How do companies qualify for our rankings?
The Universum Talent Survey is an independent business reference for employers worldwide. Maintaining this fact is vital to ensure that the insights that talent and employers gain from it are accurate and without bias. To safeguard the considerable investment involved in the production of the survey, Universum is vigilant for any attempts to tamper with or alter the outcome of its surveys. We provide the following terms and conditions for all who participate in our surveys.
Principles and guidelines
VALIDITY
It is of the utmost importance that the rankings are valid in statistical terms. To ensure this, we limit the number of employers on the list to allow students to view all the employers and make a selection based on the full set. The talent is also allowed to nominate 2 employers as Other.
RELEVANCE
The Ideal employer ranking is intended to gauge the attractiveness of relevant employers to talent. It is not a “wish list” measuring dream jobs such as modeling or astronaut against one another. Therefore, the list should be comprised of employers that actively work with the talent market and offer career opportunities. It is not tied only to size or recruiting numbers. The determining factor is whether the employer invests in building an employer brand in the target group.
INDEPENDENCE
Universum makes an independent selection of employers for each field of study and market. The evaluation is based on the employer’s level of Employer Branding and recruitment activities and is calibrated against other employers in the market. Universum gathers this information directly from the employers as well as from career services and other external sources. Employers do not have to be clients of Universum to be on the list, and only relevant employers qualify for the list.
Employers listed in the Universum Talent Survey, listed companies, are prohibited from distribution or promotion of the survey. To do so will result in disqualification from the results of the survey. Furthermore, listed companies should be advised that to claim any ownership of the survey is to infringe upon Universum’s Intellectual property rights and losses due to this infringement will be sought through the legal frameworks available in international law and treaties.
Listed companies selection process
Every year, Universum evaluates the current Employer list for each survey market. The process is outlined below.
1. TOP EMPLOYERS ARE CONFIRMED
The companies ranked in the top 50% of the previous year’s ranking are automatically qualified to the list for the coming year. Exceptions to this rule are made if the employer is no longer relevant, for example by being subject to a merger, or if they do not in fact actively work with the talent market.
2. RECONFIRMATION MEETINGS
Listed companies who are ranked in the bottom 50% of the ranking are offered to discuss their placement on the survey in an assessment meeting. In this meeting, the Universum representative gathers the information required to evaluate the employer. For employers that do not accept an assessment meeting, Universum tries to find the required information from external sources.
3. NEW CANDIDATE MEETINGS
New potential candidates for the employer lists are identified through Universum’s university contacts, desktop research, and through nominations by the talent. Information about a new candidate is gathered in an assessment meeting with a Universum representative.