Kea & Partners, Deloitte and BearingPoint named top graduate employers

Three international management consulting firms with a presence in France – Kea & Partners, Deloitte and BearingPoint – have been named among the country's top employers for starting a career.

Every year, Les Echos, one of France’s top daily newspapers, conducts research into which employers are the best workplaces for graduates and young professionals seeking to successfully launch their career. The so-called ‘HappyAtWork for Starters’ ranking surveys young professionals up to 29 years, asking them to rate their employer on a range of factors, including the culture at the company, impact in work, quality of leadership, and room and support for career advancement. 

Top of the list is CNES, France’s National Centre for Space Studies. The government-owned space agency, established under President Charles de Gaulle in 1961, is headquartered in Paris but performs most of its activities from its Space Center in Toulouse (France) and French Guiana (north of Brazil). The second most attractive employer for French graduates is Kea & Partners, a management consulting firm founded in 2001 that currently has 200 employees across offices in France, Brazil and Morocco. Through its affiliation with The Transformation Alliance, an international consulting network it founded a few year ago, Kea & Partners has access to nearly 400 employees. Other members of the alliance are: h&z Business Consulting (Germany), MBS Consulting (Italy) and Q5 (UK). 

Among Kea’s young professionals who participated in the study, a massive 98% said that they would recommend the firm to a friend/starter. The consultancy, headquartered in Paris and led by founder Arnaud Gangloff, scored a satisfaction score of 94% on professional development, 90% on the quality of management, and 83% for the firm’s ability to foster and innovative and inspiring culture, while maintaining diversity and inclusion. Further, aside from rating work-related aspects of culture, the researchers behind ‘HappyAtWork for Starters’ also looked at how fun it is to work at workplaces, with Kea & Partners scoring 91% on the back of its approach to blend results delivery with a fun and relaxing environment.

Commenting on the result, Stéphanie Nadjarian, a Senior Partner at the consulting firm, said she is “extremely proud” of the recognition. She states; “We are convinced that well-being is directly linked to the commitment of employees and that it is an essential part to business performance.” Nadjarian added that it is important that the firm’s management and HR team will not rest on its laurels; “We will analyse the feedback and use it to continuously improve our workplace culture.” 

In sixth place is Deloitte France, the French arm of what is now the globe’s largest accounting and consulting firm, ahead of rivals PwC, EY and KPMG. The Big Four firm follows hot on the heels of FM Logistic, Colas and British American Tobacco. Deloitte has over 10,000 accountants, consultants, financial advisors and technologists based in offices in Paris, Lyon, Grenoble, Tours, Strasbourg, Nancy, Montpellier, Monaco, Marseille, Cannes, Lille, Rouen, Toulouse, Albi, Perpignan, Nantes, Rennes, Bordeaux and Cognac.

Unilever, JCDecauz, Prisma Media and Micropole complete the top ten, with BearingPoint, a European-origin management and technology consultancy, the only other consulting firm to make the top cut of France’s top employers for graduates. France is, after Germany and the UK & Ireland, BearingPoint’s third most important European market. The local office in Paris, which this summer admitted 5 partners into its leadership, scored well for the impact of its engagements and the opportunities offered for professional development.

Related: The top 20 strategy consulting firms to work for in France.