Microsoft, Unilever, Mansard, Coca-Cola, six others are great places to work in Nigeria- Survey

WorldStage Newsonline– Microsoft Nigeria, Unilever Nigeria, Mansard Insurance Plc, Coca-Cola Nigeria, NSIA Insurance, Akintola Williams Deloitte, DHL Nigeria, and Konga have been declared the best companies to work in Nigeria at the 2015 Great Place to Work Nigeria (GPTWN) Awards.

Clinching the coveted awards on account of their strong ethical standards and work-friendly environment while Microsoft beat FITC and DHL Nigeria to clinch the award for the category of Delivering Excellence in Wellness, Sahara Group, a major player in the oil & gas sector, trounced Fidelity Bank and Diageo Nigeria to clinch the award in the category of Delivering Excellence in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). FITC, which was first runner up to Microsoft however, won the Delivering Excellence in Leadership category. Lagos Business School and First Bank of Nigeria was first and second runner up, respectively.

Also, Akintola Williams Deloitte emerged winner in the Delivering Excellence in Learning & Development category. The firm beat DHL Nigeria and Accenture Nigeria who were first and second runner up, respectively. A pool of over 75 organisations was assessed from which three were nominated in each category and a winner selected.

Speaking during the third edition of the award ceremony and dinner tagged, ‘Good to Great,’ held on Friday, March 20, 2015 at the Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos, Country Manager, GPTWN, Mr. Michael Thomas, said “The eight companies that made the 2015 Best Companies To Work for in Nigeria list set a high standard for us all. Their outstanding achievement builds a better society by creating great workplaces.”

GPTWN is an affiliate of Great Place to Work, San Francisco, US, a global research, consulting and training institute that specializes in analyzing, understanding, selecting and publishing best workplace lists in the country.

The Great Place to Work Awards are a distinctive way Great Place to Work Institute recognizes the accomplishments of organisations across the world who have implemented creative and effective approaches to developing trust, pride, and camaraderie within their unique workplaces.The organisers define great workplaces as companies where employees trust their colleagues, take pride in their work and enjoy the relationship with the people they work with.

Thomas, who noted that it’s interesting to see lots of companies build great workplace culture however, said it takes a certain level of courage to blaze the trail and build a great workplace culture. He disclosed that unlike past editions, more indigenous companies are among the awardees.

Also speaking, Chairman of GPTWN, Mr. Ghandi Olaoye, noted that there is a growing desire among companies in Nigeria to build a great place to work. While describing the awardees as exceptional, he said they represent exemplary corporate citizens. He urged them to continue to show the way for others to follow.

Explaining the key criteria in the process of determining the winning companies, Mr. Olaoye said the selections were made by critically looking at employee perceptions as indicated in GPTWN Trust Index Assessment. “The Trust Index Survey measures employee perception of his company. It looks at how employees see their organisations and this trust index has a whole lot of questions drawn with an international standard. So we don’t do the rating, the employees do the rating and we send it to the Great Place to Work Institute in San Francisco,” he said.

Olaoye also said GPTWN used the Culture Audit in which companies policies and practices are benchmarked against global best practices. All companies surveyed for the Best Place to Work Institute awards are entered into a global data-base where their performances are benchmarked against other companies in 55 countries of the world.

He said GPTWN had positively impacted organisations across the world, as most of them now make the necessary adjustments because “When employees are happy, profit goes up. Most of the organisations that have been winning over the years are also companies that are profitable.

“Don’t forget that it is not us that rate the organisations in Great Place to Work, it is the employees, it is the people who are working there by the survey that we do who say our organisation is a great place to work or our organisation is not a great place to work. And what employers do most of the time is to look at it and use it to make adjustments towards making their employees happy.”

Olaoye stated that the journey had been good in the last three years, although, it was not entirely a smooth ride it first came into the country, as it was not so accepted by some people and employers some of who were not be interested.

He however, said things had changed, as acceptance level is now very high.

“Most businesses have over the years embraced Great Place to Work,” he said.