MUMBAI: LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network, today launched the fourth edition of the 2019 Top Companies list for India. Determined by the actions of its 610+ million members globally, the annual ranking highlights the 25 most sought-after companies in the country by professionals. The list reveals where Indian professionals really want to work and stay, fuelled by proprietary LinkedIn insights including job seeker’s interest in the company, engagement with the company’s employees, job demand, and employee retention.
With more Millennials and Gen Z professionals entering the job market, the 2019 Top Companies have actively deployed employee-first initiatives such as informal work culture and fairness of working conditions and wages. At the same time companies are focusing on blazing business growth through smart acquisitions, and the expansion of employee strength with innovative hiring practices. These emerging trends have led to the debut (and comeback) of IT giants on the list this year, and new entrants including homegrown Internet and IT companies, Swiggy, Zomato, and Freshworks.
Internet companies dominate the top 10 spots as Flipkart (Walmart) jumps one spot up to #1, Amazon moves to #2 from #4 last year, and OYO has made headway from #10 to#3 – respectively taking the top three spots this year. While India’s IT giant Tata Consultancy Services has debuted at #7, new entrants and homegrown Internet and consumer services companies Swiggy and Zomato rank at #6 and #8 respectively, and Uber, another new entrant, takes the #5 spot. One97 Communications, a constant on the list’s Top 5, comes in #4. Breaking the monotony,India’s Oil and Energy conglomerate Reliance Industries takes a massive leap from #24 to #10, consulting firm Boston Consulting Group (BCG) is a new entrant at #13, along with banks, YES BANK and ICICI Bank that come in on the list for the first time at #14 and #20 respectively.
“Every year, based on LinkedIn’s unique position to be the pulse of what job seekers in India are looking for, the Top Companies list highlights homegrown companies and global giants, where professionals want to land their next job. Interestingly this year, half the companies are new entrants on the list, including IT giants such as Tata Consultancy Services and IBM that showcase the changing job and hiring landscape. The presence of more blue chip Indian companies such as Larsen & Toubro and Reliance Industries, among others emphasizes the fact that these large firms are getting better at attracting Millennial employees,” said Adith Charlie, India Managing Editor, LinkedIn.
Here are the 2019 Top 25 Companies in India:
1. Flipkart (Walmart)
2. Amazon
3. OYO
4. One97 Communications (Paytm)
5. Uber
6. Swiggy
7. Tata Consultancy Service
8. Zomato
9. Alphabet (Google)
10. Reliance Industries
11. EY
12. Adobe
13. Boston Consulting Group (BCG)
14. YES Bank
15. IBM
16. Daimler AG
17. Freshworks
18. Accenture
19. Ola
20. ICICI Bank
21. PwC India
22. KPMG India
23. Larsen & Toubro
24. Oracle
25. Qualcomm
Some of the emerging workplace themes this year are:
Betting big in a dynamic business environment: Most top companies are not shying away from spreading their wings. Of the top three, Amazon is foraying into the offline world by bagging retail chains and setting up kiosks in malls. Flush with money from its $1 billion fundraise, OYO is venturing into food-tech, event management and co-working by acquiring startups. With 450,000 exclusive rooms globally, the online hospitality company aims to overtake Marriott as the world’s largest hotel chain by 2023.
Engineering - amongst the most hired for job functions: Technology roles were seen to dominate the jobs market but soft skills are also critical to succeed in this tech age according to the 2018 India Emerging Jobs Report by LinkedIn. This year’s rankings corroborate this trend with majority of companies in the list making maximum new hires for engineering jobs followed by operations and business development. Tata Consultancy Services, the country’s largest IT services company made a net addition of nearly 27,000 employees last year, up four-fold from 7,000 in 2017. Ranked at #9, Alphabet (Google) resumed campus hiring at the IITs in 2018, after giving the elite engineering schools a miss for two consecutive years.
Informal work culture drives happy employees: Holding #4 rank this year, mobile Internet company, One97 Communications (Paytm) has done away with the concept of work appointments. Employees are free to have impromptu meetings and occupy available rooms without blocking calendars. Designations such as assistant general manager, deputy general manager and general manager could soon be a thing of the past at India’s second-largest private bank ICICI (#20) which seeks to cut hierarchy and boost accountability.
Traditional hiring takes on a new twist: New entrant on the Top Companies list, Freshworks (#17) has an eye for people with alternate career interests as it looks to employ marketers who host podcasts, engineers who are full-time musicians, and even social activists. At #21, PwC India is moving from its monopoly of chartered accountants and tax professionals by hiring employees from diverse backgrounds such as journalists, doctors, design thinkers, data scientists and environmentalists.
Sustainable business is a profitable business: With employees putting purpose before passion in their job search, even companies are looking to give back to the society. New on the top companies list, IBM at #15 is harnessing the power of emerging technologies to solve problems specific to India, whether it’s eradicating food wastage or predicting crop prices to help farmers. Mopping up $300 million as part of its partnership with Hyundai which is focused on electric cars, Ola eventually aims to put 1 million green cars on Indian roads by 2022.
Read more about the 2019 Top Companies in India list here. Join the conversation on LinkedIn using the hashtag #LinkedInTopCompanies.
Methodology
The Top Companies list is the only ranking of its kind to be based entirely on the actions of users. We analyze billions of data points generated by LinkedIn’s 610+ million members around the world to come up with a blended score used to rank the winners in each geography.
LinkedIn ranks companies based on four pillars:
(I) Interest in the company: Interest in the company is measured by unique, non-employee new follows of the company’s LinkedIn page
(II) Engagement with employees: Employee engagement looks at how many non-employees are viewing unique employees at the company
(III) Job demand: Job demand counts the rate at which people are viewing and applying to jobs at the company, including both paid and unpaid job postings on LinkedIn
(IV) Employee retention: Employee retention measures how many employees are still at the company at least one year after their date of hire, based on LinkedIn member profiles
To be eligible, companies must have at least 500 employees as of February 1 and must have flat or positive employee growth over the 12 months (based on LinkedIn Talent Insights data). Only parent companies rank on the list; majority-owned subsidiaries and associated data are wrapped into its total score. All data is normalized based on company size. The methodology and insights time frame is February 1, 2018 through January 31, 2019. All data is aggregated and anonymised to protect members’ private information.
LinkedIn excludes all staffing and recruiting firms, nonprofits, educational institutions, government agencies and government-owned entities. LinkedIn and LinkedIn’s parent company, Microsoft, are excluded from all LinkedIn Lists.
