What makes a company a top employer?

What makes a company a top employer?

By Tebogo Monakedi

HR Director, CHEP Sub-Sahara Africa

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People are every organisation’s most precious resource. Equipment, technology, data, even industry insights can be procured from outside, but it is people who give a company its character, its culture and personality. People don’t work with organisations – they work with other people.

People are also complex. We have feelings, we change and grow. We have hopes and dreams for the future. We have values and principles that guide our decisions and the way we live our lives. It’s not for nothing that managing and working with people is one of the most complex but rewarding disciplines in all of business.

Aligning purpose

There is a growing understanding that what drives us, as individuals, is our purpose. When we have a vision for our role in the world, and we feel we are making a difference by working towards that, we are happier, more fulfilled, and more productive.

The same applies to organisations. When a company has a clear, stated purpose, which is not an add-on, but integrated into its business model and its ways of working, then its role in the world is clear. Its people have a goal, as well as a reason for doing their work each day.

Ensuring the best performance possible – in an ethical and a productive sense – can be achieved when the purpose of the group, and the purpose of its people are aligned.

At CHEP, we have come to appreciate the wisdom of this approach. Having built a sustainable, share-and-reuse business model that minimises waste, we are now entering the next phase of our evolution – a regenerative model that puts back more into the environment than it takes out. This provides an ethical, environmentally sustainable foundation for our business, but it also resonates with the values of our people. Like many people today, our staff increasingly look to live values of sustainability in their personal and professional lives.

This principle should not be underestimated in the human-capital space. Motivated people are more productive, and we are more motivated when we get to work in the morning aware that we are making a positive impact in the world.

Organisations looking to build positive, productive, people-centric operations would do well to integrate their sustainability policies into their human-resource management. Sustainability is not a box to tick or a formality. It’s about aligning with the values of building a better society, in harmony with our planet – and the best people will be drawn to that vision.

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Retaining the best

That said, sustainability alone will not attract and retain the best people. At CHEP, we take a multipronged approach to creating a positive, productive, and rewarding workspace. The approach appears to work, as our staff turnover is consistently around a modest 2%.

Consistent, systematic engagement

We not only engage our employees regularly through surveys, personal interviews, and meetings, we have built a system that lets us engage quickly and effectively when necessary. This was evident in the 2021 unrest in KwaZulu-Natal, when we were able to confirm the safety of every one of our employees within minutes, thanks to our strong staff communication networks.

Likewise, throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, our HR teams have given our people the flexibility they need for the practical and mental wellbeing of their families, while continuing to deliver for our customers. Flexibility, constant communications, and a people-first safety approach have been the key.

We follow a hybrid home/office work approach, with the safety and wellbeing of our people always placed front and centre. We care for our employees, and our managers lead with empathy and clarity in their communications – always ready to listen and assist.

Sophisticated development planning

Through our development centre, we identify high-potential employees and partner with them to map a challenging but fulfilling career path that matches their skills and aspirations. We then make that career path a reality – through training, local and global opportunities, and via regular promotions as they become ready for their next role. This optimises the career experience for our people and minimises our chances of losing those talented staff who are “flight risks”.

Sustainable company objectives

The sustainability of our business is a function of the satisfaction of our people. Inclusion and diversity are therefore an enormous priority for us. Women’s empowerment is a core part of this and has seen us recognised by the Top Employers Institute for our support of female leadership, among other HR best practices. Staff are free to express themselves – through culture, gender, religion, sexual orientation or any other aspect of their identity.

As a pooling-solutions company with a share-and-reuse business model, our organisation is built on principles that are environmentally sustainable. We are in a state of constant improvement, publishing regular sustainability reviews, and working towards our vision for a regenerative economy. This sustainability vision helps us to attract and retain staff with similar values and helps us to constantly improve through their contribution to the vision.

As an organisation, we are focused on service to our employees, as much we are to our customers, shareholders, and communities, as we build a long-term, sustainable business that benefits the world.

The approach has borne fruit, as our staff surveys show a 90% positive engagement score among our people, turnover is one-fifth of the global average, and we are regularly recognised as a Top Employer.

While we are immensely proud of these achievements, they provide their own rewards. A fulfilled, engaged workforce is automatically more productive and more invested in building a more effective, sustainable organisation that is a force for good.