25 top companies you want to work for in 2021

EY, Optus, Woolworths and Atlassian have been named by LinkedIn as some of Australia's top employers for 2021. (Source: Getty)

While the pandemic hit businesses hard last year, some employers not only did the right thing by their employees, but excelled at it.

Household names such as Woolworths, Amazon and Origin Energy have been named by LinkedIn as some of the best employers in Australia, alongside banking giants Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, and NAB.

Taking the number one spot in LinkedIn’s Top 25 Companies list is major accounting firm EY, followed by Optus and Macquarie Group.

Medical device company ResMed came in at fourth place, with Commonwealth Bank at fifth place.

And while the list named some of the world’s largest brands such as IBM, Alphabet (the parent company of Google), Allianz and UBS, other companies that started as Aussie start-ups such as Atlassian and Salesforce also featured on the list.

According to LinkedIn, all of these companies are assessed by seven pillars of career progression: the ability to advance, skills growth, company stability, external opportunity, company affinity, gender diversity, and educational background.

LinkedIn News Australia managing editor Capucine Yeomans said that companies were putting employees first, even amidst major changes to the world of work.

“The Top Companies have shown great resilience and continue to focus on creating great career opportunities with flexibility in the workplace.”

Analysis of the roles within the cop companies showed that certain roles had seen eye-watering growth, such as ‘business banker’ (850 per cent growth in CBA) and ‘talent acquisition specialist’ (678 per cent at Amazon).

Meanwhile, Macquarie Group saw more than fourfold growth in ‘operations associates’ (350 per cent), and Woolworths tripled the number of general managers in their company (200 per cent).

LinkedIn’s analysis also showed that diversity was a key hiring priority among companies, with many companies implementing gender equity targets, especially for senior roles.

Here’s the full list:

1. EY

2. (Optus) Singtel

3. Macquarie Group

4. ResMed

5. Commonwealth Bank

6. Bosch

7. Woolworths Group

8. IBM

9. Amazon

10. Alphabet

11. UBS

12. Salesforce

13. NAB

14. Westpac Group

15. ABB

16. Allianz

17. Atlassian

18. QBE Insurance

19. Origin Energy

20. Wesfarmers

21. Bayer

22. McKinsey & Company

23. Omnicom

24. Deloitte

25. Medtronic

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