In April 2018, three of the ROAM Jobs brands released the ‘Best 100 companies to work for’ report for their respective countries.
These reports identify and rank the top companies in each country, as rated by employees and other job professionals. The reports took into consideration metrics such as employee job satisfaction, career growth prospects, work-life balance etc. They also provide insights into factors that job seekers should consider when choosing their next company, as well as areas that employers should focus on improving if they wish to attract and keep the best talent.
The three brands that released the reports this year are BrighterMonday Kenya, Jobberman Nigeria and Jobberman Ghana. For Kenya and Ghana, this is the first edition of the report, and as you can imagine, the reports are causing quite a buzz in the countries.
What do employees want?
The focus of this year’s reports was to gain deeper insights into the dynamics and motivational drivers for the different segments. Here were some interesting insights; some of which resonated across all countries and some were peculiar to a certain country:
- Job satisfaction levels differed across markets with Kenya recording the lowest score and Nigeria highest score. However, male employees are slightly more satisfied than female employees across all three markets.
- There are more women in entry-level positions and more men in senior positions across all three markets, and as a result, you will find more men in a higher salary bracket and more women in a lower salary bracket.
- In Kenya, women pose a greater flight risk while in Nigeria and Ghana, men are more likely to leave their current places of work, despite their higher satisfaction rates.
- Entrants to Senior level positions across all three countries seek the same two top traits in choosing where to work; first pay and then proximity to home. Although the order changes from pay to proximity as work levels go higher.
- Most employees value Company pride, culture, career progression, diversity & inclusion over pay packages, in their current places of work.
These are just a few insights, however, what is interesting is the similarities across markets, especially around the uneven gender distribution at senior level and remuneration skewed in favour of men. To get a closer look at the reports in the specific countries and insights, view the individual reports for Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana.
Achieving expectations:
The key takeaways from these reports will be to improve the credibility of our Jobs brands in their individual markets and to use them as a tool to drive further engagement with our clients. This has begun to play out very nicely across the three markets, with the Jobs brands using these reports to gain unprecedented access to top employers, who are sharing insights about the factors they focus on to make their companies great places to work. Furthermore, using this interaction, the Jobs brands are able to intimately educate top employers about their key value propositions thereby building fruitful business relationships.
In Kenya, the report has been received with great enthusiasm, as well as genuine curiosity about the findings in the report. Numerous top employers, such as Safaricom – ranked 1st this year, Kengen, PWC have met the BrighterMonday team and opened up about the challenges they have faced and the victories they have achieved when they decided to follow certain paths to employee well being and satisfaction. In the video below, Safaricom, a leading mobile network provider, says that the one trait that makes them such a great place to work is that they bring the human side to the corporate space by making family well-being a priority; this is in contrast to the perception of how big companies treat their employers.
Watch the video here: Safaricom video
In Nigeria, this was the fourth edition of the report, so there is strong recognition & confidence in the report, and the response has been spirited & celebrated by some companies that have progressed in the rankings. One such company is Andela, a company that specializes in training world-class software developers that are placed in companies across the globe. They rose from 8th position in 2017 to 1st position in 2018. In the video below, you can see how the company uses a clear and measurable mission statement to drive a culture that all staff can rally behind; for them, it is this clarity of purpose that ensures everything they do as a company is aligned with the desires of their employees.
Watch the video here: Andela video
In Ghana, the reaction to the reports has been very welcoming, with a host of top employers eager to learn more about the report and celebrate their rankings. Companies such as Tullow, Maersk, Fidelity Bank have listened to insights from the report, and shown great pride in the fact that their companies embody most of the traits that Ghanaian employees seek. An interesting visit to Ecobank demonstrated the fact that gender distribution and adequate pay/benefits are key to a motivated workforce. The HR team was super excited with their 6th place ranking and were all smiles when receiving their award plaque.
See some more pictures of our visits: Award pictures
Setting the pace:
There are many more companies to meet, more learnings to glean, and more relationships to build. These reports have positioned the Jobs brands as an information core and solution provider in the HR space. With every visit, the Jobs brands are one step closer to collating the required insights to create a clear picture of the employment space in each country, and to provide the right direction and guidance for employers and employees on the expectations each should have from each other.
Going forward, the next report will incorporate feedback from a wider range of employees, across diverse work backgrounds, and given the positive feedback from this edition, this should be quite straightforward to achieve.
