These 5 South African companies have been ranked among the best places to work in the world

Business group Forbes has published a ranking of the 750 best companies to work for in the world – listing five South African groups among the finalists.

The ranking is based on a Statista survey, which polled and interviewed more than 160,000 full-time and part-time workers from 58 countries.

All the surveys were anonymous, allowing participants to openly share their opinions, it said.

The respondents were asked to rate their willingness to recommend their own employers to friends and family, and were also asked to evaluate other employers in their respective industries that stood out either positively or negatively.

Additionally, participants were asked to rate the companies on aspects such as image, economic footprint, talent development, gender equality and social responsibility. The 750 companies that received the highest total scores made the final list.

Of the five South African companies that cracked the list, infrastructure and resources company Aveng ranked as the top employer, listed at 604th overall.

Top South African employers

1. Aveng (604th)
2. Discovery (669th)
3. Old Mutual (686th)
4. Absa (722nd)
5. Sanlam (728th)

Aveng’s high position may come as a surprise, as the company has faced uphill to survive South Africa’s crumbling construction sector, while also dealing with its own operational issues which have seen it fall from being the biggest construction group in the country, to just recently managing to pull back from an operational loss (H1 2020).

One message that came across from all companies listed in the Forbes ranking is that employers’ responses to the Covid-19 pandemic factored in quite significantly to determine how employees felt working at any given company.

Companies with swift response that looked after the wellbeing of workers came highly recommended. It was also evident that companies that managed to continue operating, usually in more thriving sectors like IT, were also generally happier.

Being a multinational group, Aveng said that its diverse portfolio worked in its benefit, allowing business operations to continue during the course of lockdown in various territories – and in South Africa in particular, mining operations in Mpumalanga returned to normal when the country moved into lockdown level 4.

Underground projects continued at 50% capacity, as per regulations.

However, Forbes noted that no company was spared from the Covid-19 outbreak, and the full impact on Aveng is not yet known. The group has postponed the filing of its full year results ending June 30, to a later date.

Best global companies to work for

The full Forbes ranking places Samsung as the world’s top employer. This was followed by Amazon, IBM, Microsoft and LG.

Consumer electronics and tech companies have fared the best during the Covid-19 crisis, Forbed noted, having been able to grow business and shift to remote working more easily.

The top 20 companies are listed below: