What are the best companies to work for? In its annual “Top Companies” ranking, which L’Express reveals to you exclusively this Wednesday, April 19, the LinkedIn platform answers this question. The objective of this study is simple: to identify the 25 boxes where French employees can develop and accelerate their careers over the long term in 2023. It should be noted that this work is based on the data accumulated by the network which has combed through the career paths of 26 million French people.
And cocorico: among the 25 winning companies of 2023, 60% display the colors blue-white-red. “Proof that our French companies have understood the importance of focusing on the internal mobility of their employees and supporting them in their professional development”, underlines to L’Express Sandrine Chauvin, executive director of the international editorial staff of LinkedIn.
And in detail, who do we find at the top of the ranking? In first position, we see one of the French behemoths: the SNCF. “It’s not a surprise, it is a company that ranks among the best in the rail sector. Especially in freight transport and logistics that the general public is less familiar with. There are 212,000 employees in 120 countries “, comments Sandrine Chauvin. Then come other regulars such as the Crédit Agricole Group (7th), BNP Paribas (8th) and Société Générale (13th). “Careers in the banking sector remain very promising and the opportunities for development are significant”, resumes Sandrine Chauvin.
But this 7th edition gives pride of place to newcomers, since 60% of the winning companies enter the ranking for the first time, like Decathlon or CMA CGM (shipping company). “A lot of unicorns, in other words start-ups, have arrived,” says Sandrine Chauvin. Some of these companies are less known to the general French public due to their B2B activities such as Datadog, Kyndril or Amadeus, “even though they are among those which invest more and more in supporting employees in their careers according to the ranking methodology,” LinkedIn’s press release reads.
The top 25 LinkedIn “Top Companies 2023” for France:
1st SNCF 2nd Datadog
3rd Contentsquare, 4th Kyndry
5th SLB, 6th Boston Scientific
7th Crédit Agricole Group 8th BNP Paribas
9th Airbus 10th Dell Technologies
11th CMA-CGM 12th Amadeus
13th NXP Semiconductors 14th Societe Generale
15th JPMorgan Chase & Co 16th Danone
17th Schneider-Electric 18th Decathlon
19th Forvia 20th Thales
21st Vitesco Technologies 22nd Capgemini
23rd Qonto 24th Unilever 25th Orange
The tech sector is doing well
How to explain that they appear so virtuous for the employees? “They need to attract talent, but also to retain them over the long term. They are therefore very attractive to job seekers looking for the best opportunities for professional development”, argues Sandrine Chauvin. It remains to be seen which sectors are the most favorable for developing a career. And there too, novelty is in order. This time, the tech/IT sector wins the birth of finance, unlike the 2021 and 2022 editions. Tech players (in a broad sense, since the term here includes services, hardware, software , electronic) represent 40% of the ranking.
“French tech has been relatively unaffected by the waves of layoffs that concerned large American tech companies. This sector has a particular influence in France with players who remain solid, dynamic and who attract candidates with a strong capacity for progress,” says Sandrine Chauvin. While U.S. companies made drastic headcount cuts, fundraising in Europe was still buoyant in the first six months of 2022. % for the flagships of French industry. “This is a trend that we have seen emerging for several years now in France”, continues Sandrine Chauvin.
Once the results are displayed, it remains to know the methodology. LinkedIn has taken into account eight criteria that, according to it, promote professional development: career prospects, skills development, career stability, external opportunities, relationships forged within the company, gender equality -men, the diversity of profiles, as well as the location of employees in the country.
In order to obtain this information, LinkedIn scrutinized the profiles of the employees: promotions, new skills acquired or the number of departures from the company during the past year. The proportion of employees remaining in the company for at least three years and the attractiveness of the employee are also assessed. For this, LinkedIn looked at the number of messages from recruiters received by employees. Another important point: to measure gender equality, the platform says it has examined the distribution of positions according to the gender of the employees.
A classification by sector in June
Some reservations can, however, be made to the classification. Starting with the “skills development” aspect. Here, LinkedIn relies on the skills that people self-identify in their profile. Thus, these data remain quite subjective and do not reflect the actions that the company has been able to implement to help the employee develop them. Among the other criteria, there are also the different levels of diploma to assess the diversity of the workforce. However, this aspect can be questioned, because the diversity of profiles can be slowed down by the skills required in certain companies. “In France, 20% of our member base (26 million Editor’s note) are non-graduate profiles. We represent all levels of diplomas”, retorts Sandrine Chauvin.
To go further, LinkedIn plans to establish a more specific ranking by sector: “We are looking at all the data and we should publish a ‘Top Companies’ ranking by sector in June.”