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Last week at the HR Ireland conference it was great to see so many companies interested in learning how to develop their employer brand to attract the talent that they need to deliver their business strategy.

One of the subjects I covered in my workshop at the conference was the importance of research and understanding the differing needs of the people in your business.

“The Times Top 50 Where Women Want To Work“, now in it’s second year, has recently published it’s research into the top 50 places where women want to work. Their organisers state:

“It is important to note that there is no such thing as ‘companies for women’ or ‘jobs for the girls’. There are, however, some organisations that are clearly more progressive than others, and that is why the Top 50 exists.

This year’s Top 50 is made up of the UK’s most progressive organisations. Their offerings are impressive their work challenging and meaningful, and their cultures exciting. These are the Top 50 organisations where women want to work.”

Unlike the “Best Companies to Work For Awards“, this award seems to be based on the feedback from the companies alone, so it would be interesting to see if women in the “Times Top 50 Where women Want To Work” survey agreed with the results.

What is interesting that one companies engagement in social media was a contributor to their being awarded a place in one of the categories as you will discover below.

Whether we are male or female, most of us are looking for organisations that provide us challenge and meaningful work where we are respected by our colleagues for our strengths, talents and contribution. When that doesn’t happen is when we are more likely to become disengaged and our performance and contribution will diminish, impacting the performance and morale of those working with us.

But remember that not everyone seeks to work in a similar culture – what might be a great employer in your eyes may not meet my needs.

“The Times Top 50 Where Women Want to Work” is based on five factors:

1. DIVERSITY - how the organisation fairly represents the customers and communities they serve. The winner in this category was Citi.
2. PROGRESSIVENESS – this factor reviewed how forward-thinking the company was in terms of employee initiatives and the progressive apporach taken in relation to recruitment, flexible working, training and development, pay reviews, networking and childcare. The winner in this category was Google.
3. RESPONSIBILITY – this covered an organisations social and environmental commitment  and their successful impact on and contribution to the world. The winner in this category was McDonald’s.
4. OPPORTUNITY – this is where the participating organisations were asked to present their unique selling point to potential employees i.e. what they do that presents an exciting and challenging opportunity for employees; how they market this; and how their corporate values drive this. The winner in this category was Cisco.
5. CONNECTIVITY - this factor covered the work experience in terms of transparency and flexibility including technology and processes to support flexible working and access to information. The winner in this category was Deloitte – interestingly one of the factors in Deloitte’s submission was that they quoted that half of their employees use Facebook in innovative ways to connect with each other.

In the alphabetical list of “The Times Top 50 where Women Want To Work” winners it is not suprising to see many of the companies being in the areas experiencing the most challnege in recrtuitment and retention of people (professional services, the financial sector and energy) as these sectors have been investing in building strong employment propositions and employer brands for some time, recognising the talent challenge.

For example, as I covered in my presentation this week, while 80 percent of the attendees at the conference had a talent strategy that extended over a 2 year plan, the energy sector have talent strategies that span some 15 years.

So if you are finding it a challenge to recruit and retain the people you need to deliver your business strategy, why not explore what your people and your potential employees are looking for – starting with how you fair against the five criteria above would be a great starting point.

Here are the list of “The Times Top 50 Where Women Want To Work” finalists in alphabetical order:

ABN AMRO – Investment banking

Accenture (UK) – Professional services

Addleshaw Goddard – Legal

Atkins Engineering – Consultancy

Aviva/Norwich Union – Insurance

B&Q – Retail

BAE Systems -Aerospace and defence

Banks of New York Mellon – Financial services

Barclays Bank – Financial services

BDO Stoy Hayward LLP – Accountancy

Canon (UK) – Imaging solutions

Capgemini UK – IT and professional services

Charlton House Catering – Contract catering

Cisco UK and Ireland – High technology

Citi – Financial services

Clifford Chance -Legal

Dell – IT

Deloitte – Professional services

Driving Standards Agency – Public sector

Enterprise Rent-A-Car – Retail, travel and leisure

Ernst & Young – Professional services

Eversheds – Legal

Goldman Sachs – International Financial services

Google – Technology

Jones Lang LaSalle – Real Estate

JP Morgan – Financial services

KPMG – Professional services

Lehman Brothers – Financial services

McDonald’s Restaurants – Retail

McKinsey & Company- Professional services

Merrill Lynch – Investment banking

Microsoft UK – IT

Morgan Stanley – Investment banking

National Australia Group Europe – Financial services

National Grid -Utilities

Nomura International – Financial services

Nortel – Telecommunications

PA Consulting Group – Professional services

PepsiCo UK & Ireland – Fast-moving consumer goods

PricewaterhouseCoopers – Professional Services

Prudential- Financial services

Royal Bank of Scotland Group – Financial services

Royal & SunAlliance – General insurance

RWE npower – Energy

JSainsbury – Retail

Schlumberger – Oil and Gas

Royal Dutch Shell – Energy

The McGraw-Hill Companies – Financial services & media

The Thomson Corporation- Media

West Midlands Police – Public sector

Additional resources:

Times Top 100 Companies To Work For, 2007

Times Top 100 Graduate Employers, 2007