DHL Express (DHL.com) has been recognised as a Top Employer in Africa for the fifth consecutive year, at the prestigious Top Employer Africa 2019 certification ceremony, held at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg on Thursday, 4^th October 2018.  

Hennie Heymans, CEO, DHL Express Sub-Saharan Africa said that receiving this recognition from the Top Employers Institute for the fifth consecutive year is a huge honour.  “At DHL Express we value our employees and constantly strive to ensure they know how much their work matters. We also want them to feel proud to be part of the global DHL team. We couldn’t be happier to have that fact affirmed by the Top Employers Institute.”

DHL received 22 certifications in 21 countries across Sub-Saharan Africa this year, including the coveted Intercontinental Award for having the most Top Employer certifications in the continent.

Countries for which certifications were received include Angola, Botswana, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

“We attribute this notable achievement to our customer-centric culture adopted across the entire organization, this is without a doubt central to our success. Effective employee engagement programs are integral to maintaining this culture across the globe as it is the people within our business that ensure this culture carries across to our customers,” said Heymans.

“Our focus areas remain entrenched in employee motivation and development as this approach has proven to be beneficial to both us and our employees. We operate in a high performance environment and we encourage this culture among our teams as it promotes and drives leadership diversity.”

According to Heymans, DHL’s use of employee initiatives and programs, including the company’s Certified International Specialist (CIS) cultural change program has helped to unlock the potential of the company’s employees across Sub-Saharan Africa. “We made the decision a year ago to put an emphasis on up-skilling and empowering our middle-managers and supervisors as this rung of leadership is crucial to leading our growth drive in the coming years. We count on our middle-managers to garner trust and inspire unsurpassed performance during our growth cycle. The employee initiatives we implement are critical to ensuring that everyone fully understands their role within the business and how to most effectively execute their responsibilities.”

DHL also recently completed the annual Employee Opinion Survey, which provides an anonymous platform for personnel to express their opinions about the company. “This is a valuable tool that assists us in identifying what we are doing right, as well as what we need to improve,” added Heymans.

Another layer of our employee program is our Employee of the Quarter and Employee of the Year awards which we present to our star performers nominated by fellow employees. “Our network is only as strong as it is because of our incredible people. We believe that no value can be placed on strategic planning and program implementation in this regard.”

To be certified as a Top Employer in Africa, a company needs to operate in four or more countries and have exceptional employee conditions. The Top Employers Institute conducts comprehensive and independent research by getting employees in the relevant companies to complete a HR best practice survey.

The Top Employers Institute survey assesses human resource strategy, policy implementation, practices and employee offerings, to reveal whether the company provides exceptional employee conditions, develops talent on all levels and demonstrates leadership through optimizing the development of its employees and employee practices.

Every completed survey is reviewed by the Top Employers Institute and then the process is audited by a third party. Only organizations that qualify from the selection process receive the Top Employers title and certification seal but all participants receive a comprehensive feedback report.

“We are beyond honored to have gained this wonderful recognition in additional regions this year and to have been recognized as a Top Employer in Africa for yet another year. We will continue to strive to add even more regions to this list and ensure we maintain our focus on attracting, retaining and developing our people across the sub-Saharan Africa region,” concluded Heymans.