Lek, the Ljubljana-based pharmaceutical company, has been chosen Slovenia's best employer for the fourth year running. Before that, its Novo Mesto counterpart Krka won the title eight times.

The winner is picked by Styria Digital Marketplaces based on an extensive online survey conducted by its job portal MojeDelo.com and Universum Global, a leading European employer branding company.

The survey involves candidates in the labour market assessing the reputation of Slovenian employers and explaining what motivates them in their career path and what they expect from their employer.

Accepting the title for 2022 at a ceremony in Ljubljana on 18 April, Lek chairman Robert Ljoljo said the company built on its tradition of more than 75-years and modern approaches that they continuously introduced in their work.

"This allows us to create an ecosystem of an employer that is attractive both for our employees as well as for those looking for a job and others in the labour market," he was quoted as saying.

The company bets on a culture of inclusion, aspiring to draw from each employee the best they contribute to its success, he said, adding: employee satisfaction stands for the company's further growth.

Apart from Lek, the top ten esteemed employers feature, in alphabetical order, Akrapovič, DARS, Gen-I, Krka, Petrol, Pipistrel, Porsche Slovenija, Slovenske Železnice and Telekom Slovenije. The same companies also made it among the top ten a year ago.

Tomaž Gorjup, director of Styria Digital Marketplaces, said that being a reputable employer represented a major challenge in a period of crisis, high inflation and job candidates' demands for the right balance between professional and private life.

Over the past three years the bargaining power has shifted to the side of employees, who discuss amount of pay on social networks, and job satisfaction has become more important than ever as candidates can change employer any time, he said.

Alessandro Salutari, head of marketing for the EMEA region at Universum Global, said their surveys showed the main priorities for job seekers were respect for employees, competitive wages, training and staff development, a friendly working environment, job security, flexible working conditions, high future earnings, an encouraging work-life balance, adequate remuneration and corporate social responsibility.