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High-Tech & Technology -
DUN’S
100
|
2016/17
28
T
he High-Tech Industry is one of the most
dynamic and evolving industries of the
local economy, and as such it generates
constant demand for workforce. The field’s intense
competition over the best talents, as well as the
companies’ desire to be perceived as attractive,
cause them to invent and create resources in the
pursuit of the desired work environment.
In order to review which companies succeed in
creating the most desirable work environments,
we published “The Best Tech Companies to Work
For” rating, as part of Dun’s 100 ratings.
Froman analysis of the surveyed data, it is certainly
clear that the leading companies in the industry
understand that the talents are the key to their suc-
cess and invest significant resources and thought
in order to attract the best employees in their field,
especially in an environment with such intense
competition over resources.
An in-depth analysis of the survey’s trends outlines
an interesting image of the industry in Israel:
An eco-system with both local and global
characteristics
the Israeli high-tech industry includes both Israeli
companies that already proved their segment lead-
ership and are the cutting edge in their fields (of
which several are included in the ratings: Mellanox,
Check-Point and Teva); start-ups which require the
best employees who would help them grow and
thrive; and global giants who recognized the po-
tential of the “Start-Up Nation” and established
in it ever-growing R&D centers (of which several
are included in the ratings: Google, Facebook and
Apple). From the ratings’ data, one can see that
about two-third of the companies are Israeli (last
year the figure was about one-half), indicating the
relative attractiveness of the Israeli companies in
comparison with the global R&D centers, and their
ability to create work environments which provide
both professional challenges and rewarding set-
tings. In this context it should be pointed out that
working for a global company may be viewed as
an incubator for training employees to lead cross-
continental processes and to find their way around
complex organizations operating in a challenging
business environments. And indeed, many of
them raised a new generation of entrepreneurs
who leveraged their extensive acquired knowledge
to establish prospering companies. The desire for
entrepreneurship comes also from the companies
themselves, which wisely utilize the access to lo-
cal talents, that is provided by the R&D centers in
Israel, for the benefit of sponsoring technological
incubators, where they offer mentoring for entre-
preneurs (such as IBM’s incubator). The Innovation
Authority’s tech incubators program also enables
the participation of global companies, for exam-
ple Nielsen Holdings Plc, which is a partner in the
Nielsen Innovate incubator.
The industry’s depth
the rated companies belong to a broad range
of tech fields (Cyber, Internet, Pharmaceuticals,
Defense industries, e-Commerce, etc.), indicat-
ing the vast supply for the talents in the industry,
enabling them to be a part of leading companies
in a broad range of specialties. The ratings in-
clude both companies from more “traditional”
fields, which offer significant technological chal-
lenges today (such as the IAI and Rafael), as well
as companies from new and up-coming fields
that shaped their own way in the business (such
as Wix and SimilarWeb).
Acquiring a company’s reputation and
perceived attractiveness as a material part of
its branding
11 new companies entered the ratings this year.
This is a strong indicator of the importance of
being included in the ratings and the efforts in-
vested by the companies both for recruiting and
for retaining their talents. The high-tech industry
is constantly growing and experiencing employ-
ee shortage, since the supply is having a hard
time matching the demand. This gap increases
every year. Amongst the new companies in the
ratings are: Outbrain, Taboola, Nova, Panaya,
Floristem, Kenshoo and others.
The importance of
investing in your
employees over
time
The ratings present
an interesting image
in which more and
more companies
realize that in order
to be considered as
one of the leading companies in the field, they
must invest a lot of resources not only in the re-
cruiting process, but also in retaining them, with
a significant emphasis on a variety of aspects
such as: encouraging personal and professional
development, developing programs for the cul-
tivation of excelling employees, adjusting the
work environment to be supportive of combining
family and career, and more. This year it was
evident among the rated companies that the
perception of the high-tech industry as a “gold-
en cage” doesn’t help them in retaining their
employees, and that in order to be perceived
as attractive throughout the entire employment
cycle, they need to invest a lot of efforts to pro-
vide options for flexible employment (working
from home, switching to part-time jobs, etc.),
activities for employees’ children, events with
the participation of the families and a variety
of other tools which are meant to enable their
employees to have a satisfying lifestyle, while
being members of an organization that provides
them with long-term professional satisfaction
and challenge.
The Best High-Tech Companies to Work For
By Efrat Segev, Director of Business Development