Awarding SA and Africa's Top Employers for 2025

Source: Top Employers Africa - Facebook

Each year, the Top Employers Institute sets about certifying the world’s leading employers, based on their excellence in people strategies and practices.

While a country or continent's certified Top Employers will never be publicly ranked from first to last, the highest scoring organisations are recognised based on the Top Employers Institute’s global ranking policy.

Multinational telecoms giant, Vodacom reigns as the number 1 Top Employer in Africa, Unilever in second place, followed by JTI in third place. The average score achieved per organisation determines the overall ranking for the continental programme. The average is determined using the results from the countries with the four highest scores. These are calculated to represent an average organisational score which is used for ranking purposes.

The overall Top 20 Top Employers in South Africa starts off with Vodacom Group (South Africa) in first position, followed by HCL Technologies SA and Daimler Truck Southern Africa in third place.

To distinctly summarise, these are the highest scoring companies that achieved a ranking continentally and in a specific African country.

Top Employers Africa 2025 overall Top 3 organisations:

1. Vodacom
   
2. Unilever
   
3. JTI
   

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South Africa's Top 20

Top Employers South Africa 2025 industry leaders

Industry leaders are recognised when there are three or more certified South African organisations in the same sector. In places where there are two or fewer certified South African organisations in an industry sector, the company must obtain a score that puts them in the overall top 20 positions. Certain companies are recognised in two sectors.

The following organisations have achieved industry leader recognition:

• Automotive: Daimler Truck Southern Africa Ltd
• Banking: RMB South Africa
• Financial Services: Sanlam Ltd
• Energy and Chemicals: BP Southern Africa
• Construction Services: Hilti South Africa
• FMCG: Unilever SA (Pty) Ltd
• Engineering: Howden Africa Holdings
• Healthcare: Stryker SA
• IT: HCL Tech South Africa
• Insurance: Santam
• Mining: Thungela Resources
• Pharmaceuticals: Novartis SA
• Professional Services: Accenture South Africa
• Public Sector: Eskom Pension & Provident Fund
• Retail: Smollan SA
• Telecommunications: Vodacom Group Ltd
• Transport & Logistics: DHL Express South Africa
• Food & Beverages: Heineken SA
• Manufacturing: Isanti Glass

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Top Employers 2025 country rankings in Africa (outside of South Africa)

• No. 1 Top Employer Zambia 2025: JTI Zambia
• No. 1 Top Employer Cote d’Ivoire 2025: Unilever Cote d’Ivoire
• No. 1 Top Employer Algeria 2025: JTI Algeria
• No. 1 Top Employer Senegal 2025: DHL Express Senegal
• Top Employers Egypt 2025 Overall Top 3: JTI Egypt; Mondelez Egypt Foods; DHL Global Forwarding Egypt
• Top Employers Ghana 2025 Overall Top 3: Unilever Ghana PLC; ABSA Bank Ghana; Telecel Ghana
• Top Employers Kenya 2025 Overall Top 3: Safaricom Kenya PLC; Unilever Kenya Ltd; BAT Kenya
• Top Employers Morocco 2025 Overall Top 3: JTI Morocco; Mondelez Maroc s.a; Lear Corp Morocco
• Top Employers Nigeria 2025 Overall Top 3: Unilever Nigeria; Mondelez Nigeria; DHL Global Forwarding Nigeria
• Number 1 Top Employer Zimbabwe 2025: Unilever Zimbabwe

Click here to view all the 2025 Top Employers.