Case Study | JTI’s Candidate Survey

Do your candidates value your status as a Top Employer?

JTI is a certified global Top Employer with 46 000 employees present in more than 130 countries.

Since achieving their certification, they have consistently included their certification status in job adverts, career pages and other recruitment channels.

After nine years of implementing best practices, the company sought recruitment data to answer a question related to employer branding.

Their question was: How important is it for our candidates that we’re a certified Top Employer?

In 2019 JTI selected Talenthub, a technology platform that integrates with existing HR systems, to collect real-time candidate feedback during the recruitment process.

With their technical help, JTI captured accurate feedback from candidates while allowing them to reach out directly to follow up on provided feedback and improve the process where needed.

Download the Case Study to discover how:

They set up a digital survey on their career page and Applicant Tracking Software (ATS) system for candidates who applied at JTI.
JTI verified the impact of the candidate’s journey at all stages and found trends that enabled them to understand the behaviour of their applicants.
JTI implemented a new initiative to track and benchmark their candidate’s application process against other companies to optimise their process.

T-shaped Skills: A Simple Approach with Big Results with Boehringer Ingelheim

Like many other companies, Boehringer Ingelheim, a certified Top Employer, had to expedite operational changes during the COVID-19 pandemic to meet customer needs while adhering to safety recommendations like social distancing.

Face-to-face meetings were the norm in the pharmaceutical industry, making Boehringer Ingelheim’s transition to remote meetings a significant adjustment. However, maintaining the highest level of service remained a top priority. “As a business we sat down and asked how can we support our customers and patients in the best way possible? That is when we really sped up the T-shape initiative,” Helen Doeswijk-Lindley, People Growth Manager for Boehringer Ingelheim, explained.

Helen and I discussed how a T-shaped approach enhanced company operations and benefited employees as part of our conversation during the 2022 Top Employers Institute Best Practices Week.

In this article, I want to share the wealth of insights we discussed, highlighting how this approach not only enhanced overall efficiency but also empowered employees to recognise and voice their needs effectively.

What is a T-shaped Approach?

The T-shape is a symbol that illustrates an individual’s strengths. The vertical line represents expertise and knowledge in a specific field, while the horizontal line represents cross-discipline competencies and the ability to collaborate effectively with professionals from various industries or roles.

Helen simplified this concept, stating for employees, “The T-shape allows you to understand what general skills you need, the horizontal line, and what you need to be an expert in, the vertical line.”

Boehringer Ingelheim began implementing T-shaped job descriptions with the customer-facing teams. Helen explained that the first step was for everyone to individually consider the skills and competencies required for a specific role.

After comparing notes, they compiled a list of thirty-four competencies. Helen described what happened next to narrow down the list, “We really got crisp. What are we asking our team to do? Where does responsibility start with one team member or one job role and where does it end? We really defined the skills for each role.” They arrived at a final set of fourteen competencies, nine general skills and five unique skills, that everyone agreed fit the respective role.

Their process of individual and team workshops was used throughout the organisation to define roles using the T-shaped approach and followed these general steps:

Employees individually consider the required skills and competencies for specific roles,
Teams gather and discuss the skills and competencies each person identified, and
Teams collaboratively narrow down the identified skills and competencies to one list.

Helen shared that they were pleasantly surprised by this approach’s far-reaching impacts, “What actually came out of those workshops is that we could take the T-shape and really start looking holistically at what we were offering to our employees – all the way from providing a clear job description to assisting with career progression planning to helping us recruit talent.”

Benefits of the T-shaped Approach

The T-shaped approach offers numerous benefits to both employees and the company. Employees are better able to engage in self-reflection with a T-shaped job description. They can evaluate their competencies and have meaningful conversations with their managers about growth opportunities.

Helen elaborated on this benefit, “I can say from [the] feedback I’ve received that the T-shape has given employees clarity. It’s also given them a voice to express where they need support to do their job effectively, whether that’s from an educational standpoint or from a process standpoint.”

Furthermore, the T-shape creates a shared understanding of skills and competencies across the company. Helen explained how this clarity led to the restructuring of various roles, “We actually started to change key processes.

We didn’t want certain roles to have to do certain things anymore because it was slowing them down.”

To support these changes, Helen developed skills-based training tailored for the newly defined roles, which enhanced operations and better-equipped employees for career advancement.

A T-shaped skills approach is a powerful tool for self-reflection. As our conversation concluded, Helen challenged the audience, “Create a T-shape for your role.

Review your job description and ask yourself: Is my role the same today as when I started in terms of the required skills? What is needed for the future? The T-shape is a straightforward way to look at your general skills and expertise and identify opportunities for growth.”

Whether utilised by individuals or organisations, investing in T-shaped skills brings clarity and focus to future development. This approach enhances efficiency and facilitates meaningful discussions, ultimately driving progress.

Best Practice | How NTT DATA Colombia are Reassessing the Employee Value Proposition

By: Top Employers Institute

NTT DATA Colombia has created a human-centric value proposition explaining what working at the organisation is like. Advocated by a clear Employee Value Proposition (EVP) that employees and potential candidates can understand the working experience and company brand. The EVP includes their corporate values and the company’s purpose and reflects professional benefits from the development model and personal benefits for the employees and their primary team.

This is just a snapshot of NTT Colombia’s innovative best practice; you can find the entire practice on our HR Best Practices database, which is exclusively available to Top Employers. Get inspiration and insight into the approach, challenges and learnings experienced by certified Top Employers. Access it now or learn more about it here!

Why was the practice needed?

NTT DATA Colombia carried out an exercise to redefine its value proposition during the Covid-19 pandemic as it understood that employees deserved personalised and agile solutions. The organisation realised the market, habits, expectations, and lives of their current and prospective employees had changed. The company needed to better reflect their value to everyone encountering their organisation.

For NTT DATA Colombia, this EVP helped define and communicate their framework of action, corporate culture, and values, plus delivered on their company purpose and leadership principles. They wanted to guarantee consistency between what they did and what they said.

How the practice was implemented

Through exercises such as focus groups, surveys, workshops and social listening, NTT DATA Colombia redefined their value proposition by finding convergent points based on their employees’ needs and personal purposes. The company then generated offers personalised according to the multiple archetypes they found.

Some highlights of the new EVP:

One of the challenges was maintaining their employees’ closeness, contact and trust during the pandemic.
Perception studies, surveys, focus groups and social listening were used.

Results

A new EVP adjusted to the needs of the employee and the market, which is flexible, personalised and diverse.
There has been a 23% increase in their staff, and the EVP has also helped develop both new talent and existing employees.

In 2023 we published the World of Work Trends Report 2023, which identified how the employee experience would become more personalised. In the post-pandemic world, employees have had a chance to reflect on what truly matters to them. And their employers have had to become increasingly inventive to get, grow and keep their very best people.

Only businesses that work hard to provide a genuine and heartfelt commitment to a personalised experience will generate the emotional reaction necessary to create a high-performance culture, align purpose, vision and values and develop new leadership capabilities.

Learn more about the impact of this personalisation by downloading the World of Work Trends 2021 Report now for free.

Becoming LGBTQ+ Allies: Going Beyond DEI Initiatives for Pride Month

By Sinakho Dhlamini, HR Content Specialist, Top Employers Institute

Over the past several years, organisations have used Pride month to begin, reinvent or sharpen up their DEI efforts for members of the LGBTQ+. But it only happens once a year; for many people, more is needed beyond this concentration of action once a year. Instead, organisations will need to become active allies for the LGBTIQ+ community throughout the year by creating an inclusive environment at work. The work of becoming an active ally to support co-workers of the LGBTQ community involves more than just celebration, and this article will examine some of the ways businesses can show their commitment to not only raising awareness for the rights of the community but also to prioritise equal rights.

What is an ally?

In a few words, we can understand that being an LGBTQ+ ally means actively supporting and advocating for the rights, dignity, and wellbeing of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer individuals. In the workplace, being an ally involves creating an inclusive and accepting environment where LGBTQ+ colleagues can feel safe, valued, and respected.

5 Ways organisations empower their employees to be allies for the LGBTQ+ Community.

Develop and Enforce Inclusive Policies and Practices: Policies protecting LGBTQ+ employees from discrimination and harassment are essential for organisations, including and supporting community employees. That can be done by ensuring inclusive language in company communications and having policies that ensure that LGBTQ+ individuals have equal opportunities for career advancement, promotion, and leadership roles. Organisations must set the tone for their employees, which requires action and intention.
Provide Education and Training: Organisations must provide comprehensive education and training on LGBTQ+ issues, terminology, and experiences. That can be done by offering workshops, seminars, or online resources to increase employee awareness and understanding. The education should cover topics such as LGBTQ+ history, intersectionality, and the challenges faced by the community. Educating employees on issues like this will teach them to listen, respect and look at their prejudices – helping them become better allies to their co-workers.
Create Employee Resource Groups (ERGs): Establishing LGBTQ+ employee resource groups or affinity networks within the organisation to help create a safe space for discussion. These groups provide a safe and supportive space for LGBTQ+ employees and their allies to connect, share experiences, and collaborate on initiatives that promote inclusion. Organisations can support these groups by allocating resources, budget, and executive sponsorship.
Leadership Support: Leaders and managers should openly support LGBTQ+ employees and allyship efforts. They should set the tone by demonstrating inclusive behaviours, including using inclusive language and addressing any discrimination or bias in the organisation. Leadership support helps create a culture of acceptance and sets expectations for the entire organisation.
Establish Feedback and Listening Channels: Establish feedback mechanisms where employees can provide suggestions, voice concerns, or share their experiences related to LGBTQ+ inclusion. Actively listen to employee feedback and make necessary improvements based on their input; this demonstrates that the organisation values employee perspectives and is dedicated to continuous improvement.

Why is it important for Organisations to Support the LGBTQ+ Community?

Supporting the LGBTQ+ community promotes a culture of inclusivity and diversity within the organisation. Embracing and celebrating differences, including sexual orientation and gender identity, fosters a sense of belonging among all employees. In addition, when employees feel valued for who they are, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity, it increases employee morale, engagement, and productivity.

It also has additional benefits, including:

Attracting and Retaining Talent: Creating a supportive environment for the LGBTQ+ community helps attract and retain diverse talent, especially in the current competitive job market, where many candidates actively seek organisations prioritising inclusivity and equality.
Employee Wellbeing and Mental Health: Supporting the LGBTQ+ community directly contributes to the wellbeing and mental health of LGBTQ+ employees. Employees who feel supported, accepted, and respected experience reduced stress and anxiety levels.
Brand Image and Reputation: Organisations that champion LGBTQ+ rights and inclusivity contribute to building a positive brand image and reputation. Consumers, clients, and stakeholders increasingly expect businesses to prioritise diversity and social responsibility.
Social Impact and Corporate Social Responsibility: Organisations can make a positive social impact by supporting the LGBTQ+ community. By actively engaging in initiatives, sponsorships, and partnerships that promote LGBTQ+ rights and equality, companies can contribute to broader social progress.

Final Thoughts

June is a time for celebration, but, more importantly, it is a time to raise awareness for LGBTQ+ people and educate people to become effective allies in the community. It is only one month, but the issues are significant throughout the year. Organisations should use June to be more active in communicating their policies and initiatives, but it should have already been a part of their people practices strategy. It is also critical to allow LGBTQ+ people the space to become powerful voices while their friends and coworkers support them by taking action to become an ally.

Make inclusion a part of your organization, get in touch for free to become an employer of choice!

Our HR priorities are all about accelerating the impact of our talent.

What are your key HR priorities for 2023 and why?

Our HR priorities revolve around maximizing the potential of our talent and fostering a culture of high performance by focusing on:

Driving our cultural transformation through a leader development & culture program “Engage – Shape – Perform”
Empowering and supporting all our people to take ownership of their careers, enabling them to reach their full potential
Shaping a caring environment, in which wellbeing & employee experience at scale is key
Implementing future ways of working (digital – data analytics – virtual assistant & automation)
Embedding Diversity, Equity and inclusion further into everything we do

Which trends do you think will be central in the world of HR in 2023 and beyond?

Important trends in HR that we are taking into account in our strategies are the:

Move from intuition & bias to evidence based working through data analytics
Switch from job based to skill based working
Hybrid working and new office concepts
Focus on selfcare – more focus on preventive action over curative

How has being a Top Employer helped your employer brand?

The Top Employer certification helps to benchmark our company against other top employers and provides useful insights into areas we can still develop or innovate further. It is of course also an important employer branding tool, which can differentiate us from competitors. Many candidates are very well aware of it, and as the labour market is candidate driven, it is really supportive for our brand and for attracting the right candidates.

Key Takeaways: Embedding Systemic Inclusion with Tata Consultancy Services

Virtual Fireside Chat with Preeti D’Mello, Tata Consultancy Services, and Adrian Seligman, Top Employers Institute.

There is no diversity without inclusion.

Inclusion is now an integral part of any organisation’s diversity offerings. Leading organisations, like certified Top Employer Tata Consultancy Services, are integrating it into their overall business strategy. Creating an inclusive workplace culture differs from simply creating a diverse company culture. An inclusive work culture allows employees to feel included irrespective of who they are or how they identify themselves.

In this webinar, Preeti D’Mello, Global Head of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion & LeaD Academy at TCS, and Adrian Seligman, Executive Board Member at Top Employers Institute, spoke about how to adopt a holistic and systematic view of diversity, inclusion, equity and belonging to create, nurture and sustain an inclusive culture.

Throughout the session, they touched on how organisations, and their HR leaders, can build their capacity for emotional intelligence, embodied self-awareness, compassion and sensitivity. While also touching on how individuals can demonstrate personal impact and accountability through good actions for themselves and others.

Read ahead to get a snapshot of some of the session’s highlights; fill in the form to get the recording of the webinar to watch whenever you have a moment.

TCS is a large multinational organisation with around 600 000 employees; Adrian and Preeti began their conversation about inclusion by exploring how TCS sees its employees as individuals. Following that, Preeti expanded on the question by sharing some best practices from TCS:

While the company is large, TCS manage to keep their everyday operating teams small. It allows them to operate similarly to a country with states, counties and townships. In simpler terms, they manage to organise their large employee numbers into smaller groups to keep it manageable. It also allows each group to interact within and outside of their group.
At TCS, they also maintain a company culture of open communication where feedback is not only encouraged but also helps to facilitate collaboration. They provide space for teams to voice their opinions openly without fear. While this is difficult, they ensure their company structure supports this culture.
They also know that they must keep evolving to maintain their inclusive culture.

Inclusion at Scale with HCL – Read Now

How TCS’s DE&I strategy fits into their talent attraction strategy.

When hiring and advertising open positions, they ensure clear messaging around the diverse identity groups they have in their organisations. TCS also partner with organisations that promote certain identity groups to ensure that they get the best candidates and a diverse range of candidates.
They use word of mouth to help find new employees as they value the opinions of their current employees and want to find new employees who will be a neat cultural fit in the organisation. They also look at the internal dynamics of their current employees to help inform recent hiring decisions.
At TCS, they make sure that their DE&I strategy is communicated internally and externally so that you are aware of the organisation’s strategic objectives, whether you are new or old to the company.

How TCS help, their leaders succeed in creating a culture of belonging across the organisation.

There is a mandate for inclusion and belonging that is now a mandate for business results. They did this when they understood that there was a clear relationship between doing the right thing and improved business results. It first began to gain momentum in the United States and then became a worldwide phenomenon.
They ensure that their organisation has a precise value alignment with those who work in and outside the company. It is a part of their big message that while business is about products and solutions, it is also about the quality of people a business works with.
To engage with their leaders, TCS started by showing them some of the positives of working within an inclusive organisation.
They encourage open and honest conversations with their leaders and employees to share the positives of working in a diverse and inclusive environment.
They foster learning about conscious and unconscious bias throughout the organisation.

The fundamental shift in their culture has come from the organisation realising that they will need to step outside of themselves and critically look at what they are doing and how they can improve that. It’s about making small steps every day to improve their culture.

Learn more about how TCS makes their DE&I strategy work by watching the full Virtual Fireside Chat now. Fill in the form now and get your link to the session.

Recruit, Retain and Return – ‘3Rs’ for International Women’s Day

International Women’s day, celebrated on 8^th March, shows us how far organisations have come in advancing the cause of women in the workplace, but it also demonstrates how far there is to go. This year’s campaign theme is #EmbraceEquity – and for good reason. Equality at work is no longer enough: different women are starting from different places, so true inclusion and belonging requires equitable action.

With this in mind, it’s encouraging that the UK’s Top Employers have made great strides over the last year. Over four in five (81%) of certified UK Top Employers now have dedicated programmes to empower women, an increase of 12% on the previous year.

The key for these businesses has not only been to advance opportunities for women facing their many different barriers to progress, but to do so in a way that spans the employee life cycle. This means from the moment they are recruited, to the actions taken to retain them and in ways to enable their return at key moments in their careers.

Recruit

Empowerment of women begins with the hiring process. Numerous studies identify unconscious bias at specific touch points throughout the recruitment and candidate journey, starting with technology. This bias doesn’t only affect women, but when it comes to gender it has been recognised and acted upon. Many changes are being implemented to ensure female top talent isn’t being missed in the recruitment process. For example, certified UK Top Employer East Midlands Railway, amongst others, is using “anonymous” recruitment techniques within the recruitment process to remove any possibility of unconscious bias among hiring managers.

Retain

Women can thrive through sponsorship networks. UK Top Employer Group M recently introduced its first Sponsorship programme which brought senior leaders together with underrepresented high performing talent from minority ethnic backgrounds. These leaders acted as sponsors, helping the participants to move through to promotion and Senior Leadership. The first cohort completed their 18-month programme in 2022. Women made up half those being sponsored, with 57% winning promotion. A further 10% moved into a new role or gained greater responsibility whilst also building contacts, skills, confidence, and a career path towards promotion.

Later this year, the business will launch its second Sponsorship programme, focussing on a wider group of underrepresented talent, specifically targeting areas of improvement identified from its gender pay gap analysis. Complementing this will be a Women in Leadership programme and a Mentorship programme, creating equitable ways forward for women at every level of their career.

Return

The challenges for helping women return to work are particularly acute in businesses relying on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) skills. UK Top Employer Virtusa has implemented its Disha programme; a successful initiative that welcomes women back to business after career breaks.

Disha is a training capsule that includes a blend of technical and soft skills, in the form of workshops led by leadership and industry leaders. After a week-long training period, participants are invited to present their solutions to a hypothetical business problem, to assess their knowledge and cultural fit. Participants of the workshop are then given the opportunity to interview for open roles at Virtusa. In January 2023, Virtusa completed its fourth edition of this programme, held for the first time at Virtusa UK, and the organisation is looking to extend the initiative to other regions.

These 3Rs from these and many other UK Top Employers give business organisations a strategic way forward in the drive to #EmbraceEquity for women at every stage of the employee lifecycle.

If you would like to find out more about how your organisation can become a Top Employer click here.

Purpose and Employee Experience Take Center Stage at the APAC Top Employers 2023 Certification Celebration in Singapore

Top Employers from 22 Asia Pacific countries gathered at the ST Regis in Singapore on February 9 to celebrate their Top Employer 2023 Certification. This annual event recognises the commitment of these companies’ HR teams to create a world-class HR environment.

In his keynote talk, Billy Elliott, Regional Director for Asia-Pacific Top Employers Institute, shared that 22 Asia Pacific countries were honoured as Top Employers. These countries, including China, India, South Korea, Australia, Singapore, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Philippines, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Myanmar, have companies that have created and implemented best in class HR strategies and practices. This has resulted in a positive impact on the lives of approximately 2,574,089 employees.

The companies recognised as Regional APAC Top Employers (for having been certified in a minimum of five countries in region) were UST, Sanofi, SABIC, Novartis, Airbus, Worldline, and Ingredion. The companies recognised as Global and Regional Top Employers were Alstom, BAT, Boehringer Ingelheim, CHEP, DHL Express, HCLTech, DHL Global Forwarding, Infosys, JTI, Pepsico, Phillip Morris International, Puma, Saint-Gobain, Takeda, and TCS.

With both regional and global companies recognised as Top Employers, it is evident that creating a positive employee experience is a top priority for many organizations, which was the focus of the first panel discussion held:

*Fill in the form to get access to the panel discussion.

Employee Experience becomes Super-Personalised

The importance of personalising employee experience has become a critical focus area for organizations. To better understand this topic, a panel discussion was held with three leading HR executives – Sanjiv Agarwal, Head of Human Resources at Swiss Re, Satish Kannan, Vice President & Head HR of Global Markets, Europe & MEA at Infosys, and Patricia Lam, HR Director and APAC HR Performance & Integration at Alstom and moderated by Ammara Naeem, Head of Client Success at Top Employers Institute. Here are some key takeaways from the discussion.

Employee experience covers the entire employee journey – During the panel discussion on employee experience, Sanjiv of Swiss RE emphasised that the concept of employee experience and morale is not new, but rather something that has always existed in the workplace. Employee experience encompasses all aspects of the employee’s journey, from the moment they apply to the company to their experience during the interview process and throughout their time with the organization. Employee experience should not be solely driven by HR but should be considered a part of the organization’s culture.
Three drivers for an employee experience framework – Satish of Infosys discussed three key drivers for their employee experience framework, which include adapting to a hybrid work model, leveraging technology for a unified experience, and creating an inclusive culture. To measure digital maturity of talent, they introduced the “Digital Quotient,” which involves building competency, gaining exposure, and delivering value, with scores for each component. This approach allows employees to customize their digital career journey by identifying learning and product opportunities to improve their scores.
The importance of consistency in employee experience – In the discussion, Patricia of Alstom emphasized the importance of consistency in employee experience and how to achieve it through digitalization. They have established a global learning organization and a digital platform that provides various learning opportunities for employees to drive their career development. Patricia also highlights a digital career path portal that allows employees to assess their competencies and match them with available jobs in the organization.

Purpose, Straight from the Heart

The second panel, “Purpose, Straight from the Heart,” brought together three HR leaders from major multinational corporations to discuss the importance of purpose-driven organizations in today’s business landscape. Kelly Tay, Head of Talent Leadership Organization for Southeast Asia and South Korea at Boehringer Ingelheim, Meng Hwee Teoh, Asia Talent Head at Sanofi, and Fred Barou, Senior Vice President of Customer Success Management at Amadeus. Here are the key takeaways.

During the opening statement of the Purpose, Straight from the Heart panel, the audience was presented with a provocative statement – “Purpose is fluff not much action” – and asked to agree or disagree. The results were unexpected, with 37% of the audience agreeing and the rest disagreeing. The panellists went on to discuss the implications of this divide and how organizations can move beyond seeing purpose as a mere buzzword and translate it into concrete actions. Here are key takeaways of that panel discussion:

Connecting Individual and Organizational Purpose for Employee Engagement – Meng Hwee Teoh from Sanofi discussed how the company’s purpose statement, “to chase the miracles of science, to improve the lives of our people, the communities and our own employees,” is not just a plaque on the wall, but a rally call for employees to live out in their everyday lives. Before launching the purpose statement, the company identified behaviours that are important to gear towards the purpose and set up a set of “play to win” behaviours. Additionally, the company redefined performance to help employees focus on areas where they could create an impact and linked it closely to the employee’s everyday life.
Communicating Purpose to Customers and Employees – Fred, a commercial leader from Amadeus, a B2B travel and tourism company, spoke about the challenge of effectively communicating the company’s purpose to customers and ensuring that employees can connect with it daily. The company’s original purpose was to “shape the future of travel,” which has since been updated to “create better journeys for everyone,” reflecting the company’s commitment to opening travel to everyone and improving the travel experience. The purpose serves as a guiding principle for employees and creates a sense of connection to the company’s mission, particularly during the pandemic when the travel industry was severely impacted.
Purpose is not just a one-time event or training – Kelly from Boehringer Ingelheim believes that purpose is about actions from the past, present, and future, and that it’s important to create events and opportunities for reflection in order to connect employees with the company’s purpose. As an example, during their “Valued Through Innovation Day,” they invited an artist to speak about how she uses her purpose to create art, and employees were given the opportunity to reflect on their own purpose and create artwork representing it as a team. This exercise helped employees connect emotionally with the company’s purpose and led to meaningful stories being shared.

The Top Employer Certification is an important recognition for companies that care about their employees and are dedicated to and are dedicated to creating a better world of work for their people. The celebration of this achievement is a time to reflect on the hard work and dedication that went into achieving the certification, as well as a time to recognise the accomplishments of the HR teams. If you are interested in becoming a Top Employer and and participating in this year’s Certification Programme, get in touch with the APAC Top Employers Institute team at apac@top-employers.com.

Reintegration Programmes for Women After a Career Break

Emerging Practices in Top Organisations

According to data from the Spanish National Institute of Statistics, the chance of unemployment among women increases with the number of children they have. In fact, women with three or more children have an unemployment rate of up to 26% higher than their childless counterparts. There is a clear relationship between childbearing and the decline in the employment rate. However, the opposite is true for men as research shows that their unemployment rate decreases with each child.

“The role of childminding is usually assumed by women. This leads to a widening wage gap. Returning to work after a long absence is often a complicated journey. The longer you stay out, the harder it can be to get back in,” explains Massimo Begelle, Regional Manager of Top Employers Institute in Spain and Italy.

Some of the main problems encountered by women who have put their careers on hold to have a family, or for other reasons, are related to feelings of obsolescence around the current technologies and skills required to reintegrate into the workplace. “They are going to discover a different world than the one they knew,” Begelle points out, “and they may suffer from insecurities after years away from the world of work.

In leading organisations, initiatives to assist women who have taken career breaks to re-enter the labour market are an emerging best practice, with programmes that include ideas such as offering them new work experience (permanent or temporary, to serve as a platform for them to carry out another role), training in new skills, or coaching support.

“The focus of these programmes,” continues Begelle, “is not only to comply with the CSR or diversity and inclusion policies of organisations but as a way to acquire valuable, experienced talent with a wealth of life experience who, aware of these new professional opportunities, participate with a high degree of commitment.

In top organisations, these programmes are complemented by others designed to ensure that women do not have to quit their job when they have children. 74% of Top Employers in Spain already have good flexibility practices in place to adjust working hours in order to accommodate childcare. Moreover, 58% offer special leave to care for children.

Schindler and Banco Santander are two examples of companies with programmes designed for the reintegration of women who have taken career breaks.

Women Back to Business, Schindler’s Talent Recruitment Programme

In 2021, Schindler launched the Women Back to Business programme, aimed at incorporating into its organisation women who had taken a career break of several years for personal reasons, and who, despite being ready to return to the labour market, were facing a number of obstacles to re-integrate. More than a corporate social responsibility project, it was a talent recruitment programme and was approached as such.

After an intense communication campaign lasting several weeks, they set up a web page for the programme and received more than 600 applications from different profiles. They hired nine women from different areas to take on commercial and supervisory positions as middle managers.

Santander Reencuentra, a successful programme

Banco Santander’s Reencuentra (“Reunite”) programme is aimed towards women who left their professional careers for family reasons and is designed to help them re-enter the labour market with a company in their area.

This programme offers participants a professional experience in Santander in an office close to them, formative retraining that includes the completion of an Online MBA and training in digital skills, coaching for employment, and outplacement firm services, all with the aim of finding them a stable job.

In its first edition, the programme had 100 participants, with an average age range of between 38 and 46 years, returning from a professional break of between 5 and 10 years. 84% of these participants managed to find employment during the course of this initiative. Santander plans to launch the next edition of this programme in 2023.

Case Study: Deutsche Post DHL

Certified Top Employer, Deutsche Post DHL Group (DPDHL), is the world’s leading logistics company employing nearly 600,000 colleagues and operating in over 220 countries and territories worldwide.To increase collaboration and interaction between their large number of employees within the company, DPDHL has implemented Smart Workplace, a mobile application designed to improve the daily employee experience. Developing the Smart Workplace was a challenge not only because it was a huge undertaking in scale, but it was also a challenge given the diversity of employees, roles, languages and places of work.

Download the case study to learn how:

The organisation customised this intranet as a mobile application using tools such as the Office 365 suite.
The Covid-19 pandemic impacted the launch and need of the Smart Workplace platform for DPDHL.
Smart Workplace has become one of the leading internal information sources within DPDHL, engaging more than 300,000 employees worldwide just 6 months after its launch.

Boosting Morale by Giving Back with CPFL Energy

CPFL Energy Fosters Goodwill by Creating a Sustainability Plan

Giving back is an important part of a company’s presence in a local community and, for larger companies, the world at-large. Charity work improves a company’s image, creates a better place to live and work for employees and local residents alike, and fosters a sense of goodwill. With so many worthy causes, companies often focus their philanthropic efforts on an issue that resonates with their services, mission, and values. For CPFL Energy, a Certified Top Employer, that cause is climate change.

CPFL Energy is the largest energy company in South America. Headquartered in Campinas, Brazil the company was founded in 1912 and operations are supported by 13 000 employees. Their focus is on the distribution, generation, and commercialization of energy services to over 10 million addresses, which represents more than 22 million people.

The company recently implemented a Strategic Sustainability Plan with 15 commitments and an investment of R$1.8 billion from 2020 – 2024. CPFL’s plan is fully aligned with the United Nations’ Sustainability Goals. Some of their goals include maintaining at least 95% renewable energy sources in their generation portfolio, reducing greenhouse gas emissions – which they did by 24% in 2020, and generating carbon credits by assisting consumers’ energy transition with decarbonization and energy efficient solutions.

Three value pillars are the basis for CPFL’s sustainability plan: sustainable energies, smart solutions, and shared value. These values succinctly summarise how the company will focus its efforts on creating a smaller environmental footprint. It’s a clear way to share with both the global business community and the local community they serve how they are taking action.

In addition to the obvious benefits of combating climate change, this initiative contributes to greater employee cohesion and job satisfaction. Working for a company that gives back improves employee regard for company leadership and fosters a positive sense of connection. Good morale is an important ingredient for successful operations and a giving back initiative is a great way to bolster it.

Rodolfo Nardez Sirol, CPFL’s Environmental and Sustainability Director, offers more detail about the company’s sustainability plan and what motivated them to devote so many company resources to it in this video. He describes how employees collaboratively developed the plan and what they are doing to keep up momentum. Check out the video to hear more about how CPFL finds fulfilment in giving back.

Changing the Game: New Rules at Work

If there is one topic on the agenda in all organisations, it is undoubtedly to need to design – and implement – a new working model. While it is a priority it is also the topic that raises the most questions amongst HR leaders and decision makers.

Hybrid, flexible, personalised, digital we are all familiar these terms. But as we incorporate these terms into our organisations strategic objectives, we continue to look around us at the most cutting-edge businesses, to find ideas that work, initiatives that inspire us, and of course, the right results.

To begin with, we seem to have the dilemma of number – what is the optimum percentage of time to work remotely? Data shows that since the emergence of the pandemic 80% of the companies certified as Top Employers worldwide have defined a work from home policy for their employees that clarifies this working model. It also shows that for 21% of Top Employers, employees are able to work remotely between 80% and 100% of the time. Moreover, if we expand this range, we see that in 35% of them it is possible to work remotely more than 50% of the time, usually depending on the job position.

A Model of Total Flexibility

The debate on the number of days of remote work is beginning to become obsolete. Looking at certified Top Employers, we can observe that the most advanced organisations are opting for a total flexibility-type model in their working policies. Flexibility means personalisation and it prioritises the employee’s ability to choose. More than half of Top Employers worldwide place decision-making power in the hands of the employee and promote a high degree of autonomy and flexibility since they are companies based on a culture of trust and responsibility.

Obviously, there are practical limitations or restrictions that prevent the application of full flexibility in certain jobs, but in that case, alternatives are offered to employees to allow them to make decisions about how to organise their work. It is a cultural approach, which far exceeds a model based on percentages of working from home time. Companies that have a culture of autonomy and flexibility have indicated that employee satisfaction is very high, with these organisations report a score of more than 9/10, and short-time working has been noticeably reduced. Now the focus is on monitoring whether mental and emotional well-being improves in the medium term.

Physical and Virtual Spaces for Collaboration

As organisations look to incorporate new ways of working to be successful, they will need to redesign the workspaces, both physical and virtual. Flexibility and collaboration are the concepts that inspire this new work environment. In newer offices, flexibility allows you to choose the workspace you need at that moment, with quiet rooms for work requiring concentration, as well as rooms for connecting, sharing, chatting informally, and taking a break – and, of course, rooms for working together as a team. If flexibility is the first key to this new work environment, the second is the plan for collaboration.

The plan to optimise and encourage collaborative work among employees should be embodied in the new design of the physical company facilities and should extend to virtual spaces. Doing this work in the virtual spaces is done to make it easier for people to connect, share ideas and work collaboratively. Tools such as Microsoft Teams, Google Suite, Slack, Trello, etc. are already part of our lives and are evolving rapidly, moving towards a more immersive experience which will undoubtedly arise in the years to come. Nine out of ten Top Employers design not only their virtual workspaces, but also their physical ones, to meet both needs – flexibility and personalisation, and collaboration. Moreover, companies have noted that the plans they have implemented are by no means definitive; these plans are constantly evolving because the needs of employees shape the setup of their workspaces.

Initiatives for digital disconnection

Inevitably, in this new working environment, digital disconnection initiatives have emerged at an accelerated pace. 76% of companies certified as Top Employers explicitly discourage working extra hours and reinforce this particularly in the case of remote work. Half already have policies to discourage the use of email outside of established working hours, and it is a growing practice. Disconnection extends to the holidays, and a third of Top Employers have implemented a “do not disturb” policy during the holidays, and of course, paid leave for all. Alerts in the form of pop-up windows are already frequently displayed with an alert whenever any of the disconnection rules are about to be violated. This, by the way, is meant as a right, not an obligation. The goal is to significantly improve the well-being of employees, helping them to disconnect, freeing up time which can be used for personal care and enjoyment.

This reinvention of the working model generates new challenges; employers must learn to benefit from this new way of working while simultaneously limiting the risks involved.

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