from Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland.

Accounting firms are most popular when Nordic business students rank their ideal employers. According to the students, Ernst & Young is the ideal employer followed by PwC. “After some tough years the banks are increasing in popularity as well as the management consulting industry”, says Claes Peyron, Nordic Director at Universum. Nordea is ranked number three followed by L’Oréal, McKinsey and KPMG.

Engineering students rank Ramboll as their ideal employer followed by Siemens and ABB. “Management consulting is becoming more popular among engineering students, as well as the construction industry, software and computer services”, says Lovisa Öhnell, Universum’s Research Director. Microsoft is ranked fourth, followed by McKinsey and Skanska. “Engineering consulting is becoming more attractive in both Norway and Denmark while stable in Sweden and decreasing popularity in Finland”, add Ms Öhnell.

Business students associate professional training and development, good prospects for future career, leaders who support their career and competitive base salary with the top three ideal employers to a larger extent than with employers overall. “These attributes are important for students and the students are attracted by employers that provide these attributes.” explains Claes Peyron.

Engineering students associate the top three employers with creative and dynamic work environment, professional training and development, good prospects for future earnings and competitive base salary. In general, preferences among Swedish, Danish and Norwegian students are closely linked while Finnish students often have different priorities compared to their Nordic neighbours.

The results are based on the Universum Student Survey 2011 in which over 34.000 students at top academic institutions in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland chose their ideal employers to work for. The Universum Student Survey is conducted globally on an annual basis with over 400.000 respondents. For more information on the results, please visit Nordic's Ideal Employers 2011

Universum is an international company that specialises in the field of employer branding. Universum delivers a full range of services in research, strategic consulting and communication solutions that enable employers to better understand, attract and retain current and future ideal employees. For more information, please visit www.universumglobal.com