The CRF Institute's Best Employers campaign has, for the first time, extended across the continent to create the Top Employers in Africa Index, with the first class of certified multinationals.

Founded in 1991, The CRF Institute is a joint initiative of academics, business journalists, trade associations, researchers and international publishers established with the objective of offering independent HR assessment and acknowledgement.

Using international standards, the Top Employers project identifies the front-runners in excellent HR management. Certification standards are rigorous and not all companies who apply are successful. This year, for example, around 12% of participants failed to meet the criteria after a thorough, objective assessment of key drivers, practices and policies.

A total of 73 organisations in South Africa were certified in 2012 – the largest number since the Best Employer campaign began there in 1997. This is the first year that the Best Employers rating has certified three top category leaders, each one heading up its size category: Old Mutual in the Giants category (for companies with more than 10 001 employees); MTN in the Large category (for those with 1001 to 10 000 employees); and Microsoft SA in the Medium category (up to 1000 employees).

However, South Africa has a growing list of local and international multinationals with operations in Africa that face unique challenges in the attraction, retention and engagement of top talent to the continent.

"As businesses grow their footprints on the continent, it becomes more and more important to develop applicable, relevant HR policies and practices alongside," says the CRF Institute's Country Manager, Samantha Crous.

"These policies become essential for managing the massive redistribution of talent that will be necessary to sustain successful business development in the continent's many emerging markets," she says. "And it's for this reason that we have created the Top Employers in Africa audit."

The CRF Institute's Top Employers in Africa for 2012/2013 (in alphabetical order) are:

Successful expansion is being seen by companies that prioritise the wellbeing of their staff and the retention of top talent. Among them, Old Mutual: "We are on a phenomenal journey," says HR Director Anisha Archary.

{mosimage}"From a singular focus on South Africa in terms of our growth, our strategy now includes the emerging markets, a shift which has opened up untold opportunities for both the people who work within the organisation, and our customers as well. Our people strategy enables our business strategy; built on a compelling vision that Old Mutual is a great place to work with people who do great things. This certification reinforces this vision."

One of the challenges of doing business in Africa is the shortage of skills. Says Elisee Okanda Loma, an HR consultant specialising in issues of African development: "We already know that Africa has suffered a huge brain drain, and as a result many African countries have lost some of their highly skilled professionals, who have left to work overseas." But, there are many talented young African professionals waiting for a reason to return home, she says.

"Being recognised as a Top Employer across Africa assists us in reinforcing internally to our people that they are supported with one of the best working environments on the continent," says Seshni Samuel, Africa People Leader of Ernst & Young, which operates in 33 African countries.

Externally, Samuel says, it positions Ernst & Young to help attract the best talent. "Overall it helps us strive for continuous improvement in order to grow our 'leading people culture' and gives us the opportunity to benchmark ourselves against other top employers," says Samuel.

"The Global Unilever strategy is to double our business while reducing our environmental impact, which calls for a talent strategy that supports this growth ambition," says Antoinette Irvine, Human Resources Vice President, Africa. "We are extremely proud to be considered a fore-runner in this arena, and we are thrilled that our African operations are currently delivering the global standard of best-in-class HR practices and policies.

We look forward to using, not only the certification, but also the feedback and stringent benchmark information to continuously improve our people management practices across the continent".

"The certification will allow us to drive an African talent agenda, leveraging the scale and footprint of the Unilever brand on campuses and in the talent arena in South Africa, and expand this into Africa," says Irvine.

The great advantage of globalisation is that it has made talent much more accessible to companies wishing to expand (and vice versa), regardless of the geographical boundaries.

Top image: Graeme Williams www.mediaclubsouthafrica.com