Staff Reporter
Windhoek-Dundee Precious Metals yesterday walked away with Deloitte’s Best Company to Work For award for large companies with over 500 employees, while the Bank of Namibia received the Best Company to Work For award for companies with less than 500 employees.
Runners up in the Large Size Company Category were Trustco Group Holdings in second place and Agra in third position. Second and third places in the small and medium company category were and Namibia Institute of Pathology and Namibia Diamond Trading Company (NDTC), respectively.
Deloitte’s Best Company to Work For Survey, also known as the Best Company Survey, which measures employee experience, has in the past year undergone a rejuvenation, incorporating smart analytics coupled with best practice research methodologies to deliver a diagnostic tool, for organisations to measure year-on-year attributes which influence employee engagement and attraction to an organisation.
The rejuvenation of the survey is reflected in this year’s theme: ‘Maximising The Power Of Your People’. Traditionally, the well-known Best Company to Work For Survey, conducted in Namibia since 2011, focused on employee satisfaction in the workplace through a static assessment with delayed feedback and action cycles.
The re-engineered survey provides comprehensive insight reports with more dynamic reporting through access to the Deloitte Portal, which allows participants to take immediate responsive action. The Best Company Survey also includes a 100 percent coverage of employees, as opposed to the selected sample surveys of the past.
The key objectives of the Best Company Survey is to enable an organisation to identify what attracts and motivates individuals within the workplace and how this impacts the productivity or engagement levels.
The survey output provides an organisation with the key elements of how employees experience the culture of the organisation and whether this impacts or influences employees either positively or negatively, and in turn, whether this experience influences an employee’s level of discretionary effort. “The survey can assist businesses to better understand the mix of individuals within in your teams by providing you with an engagement snapshot; separating those whom are prepared to ‘shoot the lights out’ on a daily basis, and those who are only prepared to give the very bare minimum,” Deloitte Namibia partner Ramsay Mc Donald said at the awards function in Windhoek on Wednesday.
He added that the advantage of the newly structured survey is that it assists businesses and HR in designing a work environment that engages people, constructing a new model of leadership and career development.
Participation in the Deloitte Best Company Survey assists in understanding how employees identify with the culture, i.e. the shared beliefs and common goals of the organisations and similarly how they experience the organisation on a day to day basis.
Moreover, the Deloitte portal allows direct and on-going access to results data, enabling an organisation to leverage its success areas, prioritise its focus areas, and understand the employee state of mind as well as the mix in their teams.
“Our human capital team lead by Priscilla Husselmann will assist you to utilise this information to gain relevant insights into your business. This will help you improve on areas of weakness and reinforce areas of strength. As a result your organisation can strategically and proactively manage its competitive advantage and systematically measure its return on investment,” Mc Donald noted.
He also pointed out that in the same manner in which the survey has evolved over time in line with client needs and global trends, companies also need to adapt a more comprehensive culture and employee experience strategy: “Integrate culture and engagement to focus on the employee experience holistically considering all the contributors to worker satisfaction, engagement, wellness and alignment.”
The Human Capital Global Trends of 2017 report was presented by Priscilla Husselmann with specific emphasis on the Namibia report and the growing employee experience trend. “The 2018 Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends Survey provides a list of potential and emerging Human Capital trends, and asks respondents about the importance of each of these trends to your organisation, your readiness to deal with these trends and your capabilities and plans to address priority areas,” Husselmann noted.
HR leaders and C-suite executive’s members were encouraged to participate in the 2018 Human Capital Trends survey closing on the 24 November 2017.
Based on a Best Company Score, participating organisations are awarded a Seal of Achievement, which this year has two variations, i.e. Platinum for a score of 3.5 and above and Gold for a score of 3.25 to 3.49.
The seal is a demonstration of the attractiveness of the organisation and commitment to its people, enabling the organisation to market itself as an employer of choice. This seal is derived from the Best Company Score achieved in the survey.