Models in the realm of high-quality personnel management

On Monday evening, 8 March, during a Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School event, the winners of the ‘Best Employers of 2010’ survey were announced. Among the companies with fewer than 500 employees, the winner is SAS Institute, second is Microsoft, third is Mars Belgium. Among the companies with more than 500 employees, the winner is Schoenen Torfs, second is Randstad, third is FedEx Express. Special Awards were presented to Microsoft (for Inspirational Leadership), Randstad (for Diversity) and Care (for Talent Development). This annual survey of companies is conducted by Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School’s HRM Centre.

The ‘Best Employer’ is a large-scale survey within the EU of employers that make personnel management central to their business policy. All European member states are called on to take part in this survey each year, and all organisations (profit, non-profit and governmental) with more than 50 employees can participate. The goal of this initiative of Vlerick’s HRM Centre, in collaboration with the Great Place to Work Institute Europe and media partners Vacature and Références, is to define a professional and European standard for high-quality personnel management. The Best Belgian Employers qualify automatically for a place on the European list, which will be announced in mid-May in Madrid. In total, 1000 companies in the member states are competing for one of the titles of honour.

Prof. Dr. Dirk Buyens, Head of the People & Organisation Competence Centre of Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School, confirms the value of the model: “Despite the financial crisis and the restructuring in many companies, we’re seeing that this year as well a large number of companies are continuing to invest in the talent of their people and thus arrive at a sustainable and qualitative (personnel) policy. Organisations recognised as Best Employer become a reference for other Belgian organisations and demonstrate the importance of a people-oriented approach for the development of the individual and the growth of the organisation.”

THE WINNERS

< 500 employees: The lucky employees have SAS Institute (among others) to thank for a ‘Drive Your Talents’ programme that is available to all employees. In brief, the programme is about recognising and making maximum use of the employees’ personal skills – for example, by working more proactively and offering more autonomy. The underlying objective is to make right choices for the personal development of the employees themselves and the development of the company. Despite the economic crisis, SAS Institute acknowledges the importance of investing in talent in order to stay competitive, their people being their most important capital.

> 500 employees: The employees of Schoenen Torfs are proud to be able to work for this organisation. Schoenen Torfs’ HR strategy starts from the family-company tradition where people take care of each other; this point of view is then translated into a contemporary vision of life and work. Thus, authenticity, complementarity and teamwork are the keywords. The idea of partnership – in which employee and employer can truly add value to each other – remains essential. Torfs aspires to a deliberately open and unprejudiced view on people, giving older people a chance as well. “Your age doesn’t matter!” has been placed explicitly in Torfs’ job advertisements – with the result that more people over 50 have applied and been hired.

THE TOP 10

In the Top 10 of the companies with fewer than 500 employees, 2^nd place goes to Microsoft and 3^rd place to Mars Belgium. In the Top 10 of the companies with more than 500 employees, 2^nd place goes to Randstad and 3^rd place to FedEx Express.

Ranking	Organisation < 500 Employees	Ranking	Organisation > 500 Employees
1	SAS Institute nv/sa	1	Schoenen Torfs
2	Microsoft	2	Randstad Belgium
3	Mars	3	FedEx Express
4	Accent Jobs For People nv	4	Care nv
5	IS sa	5	McDonald's Belgium
6	Amgen nv	6	KBC
7	Abbott /Abbott Vascular International bvba	7	Accenture
8	Genzyme Flanders	8	Cisco Systems bvba
9	Bank J. Van Breda & Co.	9	Partena Ziekenfonds & Partners
10	Robert Half bvba	10	TNT Express

SPECIAL AWARDS

In addition to ranking the Top 10 companies, Vlerick awards a prize to three outstanding company cases.

Thus, Microsoft has received the Award for Inspirational Leadership. An essential element is that Microsoft managers steer their employees via connection and ‘management by values’. This means that the managers pay a lot of attention to the person behind the employee, which gives them a good view on how they can best energise their people. Particularly in the past crisis year, inspirational leadership has had a special significance for Microsoft: they decided to save on marketing, and not on the people themselves. Therefore, for the launch of Windows 7, the involvement and inspiration of Microsoft’s own people were key.

Randstad has received the Award for Diversity. Through a variety of initiatives, Randstad has been working on improving its internal diversity policy. So, they have launched training sessions concerning ‘how to handle differences positively’ and sensitising campaigns via regular internal communication. Furthermore, Randstad takes part in local projects such as gender-conscious personnel management, and they give attention to diversity statements in their recruitment campaigns. In addition, in 2009 Randstad worked on the ‘young@heart’ project in order to set an example regarding HR policy for persons over 45. For Randstad, their experience and maturity make these co-workers extra-valuable.

And Care has received the Award for Talent Development. At Care, they believe that developing their people improves service quality (which is derived directly from the people) and thus the results of the organisation. Opportunities for development are offered to all groups of employees. There is an extensive training offer for both labourers and office workers: from language courses to the development of competencies, there’s something to suit every employee. If so desired, a coach provides further support in the workplace.