Dive Brief:
- Tesla is the hottest company among job applicants on Indeed in 2018, drawing 47% more interest from Indeed users on average this year. The car maker topped Indeed's annual Hottest Companies list, which measures the average amount of job-seeker interest for all job titles at all companies based on clicks through to jobs posted on the site.
- A total of six tech industry players cracked the top 10 of Indeed's list: Tesla, Microsoft, Facebook, Honeywell, Apple and Cisco. Others in the upper tier include PepsiCo, Enterprise Holdings (best known for rental service Enterprise), Sysco and Morgan Stanley.
- Indeed noted a few commonalities between the honorees that led to their recruiting success, namely "their widespread name recognition and powerful brands," but also pointed to both marketing strategies and investment in innovations that set some of them apart. Tesla, for example, is known for its electric vehicles but also its solar energy business, while Cisco is investing in sports entertainment technology.
Dive Insight:
Indeed is one of the biggest players in the job board space, so an appearance on the Hottest Companies list is a barometer of how brands are perceived by talent. Tesla is known for a strong employer brand to begin with — having appeared on Hired's 2018 list of employers for whom tech workers most want to work, next to organizations like Google and Netflix — as well as having a celebrity CEO in Elon Musk.
Moreover, Tesla drew high interest from Indeed users despite a year of controversies, including ongoing investigations into safety concerns at one of its manufacturing plants and Musk's own news-making incidents. But these haven't dampened enthusiasm from potential talent, as Indeed's research suggests, and that speaks to the necessity and power of an authentic brand presence in recruiting.
HR can work with marketing professionals to convey that type of presence by clearly communicating an employer's values and objectives in messaging within job postings, but the work shouldn't stop there. Candidates can draw many conclusions about a company within seconds of using its website, one expert previously told HR Dive. And the results of those efforts can be critical: 69% of respondents to an MRINetwork survey said an employer's brand strength is either important or very important when deciding whether to accept a job offer.
But another reality of Indeed's list is that all of the top 10 companies are large organizations, each with well over 5,000 employees. Such employers can often afford generous benefit packages and marketing campaigns that draw top talent in a competitive market. While others may not be able to meet these exact standards, quality benefits offerings aren't out of reach by default. Voluntary options can be fully funded by employees, and 83% of workers in a 2017 BenefitsPro survey said they would enroll in a voluntary benefits program without expecting their employer to pay for it.
