Unilever and Old Mutual lead Top Employers in 2016
These are companies that have seemingly got the business to people and people to business mix right
According to a report published by the Harvard Business Review in association with Siemens, companies wanting to succeed in the knowledgebased economy know that creative, adaptable and engaged employees are a critical asset – not just for present day survival, but for future sustainability too.
Finding these employees is difficult enough, but holding onto them is even harder with the younger generation of workers seeking more motivation than a regular pay cheque and an occasional promotion. The report highlights that the younger workers — the ones with the vision, excitement and passion that are going to take established businesses into the new world of work, will stay with organisations that offer them the opportunity to do meaningful work, while offering them opportunities for personal growth, as well as the implied respect that autonomy to work where they want to, implies.
It goes deeper, according to the report’s researchers. Younger generations of employees want to work for organisations and leaders ‘that share their values and demonstrate their commitment to ethical behaviour in the workplace, and in the community. The next generation is telling companies that to become an employer of choice, they must become social value creators – organisations with the products and services that can solve the challenges that face us globally’.
Researchers asked young employers to identify what the most important criteria where, when looking for an employer of choice, and the top characteristics they named were: building trust and empowerment in teams, communicating with honesty and fairness, passionate and engaging leaders, providing clear carer paths with opportunities for advancement, possessing a clear vision of corporate goals and mission, provid- ing strong training and development programmes, and providing flexible working conditions and a good worklife balance.
While the research findings from the Top Employers Certification Programme may differ from these characteristics, you can bet your bottom dollar (or even your bottom rand) that the top achievers in its South African and African Certification Programmes would achieve high scores in these rankings too.
The 2016 achievers in the Top Employers Certification programme show that heavy hitters like Unilever and Old Mutual continue to place their employees at the centre of their businesses, with both companies taking the lead in two categories in South Africa. Unilever’s local companies where named as the number one Top Employer in Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria as well as being certified in Cote d’Ivoire. and it was named the number one Top Employer on the African continent
Unilever South Africa retained its position as South Africa’s Top Employer for the third consecutive year, with Old Mutual climbing two places from last year to take second spot. Technology innovators Microsoft moved up from fifth place last year to third place. Newcomers to the Top 10 in this year’s programme include Nestlé South Africa (Pty) Ltd and Vodacom (Pty) Ltd.
When it comes to the industry leaders, Unilever South Africa maintained its position in the FMCG and manufacturing industries, as did Old Mutual, again leading in the insurance and financial services sectors. Pfizer retained its position at the top of the pharmaceuticals sector, BASF South Africa (Pty) Ltd was announced as the leader in the chemicals sector with Hilti South Africa keeping its spot at the top of the support services: construction sector. Accenture SA (Pty) Ltd keeps its lead in the professional services industry, as does Microsoft in the information technology sector.
Anglo American Platinum Limited takes top honours in the mining sector. OneLogix (Pty) Ltd took the crown in the logistics category, and Thermo Fisher Scientific took top position in the healthcare services sector. Boutique fitness brand adidas South Africa (Pty) Ltd topped the retail category.
What’s interesting to note is that there are only two homegrown companies within the Top 10 Employers in South Africa — Old Mutual and Vodacom — although both have grown to become international organisations. The remaining eight are all local operations of global organisations, with a similar slant in the industry leaders category, where Legal Aid and OneLogix are the only two other homegrown companies.
While the participants in the Top Employers 2016 Certification Programme may well be slanted towards large companies, there is much that medium and small enterprises can learn from these multinational organisations – who all started out small, once upon a time.
For example, one of Unilever’s origins are from a wholesale grocery business that produced a new type of household soap in the 1880s — and their major innovation was to give their soap a name (Sunlight) and to package it. The company now has 14 brands and international sales of over one billion Euros annually (2014 figures) — and there’s little doubt that it has achieved that status by putting its people at the centre of its business — wherever in the world they may be.
Big company retention strategies that could work well for smaller organisations include the likes of flexible work schedules, in recognition of what people can achieve when they’re given the freedom to choose their work space — and time. Great places to work encourage their employees to have lives outside of their jobs, while many other great employers simply don’t tolerate poor performers or unpleasant people – not because of what it costs the business, but because of what it costs their people.
Above all, great employers pay a decent wage. It doesn’t have to be the highest wage in a particular sector, but, no matter how fantastic a company of any size is to work for, if the hygiene factor of fair financial reward is not in place, it’s unlikely that many (or any) of the softer elements are going to keep great employees in place.
Top Employers South Africa 2016: Overall Top 10 1 Unilever South Africa, 2 Old Mutual, 3 Microsoft, 4 Accenture SA (Pty) Ltd, 5 SAP Africa, 6 Nestlé (South Africa) (Pty) Limited, 7 Tata Consultancy Services (SA) (Pty) Ltd, 8 Coca-Cola South Africa, 9 EY South Africa, 10 Vodacom (Pty) Ltd
Top Employers South Africa 2016: Industry Leaders Volkswagen Group South Africa: Automotive; BASF South Africa (Pty) Ltd: Chemicals; Group Five: Construction; Old Mutual: Financial services and insurance; Unilever South Africa: Fast moving consumer goods and manufacturing; Microsoft: Information technology; Anglo American Platinum Limited: Mining; Pfizer: Pharmaceuticals; Accenture SA (Pty) Ltd: Professional services; Legal Aid South Africa: Public sector; adidas South Africa (Pty) Ltd: Retail; Hilti South Africa: Support services: construction; Thermo Fisher Scientific: Support services: healthcare; SAP Africa: Support services: technology; Vodacom (Pty) Ltd: Telecommunications; OneLogix (Pty) Ltd: Transport and logistics
Top Employers Africa 2016: Number 1 Top Employer Africa 2016: Unilever; Number 1 Top Employer Ghana 2016: Unilever Ghana Limited; Number 1 Top Employer Kenya 2016: Unilever Kenya; Number 1 Top Employer Nigeria 2016: Unilever Nigeria Plc