If you’re looking for a new role in accountancy or finance, it’s helpful to narrow your search by focusing on opportunities with companies that meet a certain criteria. You may want to limit your search by geography, for example by only searching for finance roles in the South East, or within a radius of ten miles of where you live. Alternatively your job search could be focused on employers in a particular sector, just small businesses, or conversely only large multinationals.
If you’re a semi-passive candidate who doesn’t need to make a move immediately, you have the luxury of time and you can choose to be selective. This means you can tailor your search to those companies who you really want to work for, and wait for the right job to come up.
Increasingly when we talk to our accountancy and finance candidates about what they want from a new role, along with an attractive salary they also want to work somewhere with great company culture. So how do you know which companies are excellent employers and will offer job satisfaction, great culture as well as good remuneration?
One way to find out is to look through ‘good places to work’ lists to identify those top employers. With this information you can then create a shortlist of companies based on any other important criteria such as location, and then monitor these companies for opportunities.
To get you started we’ve selected some top companies ranked by employees using Glassdoor’s Best Places to Work 2018.
Top 50 UK Companies To Work For
#1 Glassdoor Best Places to Work 2018 for Google’s sharing culture and collaborative working. Interestingly, Google ranked #13 in last year’s report. Employees say:
“One of the best companies in the world!”
“Fantastic work environment.”
“People – excellent, bright, ambitious individuals to work with.”
- Lookers
#6 Glassdoor Best Places to Work 2018, Lookers is one of the UK’s most established automotive retailers. Employees say:
“Great company focused on their people!”
“Since joining Lookers everyone has been very friendly and welcoming.”
“Good company, great team!”
- Nando’s UK
#29 Glassdoor Best Places to Work 2018 and home to the legendary Nando’s flame grilled peri-peri chicken. Employees say:
“Great vibe and diverse culture of people to interact with. Allowed to bring new ideas to the table.”
“Amazing company.”
“Great company! Treated as individual not a number.”
- Explore Learning
#20 Glassdoor Best Places to Work 2018, Explore Learning helps over 200,000 children achieve their educational potential with Maths and English tuition. Employees say:
“I absolutely love working for Explore Learning and have done so for 7 years now.”
“Amazing job! Lovely people and so friendly.”
“The best ‘learning ground’ for a driven graduate.”
- Unilever
#42 Glassdoor Best Places to Work 2018 and the world’s largest consumer goods company, Unilever is renowned for its nutrition, hygiene and personal care products. Employees say:
“Unparalleled employee experience.”
“Brilliant work life balance and flexibility, real investment in people, employees feel valued and appreciated, and as such rewarded for the work they do.”
“Excellent company to work for. Great values.”
Using Glassdoor To Rank Employers
Glassdoor is a useful tool for researching different companies and finding out what other people have to say about them. You can use Glassdoor to search for specific companies to see how they rank for key factors such as work / life balance; culture and values; senior management; compensation and benefits; and career opportunities.
However, as with any user generated content it’s important to take a balanced view on reviews. Glassdoor is the perfect platform for disgruntled employees to sound off, so don’t read just one review, read through several and particularly those that relate to your function and department.
Another useful tool on Glassdoor is the interviews section that gives a little insight into the interview process at different companies, and the kind of questions candidates have been asked.
If you’re working with a specialist accountancy and finance recruitment agency to find your next role, don’t forget to speak to them about different employers. Agencies like ourselves work with companies long term to find candidates for their roles, so we have a good idea about culture, career opportunities and work / life balance. We also get feedback from our candidates throughout the recruitment process, and can therefore provide further insight about interviews and what the company is like as an employer.
Looking for a new accountancy or finance role? Submit your CV here to find out about the latest accountancy and finance jobs from top companies in the South East.