Emirates tops the YouGov BrandIndex 2019 Workforce Rankings in the UAE

Dubai’s flag-carrier airline is the brand that consumers would feel most proud to work for

Emirates tops the YouGov BrandIndex 2019 Workforce Rankings in the UAE for the second time in a row, as the brand that UAE residents would be proudest to work for. Apple moves up two places from last year and stands at second, and iPhone remains in third this year as well.

The rankings were compiled using the Reputation score from YouGov’s daily brand tracker, BrandIndex, by asking respondents, "Would you be proud or embarrassed to work for this brand?", over the past twelve months.

Dubai Mall, Samsung Galaxy and Almarai have all stepped up one place year-on-year, to seventh, eighth and ninth, respectively.

On the other hand, Google and Emaar have slipped down from second and fifth in the 2018 rankings to fourth and sixth, respectively, in the 2019 list.

Samsung and Etihad Airways are new entrants at fifth and tenth, respectively. Last year Samsung promoted its Galaxy S9 and S9+ phones by projecting the campaign on to the Burj Khalifa and set up product experience zones for customers. This not only created a lot of buzz around the brand, but may have also helped in strengthening its reputation among consumers.

YouGov also revealed the ten brands that made the largest improvement to their Reputation scores over the past 12 months. Warner Bros. World is the most improved brand of the past year in the UAE, with a change in score of +7.9, enhancing its Reputation score from 7.1 in 2018 to 15.0 in 2019. The theme park opened its doors to the public last year and not only received a positive reception but also managed to strengthen its Reputation among people.

Netflix’s exciting original content may be a factor in making it the second best improver, with a change in score of +7.0. In addition, smartphone brands have seen a considerable improvement in their Reputation scores over the past year, with two of the biggest brands making up the top ten list and Huawei taking the third spot in the improvers list, improving its score by +6.4.

Beverage brands such as Coca-Cola (+6.2) and Starbucks (+4.1), finance brands such as Al Ansari Exchange (+4.9) and UAEXCHANGE (+4.1) and FMCG brands such as Downy (+6.1) and Colgate (+3.9) have also improved their Reputation scores in the past year. Baskin-Robbins (+3.9) closes the improvers list in tenth.

The 586 brands in the UAE in YouGov BrandIndex were ranked using the Reputation score, which asks respondents "Which of the following brands would you be PROUD TO WORK FOR? Imagine you (or your friend) were applying for the same sort of role at the following brand that you currently have or would apply for?" and "Which of the following brands would you be EMBARRASSED TO WORK FOR? Imagine you (or your friend) were applying for the same sort of role at the following brand that you currently have or would apply for?". Only respondents who are aware of a given brand are interviewed.

The Workforce Rankings chart shows the brands with the highest average Reputation scores between April 1, 2018 and March 31, 2019. The Reputation Improvers chart ranks the brands with the highest increase in Reputation comparing the scores for the 12 months ending March 31, 2019 and the 12-month period ending April 1, 2017.

All Reputation scores listed have been rounded to a single decimal place, however, we have used additional precision to assign ranks.

All brands must be tracked for at least 6 months to be included in the rankings, and must have been tracked for at least 6 months in the prior year’s period (as well as being currently tracked) to appear in the movers tables.