On Monday evening, 9 March, during an event at Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School, the Best Employer of 2009 was announced. The winner among companies of less than 500 employees is Microsoft, second is SAS, third is Plus Uitzendkrachten. The winner among companies of more than 500 employees is Randstad, second is Dow Corning, third is Cisco Systems. Special Awards went to: FedEx Express (Award for Diversity), Carglass (Award for People Management), and KBC (Award for Talent Development). This annual, large-scale study was conducted by Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School’s HRM Centre.

The ‘Best Employer’ is a large-scale survey of employers within the EU that place their personnel management policy at the centre of their business policy. All European member states were called on simultaneously to take part in this study. All organisations (profit, non-profit and government) with more than 50 employees could participate.

This initiative of Vlerick’s HRM Centre − in collaboration with the Great Place to Work Institute Europe and media partners Vacature and Références − has the goal of defining a professional European standard for high-quality personnel management policy.

The Best Belgian Employers automatically quality for a place on the European list, which will be announced in Dublin in mid-May. In total, 1000 companies within the member states are competing for one of the honorary titles.

In addition to ranking the Top 10 companies (<500 employees) and the Top 10 companies (>500 employees), the organisation awarded a prize to three outstanding company cases regarding People Management, Diversity and Talent Development.

Thus, Carglass received the award for People Management. One-to-one discussions with team leaders are a daily reality here. Carglass strives for optimal coaching for each individual in the areas of personal improvement and teamwork.

Just as it did last year, FedEx Express received the Award for Diversity. The company continues to pursue its initiatives in the area of diversity. An example is the Diversity Award Calendar, which notifies employees when activities are organised around the various religions and cultures.

Finally, KBC captured the Award for Talent Development. More experienced employees also receive career coaching, because KBC believes that they still have a lot of possibilities for developing themselves further. So, KBC encourages employees − from the beginning to the end of their career − to participate in training programmes, share knowledge with colleagues (possibly as mentors), become involved in projects, and of course regularly change the content of their function in the organisation.

Overview of the Top 10 companies with less than 500 and more than 500 employees.

Ranking	Organisation < 500 EM	Ranking	Organisation > 500 EM
1	Microsoft	1	Randstad
2	SAS Insitute	2	Dow Corning
3	Plus Uitzendkrachten	3	Cisco Systems
4	Mars Belgium	4	Mc Donald’s Belgium
5	Accent Jobs for People	5	FedEx Express
6	Robert Half International	6	Hulp in Huis
7	Schoenen Torfs	7	KBC
8	Amgen	8	Carglass
9	Secretary Plus Management Support	9	TNT
10	CTG Belgium	10	Tempo-Team

More information available in Dutch.