Aon Hewitt brings employee engagement into spotlight with launch of Best Employers Middle East 2013

The accreditation program, conducted by the world's leading HR consultancy, provides participating organizations from across the Middle East with a chance to not only measure their employees' engagement levels, but to also understand next steps on the path to higher employee engagement.

Launched globally over 10 years ago, Best Employers has become an international benchmark for business, reflecting the opinions of an unprecedented number of employees and providing organizations with a unique opportunity to assess and understand the impact that engagement has on workforce performance.

Samir Mardini, Head of Talent at Aon Hewitt Middle East, said: "Over a decade of research shows that Best Employers are consistent across national culture, economic conditions and political situations because they put a high value on employees' needs. This results in particularly high levels of employee engagement which in turn creates positive brand advocates, reduces staff turnover, improves customer satisfaction and, ultimately, increases business performance and profitability.

"With this in mind, it is no surprise that organizations are placing an increasing emphasis on introducing effective measures to maximize employee engagement and gain a competitive edge over other organizations."

To take part in the study, organizations need to complete three diagnostic tools which have been developed by Aon Hewitt to provide comprehensive insight into organizational behaviours:

• Employee Opinion Survey: Identifies employee perceptions across a comprehensive set of people, organization and process related areas
• Human Resources Survey: Collects information from HR leaders on business performance, organizational structure, people/HR strategies and practices, programs and policies
• Leadership Team Survey: Questionnaire designed to collect feedback from the leadership team on strategic business direction and people-related actions to enhance business performance

"With unparalleled experience in conducting intensive reviews of HR best practice, Aon Hewitt's Best Employers is the most robust study of it's kind in the region," continued Mardini. "It is also one of the few programs which is free for participants to enter. Not only does it provide entrants with a clear indication of the level at which they are currently operating, benchmarked against the 'best' and the 'rest', but every organization receives a complimentary report outlining recommendations to develop a sustainable strategy for improving employee satisfaction in order to drive business results in the long-term."

Testament to the credibility of Aon Hewitt's Best Employers study is the importance that regional and global brands place on achieving the highly sought-after accreditation. Frank-Uwe Ungerer is the Country Manager for DHL Express UAE, which was recognized as one of the region's Best Employers in 2011, said: "It is important to have an external benchmark validating your HR processes. We have an outstanding HR team but our process can only be effective if our employees embrace and support it.

"People are the real asset of any company and at DHL, we place strong emphasis on employee engagement and motivation in ensuring that our employees stay passionate about what they do. To be named one of the region's Best Employers by Aon Hewitt, the global leader in HR consultancy validates our ongoing efforts to set a high benchmark and ultimately supports our goal to be one of the region's leading employer's of choice."

Entry criteria

As in previous years, Best Employers is open to organizations that have operated in Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia or the UAE for at least two years and have at least 50 full-time employees. Participation is free and organizations have until 12th January 2013 to sign up at bestemployersmiddleeast.com.

Once registered, organizations need to submit their data between 13th January and 28th February 2013. A random selection will be audited and all entries analysed and anonymised by Aon Hewitt before being sent for review by an independent panel of HR professionals. Winners will be announced in May and only organizations that are named Best Employers Middle East 2013 will be identified publicly.