2008-06-05
BUDAPEST – Hewitt Associates, a global human resources services company, today announced the results of Hewitt's annual Best Employers Study for Central and Eastern Europe, sponsored by The Wall Street Journal Europe. The study, which surveyed nearly 120,000 employees, 3,000 senior leaders and 600 companies in 12 countries, shows that Best Employers with highly engaged teams are more successful both in achieving and exceeding business goals, as well as attracting, retaining and motivating their key resource - talent.
The list of large companies was topped by McDonald's Russia, with Microsoft Slovenia heading the list for small and medium size companies. Microsoft also received a special recognition for demonstrating regional excellence as a Best Employer. Microsoft entered the competition in seven countries – Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine - and achieved excellent results in each country. A listing of Hewitt's top 15 Best Employers for small and medium scale companies, and for large scale companies follows in this news release.
Vahe Torossian, President of Microsoft CEE, said:
"We know that people are the biggest asset we have, therefore attracting talent is the number one job for everyone in the organisation. What we try to do across the organisation is not just to attract people to join the company to take a job, but to think about developing their career nationally and internationally."
Tangible benefits
Zsolt Szelecki, Hewitt's Emerging Markets Leader, said:
"We would say that gaining employees's engagement should be a decision based on pure business sense. The data inevitably shows that engaged people boost business performance. The fact that Best Employers generate 24% higher than average shareholder revenue (TSR) is one indicator of the value of building long-term engagement with employees.
"There are other benefits too,. Best Employers' employee turnover figures are 15% lower than average, they receive four times more CV applications and the average number of absence days is 45% lower at 4,8 instead of 7 days per year per employee."
As the talent war continues, attracting the best talent can be just as challenging as retaining employees long-term, and in this area word of mouth can help enormously. Employees of Best Employers are "real ambassadors" for their workplace, with 26% more employees saying that they are happy to recommend their company to their friends seeking employment.
How far are you willing to go for your talent?
71% of senior leaders state that attracting and retaining talent will be the biggest human resources challenge in the next 3 to 5 years. HR managers in Central Eastern Europe not only agree, but 6 out of 10 are also expecting a significant talent shortage in the near future. In the views of HR managers, the talent shortage is likely to be most acute in Bulgaria, Slovakia and Poland, while it is less on the agenda of HR managers in Austria and Hungary.
Rita Veres, project manager of the Hewitt Best Employers Study, said:.
"The research shows that 51% of companies are already considering recruiting outside their own country or even region to overcome the talent shortage. But it's not only about expanding the geographic scope: companies have to find new ways to make themselves more attractive to new talent – as well as finding new ways to keep them for the long term"
After recognising the business risk that the talent shortage could mean, companies have already started to adopt new solutions. 78% of the companies have partnerships with universities, 71% run corporate communication campaigns to promote themselves as employers. Surprisingly, alumni employees can also ease the talent pressure, bring further business, remain avid spokespersons for the company or even decide to return with new experiences and re-engage. But only 28% of companies are currently utilising this latter option.
The moment of truth
While companies are trying to be more visible on the labour market with communication campaigns, the moment of truth is coming when employees join the company and face the reality.
Zsolt Szelecki, Emerging Markets Leader at Hewitt, said:
"Our study shows that employees' feelings when they join a company are similar to those we experience when falling in love. Initially, they are very engaged with their workplace and more likely to overlook imperfections. However, once this honeymoon period is over, some disappointment is almost unavoidable. After the first 12 to 18 months of employment, engagement drops dramatically (from 69 to 53 percent).
"Our figures tell us that only half of employees (51%) feel that the image of their company as an employer is consistent with their own experiences. To put it simply, employees often do not get what they were promised on joining the company. Hewitt's research shows that as soon as the company fails to deliver on its promises, trust is undermined and engagement falls."
Small and Medium Scale Company Category
| Rank |
Company |
Country |
Industry |
| 1 |
Microsoft |
Slovenia |
IT |
| 2 |
3M |
Czech Republic |
Diversified Technologies and Solutions |
| 3 |
Telerik |
Bulgaria |
IT |
| 4 |
Hofmann Personal Leasing |
Austria |
Employment Services |
| 5 |
Cisco Systems |
Poland |
IT/Telecommunications |
| 6 |
Debrecen Heat Supply Close Company |
Hungary |
Heat Supply |
| 7 |
AMERICAN EXPRESS POLAND |
Poland |
Finance |
| 8 |
Agrofirma Sumy-Nasinnya |
Ukraine |
Agriculture |
| 8 |
Cisco Systems |
Czech Republic |
Information Technologies |
| 10 |
Microsoft |
Slovakia |
IT |
| 11 |
Hilti |
Slovakia |
Products for Construction |
| 12 |
SGI Baltis LTD |
Poland |
Building Construction, Development |
| 13 |
Hilti |
Czech Republic |
Products for Construction |
| 14 |
Colliers International |
Bulgaria |
Consulting-Real Estate |
| 15 |
CROWN Packaging |
Slovakia |
Food Industry Packaging Products |
Large Scale Company Category
| Rank |
Company |
Country |
Industry |
| 1 |
Moscow-McDonald's |
Russia |
Food Service Retailer/Quick Service Restaurants |
| 2 |
GlaxoSmithKline |
Bulgaria |
Pharma |
| 2 |
Logos |
Czech Republic |
Information Technologies |
| 4 |
Market Ltd. |
Hungary |
Building Construction |
| 5 |
Microsoft |
Russia |
IT |
| 6 |
Microsoft |
Poland |
IT |
| 7 |
McDonald's Bulgaria |
Bulgaria |
Food Service Retailer/Quick Service Restaurants |
| 8 |
TH Megapolic LLS "TM Khortitsa" |
Ukraine |
FMCG |
| 9 |
MARS Sales |
Hungary |
FMCG |
| 10 |
GlaxoSmithKline |
Russia |
Pharma |
| 11 |
Eli Lilly |
Hungary |
Pharma |
| 12 |
The Central Office of PND Branch of Ukrtelecom |
Ukraine |
Telecommunications |
| 13 |
Assarel-Medet |
Bulgaria |
Mining |
| 14 |
Nycomed |
Russia |
Pharma |
| 15 |
Hewlett-Packard |
Slovakia |
Information Technologies |
And special recognition goes to…
Microsoft, the world's best-known IT company, for demonstrating regional excellence as a Best Employer. Microsoft entered the competition in seven countries – Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine - and achieved excellent results in each country.
Methodology
Hewitt surveyed 120,000 employees, 3,000 top leaders, and employees at 600 companies in 12 Central and Eastern European countries –Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey, Poland, Romania, Russia and Ukraine. The survey covered workplace quality, with organisations eligible if they employed more than 50 people, with operations in the given country for at least two years.
The ranking is based on an objective, independent scoring methodology. 60% of the score depends on employees' opinion and 40% comes from the "alignment score" (showing how closely the leaders' perspective, employees' needs and HR practices are aligned). The study examines three aspects:
- Hewitt Employee Engagement Survey: completed by a representative sample of employees. 80 questions on: the work environment, career and development, salary and compensations, top management, internal relations, work/life balance, HR practices and company processes. Opinions are measured on a 6-level scale with the opportunity to explain opinions.
- Leadership Team Survey: completed by the business leader (CEO) or equivalent to indicate his/her opinion on the companies' HR strategy and philosophy, and their companies as employers. It focuses on: leadership engagement, internal conformity of leadership, company strategy and business priorities, HR priorities, and leadership communication.
- HR Audit Questionnaire: completed by the HR manager plus department. It focuses on: employer branding, talent management, HR activity and practice efficiency, compensation/perks, performance management, work/life balance, HR strategy, HR effectiveness.
About Hewitt Associates
For more than 65 years, Hewitt Associates (NYSE: HEW) has provided clients with best-in-class human resources consulting and outsourcing services. Hewitt consults with more than 3,000 large and mid-size companies around the globe to develop and implement HR business strategies covering retirement, financial and health management; compensation and total rewards; and performance, talent and change management. As a market leader in benefits administration, Hewitt delivers health care and retirement programmes to millions of participants and pensioners, on behalf of more than 300 organisations worldwide. In addition, more than 30 clients rely on Hewitt to provide a broader range of human resources business process outsourcing services to nearly a million client employees. Located in 33 countries, Hewitt employs approximately 23,000 associates. For more information, please visit www.hewitt.com.
