Universum’s list of ideal employers for undergraduates and MBA students is out and not surprisingly, Google ranks #1 as it did in 2007. By the way, if you are interested in reputation and do not know about Universum, check them out. I think their research is fascinating and provides important clues into why some employers are preferred over others. The next four ranked companies are Disney, Apple, Ernst & Young and the U.S. State Department. How does E&Y get such a high rating when it was #12 one year ago. BusinessWeek says that its high score comes from E&Y’s early adoption of Facebook as a recruitment tool.  I checked it out. It has nearly 15,000 fans, a You Tube on why to intern at E&Y, profiles, events, internship info, and lots more.

Another reputation survey is out as well. Reputation Institute’s third annual Global Pulse survey is out and the following companies head the list. Again Google leads the best reputation list. This survey is among consumers which differs from the younger audience sampled in the Universum study. Congratulations to the folks at the Reputation Institute who have succeeded in delivering a top-notch survey and reputation monitoring business.

2008 Best Corporate Reputations in the US-Top 25 Companies
(Rank    US Companies    Global Pulse Score of 1-100)
1    Google    85.23
2    Johnson & Johnson    83.48
3    Kraft Foods Inc.    82.79
4    General Mills    81.34
5    Walt Disney    81.22
6    United Parcel Service    81.05
7    3M    79.79
8    Xerox    78.44
9    Colgate-Palmolive    78.04
10    Texas Instruments    77.22
11    Eastman Kodak    77.13
12    General Electric    76.82
13    Sara Lee    76.48
14    FedEx    76.28
15    Deere & Co    76.12
16    Goodyear    76.00
17    Apple    75.42
18    Hewlett-Packard    75.10
19    Intel    74.94
20    Publix Super Markets Inc.    74.91
21    Caterpillar    74.78
22    Whirlpool    74.41
23    Boeing    74.37
24    Costco Wholesale    74.33
25    Dell    74.26

Reputation Institute’s research model is built on 7 dimensions of reputation: Products/Services, Innovation, Workplace, Citizenship, Governance, Leadership, and Performance. What interested me was that when two drivers — Governance and Citizenship — are combined, they account for more than 30% of a company’s reputation. This proves that leadership at the top and corporate responsibility are critical to reputation today.

If you ever wondered about the importance of scorecards, they mean a whole lot in the financial services industry. The Economist says that investment banks have entire dedicated teams working on gathering the necessary information and challenging rivals’ positions. As you may know from my postings, we spend a lot of time helping companies decide which rankings are best to apply for. League tables are superb third-party positioning tools and can sometimes differentiate one company from another among prospects or job candidates.  

The Economist asked the smart question about whether the colossal credit crunch was impacted by some companies’ reckless efforts to win the league tables’ crown. Here is their fun answer:

“Yet to blame league tables for their mishaps feels a bit like accusing the candlestick, not Colonel Mustard.”

According to the article, being at the top of the table does not necessarily translate into market share or even tell you what you need to know about the quality of service. But maybe it does tell you a few things that are not correlatable (is this a word?) or measurable such as whether this is a company culture driven to perform at its very best and wants the world to know about it.  With all the information overload today, these league tables sometimes give outsiders a sense of how the cards are stacked.

We are still reviewing Fortune’s Best Companies to Work For and found some more interesting facts on how reputations can be enhanced by this accolade. We decided to look backwards at the award winners over the past three years to see if there are any differences in what makes a winning workplace. [I should note that the most important factor is employee ratings which accounts for two-thirds of the final score.]

Among the benefits offered by the 100 Best Companies to Work For, the most commonly offered perk is telecommuting (at least one day per week), followed by on-site child care. However, on-site child care may be losing some of its strength as a “Best” driver – 12% fewer companies on the 100 Best listing offered it in 2008 than did in 2006. On the other hand, 43% more Best Companies are offering fully-paid health care suggesting that this benefit is helping drive companies to be ranked as a Best Company to work for (not surprising considering the rising costs of health care and how hard it is to find an employer that pays 100% of health benefits). In fact, eight companies that offer fully-paid health care did not appear on the best employer list in 2006.

As for fully-paid sabbaticals, it looks like this is diminishing as a best workplace factor. Too bad.

Fortune Best Places to Work For Driving Factors

Source: Weber Shandwick proprietary analysis