DHL Express, an international express services provider with an office in Uganda has been certified as a Top Employer in Africa by the Top Employers Institute at the prestigious Top Employer 2017 ceremony on Thursday October 13 at the Sandton Convention Centre.

The company was certified as a Top Employer in twelve markets, including Uganda, Angola, Botswana, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Nigeria and South Africa.

Hennie Heymans, CEO of DHL Express Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), says the company is  ‘extremely proud’ of this achievement, and that the achievement is testament to how much it values its employees and “reaffirms that DHL Express is a rewarding place to work at.”

“Having motivated people is the first pillar of our global internal focus strategy and being an Employer of Choice is one of our three bottom lines. This demonstrates how seriously we take employee engagement and development at a global level and on the ground in SSA. We’re committed to having a team of high performers who operate in a high performance culture and in a region that promotes and drives diversity of leadership,” Mr Heymans says.

“I believe that DHL Express has something very unique. You don’t often find a company that can maintain the same culture across the world,” he said adding: “These initiatives and programs include our Certified International Specialist (CIS) program, which is a cultural change program that all our employees across SSA have gone through. An extension of CIS is our Certified International Manager (CIM) program, which focuses primarily on ensuring that our leaders are equipped with the knowledge and skills to meet the demands of today’s complex working environment and promote effective and quality leadership among managers.”

Further, Mr Heymans says DHL runs a 100 percent anonymous annual Employee Opinion Survey that gives the company ‘great insight’ into areas that require improvement.

“Much like how we rely on customer feedback to improve our customer service quality, direct feedback from employees is imperative to our success. From an employee recognition point of view, we run Employee Appreciation Weeks and functional focus weeks which celebrate and recognize our employees’ achievements in each country. In addition, we present quarterly and annual awards to our star performers, based on employee nominations,” adds Heymans.

To be certified as a Top Employer in Africa, a company needs to operate in four or more countries and have exceptional employee conditions. The Top Employers Institute conducts comprehensive and independent research by getting employees in the relevant companies to complete a HR best practice survey.

The survey assesses the company’s HR strategy, policy implementation, practices and employee offerings, to reveal whether the company provides exceptional employee conditions, develops talent on all levels and demonstrates leadership through optimizing the development of its employees and employee practices.

Each completed survey is reviewed by the Top Employer Institute and subsequently audited by a third party. Only organizations that qualify from the selection process receive the Top Employers title and Certification Seal but all participants receive a comprehensive Feedback Report.

“We are delighted to have been certified as a Top Employer in Africa for the third consecutive year and strive to ensure that we continue to achieve this prestigious certification every year,” concludes Heymans.

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