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The top 25 companies where British workers want to land a job: Amazon, JP Morgan and Sainsbury’s come out on top of LinkedIn’s 2019 rankings

peace — Wed, 03 Apr 2019 20:41:47 +0000

US tech giant Amazon is the most sought after company to work for in the UK, new research suggests.

Global networking website LinkedIn revealed that the second-most popular in its rankings this year was financial services giant JP Morgan. It was followed by supermarket Sainsbury’s, pharmaceutical firm GSK and healthcare group Bupa.

LinkedIn analysed data to uncover the companies that are attracting the most attention from UK-based jobseekers and managing to hang on to that talent.

In demand: Amazon, JP Morgan, Sainsbury’s, GSK and Bupa are the most in-demand firms for jobseekers within the UK, according to LinkedIn

Four areas are scrutinized, namely interest in the company, engagement with the company’s employees, job demand and employee retention levels.ADVERTISING

Amazon, which has 27,500 staff in the UK and claims to tend to the retail habits of over 90 per cent of British shoppers, came out on top. Within Amazon’s operations, the roles where the highest number of new jobs are cropping up are currently in operations, engineering and sales.

Surprisingly, Amazon does not use the brain teasers often employed in tech company interviews, claiming the tricky questions are ‘unreliable when it comes to predicting a candidate’s success’.

Top 25 companies where Britons want to work

1. Amazon

2. JP Morgan

3. Sainsbury’s

4. GSK

5. Bupa

6. JLL

7. Barclays

8. BP

9. Goldman Sachs

10. Engie

11. Shell

12. TUI

13. CBRE

14. Aviva

15. Asda

16. Johnson & Johnson

17. Associated British Foods

18. Marks & Spencer

19. Alphabet

20. Travis Perkins

21. BT

22. Centrica

23. Atkins

24. Schroders

25. GE

Source: LinkedIn

Doug Gurr, head of Amazon UK, said: ‘We’re delighted to be at the top of LinkedIn Top Companies 2019 list.

‘A big thank you to our 27,500 permanent employees who make Amazon an attractive and diverse place to work, by endeavouring to expand consumer choice and helping tens of thousands of small businesses across the country grow their business.

‘As we continue in our efforts to improve the customer experience, we hope that more people from all backgrounds come to build the future with us, which is why we’re excited to be at the top of LinkedIn’s Top Companies list.’

In the past, people claiming to have worked in Amazon’s UK warehouses complained about working conditions.

Behind Amazon, another US multi-national company has swooped into second place as one of the most popular for job-hunters and employees who stick around at the company once they are hired.

Finance, engineering and business development roles are the areas where JP Morgan is taking on the most new staff, according to the findings.

The financial services giant says it ploughs $10.8billion, or around £7billion, a year globally to fund a team of 50,000 technologists. That is more than Twitter and Facebook combined.

US giants may have snapped up first and second place in LinkedIn’s job-hunter rankings, but London-based supermarket Sainsbury’s has reached third place.

The supermarket, which is the second biggest in the UK behind Tesco, has over 186,000 staff in the UK and the highest number of hires are being made in the areas of sales, support and finance.

Popular: Amazon claims it tends to the needs of over 90% of UK shoppers

Third place: Sainsbury’s, the UK’s second biggest supermarket, came in third place in the rankings

Speaking to This is Money, a Sainsbury’s spokesperson said: ‘We’re delighted to have been ranked 3rd on LinkedIn’s Top Companies List.

‘With over 185,000 colleagues we are one of the largest employers in the UK and we are always working hard to deliver our vision to be the most inclusive retailer where people love to work and shop.’

In January last year, the supermarket announced plans to axe ‘thousands’ of management jobs as part of a shake-up of its operations and how its stores are managed.

Asda and Sainsbury’s are currently battling to persuade the UK’s competition watchdog to give them the green light to merge.

According to figures published by Kantar earlier this week, in terms of sales in the 12 weeks to 24 March, Sainsbury’s was the worst performer of all the big four supermarkets, which includes Tesco and Morrisons.

Amazon planning to build physical shops across the South of England in another assault on Britain’s struggling high streets

peace — Sat, 26 Jan 2019 08:12:11 +0000

Amazon is planning to build physical shops across the South in an assault on our struggling high streets.

The online giant has invited bids from potential partners to find retail space for its Amazon Go stores, according to documents seen by the Daily Mail.

There are nine of the shops in the US, selling ready-to-eat food and take-home meal kits.

Customers use the Amazon Go app, and any items they take from the shelves are added to a ‘virtual trolley’ which is automatically charged to their Amazon account when they leave the store.

In the first move to bring Amazon-branded shops to the UK, the company issued a request for retail estate brokers in October and selected a representative later the same month, the documents suggest. It is not known whether an agreement has been signed.

The stores will be built in London or counties ‘including, but not limited to’, Surrey, Kent, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Essex, and Middlesex, the documents, prepared by Amazon’s real estate planning boss, indicate.

Industry sources said the stores will be between 4,000 and 5,000 sq ft. Amazon declined to comment.

The US shops are in city centre locations – if Amazon pursues a similar strategy in the UK, they would likely be on major high streets.

The Daily Mail has campaigned for a review of business rates and lower city centre parking charges to save Britain’s ailing high streets.

Rare one to one interview with super entrepreneur Mahmood Ahmadu OON – founder & chairman of technology giant ONLINE INTEGRATED SOLUTIONS (OIS)

peace — Sun, 13 Jan 2019 16:58:33 +0000

I was privileged to spend a day with Mr Ahmadu in his palatial 5th floor office, located at their Fleet Street, London building.
His day was a combination of several private meetings as well as a board meeting lasting over 10 hours with some American partners who flew in for a very important project. As a man constantly on the move shuttling the globe, it is very rare to pin him down for meetings let alone interviews.
Fortunately he accepted my request to act as my business mentor. He told me because of the work I do influencing and contributing to so many people’s lives, he was equally happy to contribute to mine. So he allowed me to observe him at close proximity conducting his business. I showed up on an extremely busy day, and was ushered into his presidential style office by his Executive Assistant.
Even though he was in the midst of high level meetings, he allowed me to sit in on all the meetings. When he had a little break, I jumped in with my questions stealing 15 minutes here and ten minutes there etc for a total of one hour. I began by asking several questions mainly on his vision and inspiration, and how he has succeeded in building such a powerful technology company serving several government institutions and corporations in over 52 countries. Here is an excerpt from the hour long interview
Questions:

What is OIS, and what do they do?
Ans: OIS is primarily a technology company, and founded with a vision to become the one stop shop for all Nigerian visa processing including biometrics, administration and collection. We provide technical support to various diplomatic missions around the world including India and China.
There is no question that you have built probably the largest technology company coming out of Africa. What drives you?
Ans: My vision is to demonstrate something great can come out of Africa, and indeed the Black race, especially in business. When I see global giants like Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, IBM and the like, I ask myself why not Africa too. So my vision is to create something of great value to the world, serving humanity and demonstrating the excellence of being black.
What inspires you?
Ans: People who have the ability to think outside of the proverbial box. People who are big picture thinkers, who are solution focused and who believe all things are possible. I am inspired by people who built something out of nothing, regardless of their humble beginning. I am inspired by people who never accept NO for an answer. Finally people who respect human dignity
Who would you say has been the biggest influence in your life?
Ans: My mother has been my biggest influence both in my career and my life
I noticed you stopped a high level board meeting because you had to pray at a certain time. How important is your faith in your life and business?
Ans: My faith is more important than anything else. I feel if I honour god and make him pre-eminent in all I do, he in turn will honour me. I do my utmost to observe the holy Quran’s teachings and instructions.
What are your thoughts about Africa’s potential?
Ans: Africa without any doubt will play a huge role in the world in the coming decades. Currently Africa has some of the most highly educated and trained professionals in the world. The level of entrepreneurial creativity and innovation I see among many young Africans fills my heart with hope and joy. More than anything else I feel what many need from their governments in Africa is the enabling environment; the right infrastructure like good roads, rail, constant power and stability, and the people will do the rest. Africans are naturally creative and resilient, and they will find a way once the above are put in place.
What advice do you have for the youths and the emerging entrepreneurs?
Ans: They should learn to train their minds to focus on solving difficult problems. They should not only focus on the low hanging fruits because some of the greatest opportunities are found in difficulties. They must develop persistence and make a promise to themselves
never to give up no matter what life throws at them. Finally they must not be afraid to dream big dreams and not focus on how the dreams will materialise.
I noticed you left the office yesterday at past 1am in the morning, you must have put in over 15 hours? Looks like you work really hard to have built such an enviable global company?
Ans: Yes we had to close the deal with our foreign partners, and we continued the negotiations until we had an agreeable and satisfactory outcome. I do not make it a habit of leaving the office very late, only when necessary. I have been quite amazed at myself over the years at the punishing hours I put in. I can only give thanks to god for the strength and energy.
I notice your business footprints are in over 52 countries, and in 10 different time zones. How do you maintain your hectic schedule?
Ans: I am fortunate to surround myself with extremely competent and formidable team of people as you would expect, and most of the heavy lifting is done by our amazing group of people. I only get involved with decisions that require my personal attention. Mostly I spend my time articulating vision of the future, and inspiring my team to dream bigger and think of bigger possibilities. I also spend time thinking and planning for growth and new opportunities.
What is your next focus in terms of business goals?
Ans: To create a really strong and innovative business, and to focus more on Corporate Social Responsibility. Even though I have prided myself on giving back to society, I do not believe I do enough to the extent I dream of. I want to put CSR at the very heart of my business.

Charles Ajayi-Khiran is an inspirational leadership speaker and corporate coach based in St Albans, United Kingdom.
www.charleskhiran.com

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