Joburg Market is the best company to work for

The Joburg Market received an impressive accolade - it was named Best Employer by an international research company.  

The Market was rated as one of South Africa’s BEST Employers™ for 2009/10. ‘BEST Employers™ South Africa’ is an HR best practice awarded by the CRF institute. CRF is an international research and media company that identifies and endows big companies around the world. The winners were announced at a sumptuous gala in the Montecasino Ballroom on Wednesday, 19 August.

The BEST Employers™ research project is run annually to identify, accredit and laud South African companies that demonstrate commitment and a good track record in keeping their talent. It is based on an achieved international standard of people management excellence across 11 key areas of HR best practice.

There are three sub-categories in the research: small size company, medium and large, based on the number of fulltime employees. Those in the small-size category employ 1 to 600 people; medium are those with staff of 601 to 4 000 and large are those that have a labour force of more than 4 000.  

Ranked number 9 in the top 10 small-size BEST Employers™ category which comprised the likes of Coca-Cola, Microsoft SA and South African National Roads Agency Limited to name but a few, the Market performed well when considering that it was participating in the research project for the first time. 

Sello Mashilwane, the Shared Service Executive at Joburg Market says the facility is happy with the honours. "Having been given the title is a great honour and resonates a great feeling in us because we [entered] the project for the first time, yet we were able to obtain the position that we did," Mashilwane says, adding that the title "means that we are geared to great success and have proven that we are the best".  

“The accreditation will no doubt strengthen our organisations’ brand status and will go some way to help in talent attraction and retention,” said Mashilwane. 

"The honour is a challenge and because there is room for growth, it is up to us to see that we maintain and sustain the standard which we have already set for ourselves," Mashilwane said, adding that the aim is to make the market one of the best managed entities in the country.  

Samantha Crous, the general manager of CRF South Africa, says companies that participate in the annual accreditation project are "intelligent employers" because of the active and passionate development of their brand. The research project conducted by CRF appraises and endows companies based on their organisational strategy, leadership, communication, corporate social responsibility, talent management and employee engagement, including employee training and development. 

"CRF's rankings of the various top 10 companies draw out the best of the very best companies to work for in South Africa," says Steven Veenendaal, the chief executive of CRF International.

Overall, about 58 companies received a BEST Employers™ accreditation stamp or title for 2009/10 on the night.

The 58 companies were profiled in the BEST Employers™ 2009/10 magazine publication which contained an interview with the human resources director and selected management staff.

With CRF's internationally recognised stamp of accreditation, publications and research insight, accredited companies have a strategic platform to effectively research, benchmark and communicate their esteemed employer brand locally and internationally.

Crous says it is no longer enough for companies to say they are great to work for. "The time is now to accredit such statements and market the organisation using an internationally recognised mark of employer excellence to ensure the reach of the employer brand.

"Ideally, an employer should gather all the necessary facts about human capital management trends regarding issues such as rewards, recognition, benefits, training and development and then strategise the means to address areas of concern relative to the norm and better position the company as a choice employer in the mind of talent”, Crows said.