We facilitate year round online and F2F events on special occasions, we also meet on a weekly basis as a company to share news and updates and celebrate achievements. We meet once a year during an end of year retreat for all employees, to announce the achievements of the year, and announce the strategy, vision and goals for the upcoming year. We also host group celebration events on national holidays and events.

• High Turnover
• Lack of expertise in the field of consulting in education

We are committed to fostering continuous professional growth by offering a comprehensive development program that includes both individual and group learning opportunities. Our program features personalized professional development plans, live workshops and sessions led by internal and external experts, and a yearly subscription to Udemy Business, granting all employees unlimited access to a vast library of online courses.

It was an amazing journey. It gave us a thorough insight and analysis of our performance and culture as a company, and the way to improve and develop further to be the best in what we do best.

I would highly recommend applying and going for it. Even if the company doesn't qualify, it will at least receive the needed recommendation for improvement and a guide to excellence.

At CCD Health, we take employee engagement very seriously. We've implemented a range of ongoing activities and themes designed to reduce stress and promote well-being. These include visits from therapy dogs, free psychology consultations, and yoga/meditation sessions. We also recognize top performers and organize health-related activities like wellness days and 5k races. One of our most popular initiatives is "CCD University," a free development program accessible to all employees who want to grow professionally. This program allows our team members to climb the career ladder within our organization.

In our industry, the most significant HR challenge we face is changing the misconception about working at a contact center. 

We believe in fostering a strong sense of community and teamwork through various activities. One of our most impactful events is the CCD Reforestation Day. In 2024, we successfully planted 3,000 trees at Finca Remberto Estrella in the Dominican Republic, contributing to environmental sustainability. Our CCD Wellness Day and 3K/5K Sprint Race is another popular event, promoting employee and community health and well-being. These activities not only bring our team together but also allow us to give back to our community.

Our journey with the Best Places to Work certification began in April 2024, just four months ago. Even in this short time, the experience has been incredibly valuable. The survey results have provided us with crucial insights, helping us evaluate our employee care practices and identify areas for improvement. This data-driven approach has allowed us to make informed decisions at both the organizational and team levels, continuously enhancing our workplace environment.

For organizations considering the certification process, my advice would be: don't hesitate. It's an excellent opportunity for growth and improvement. The certification process enables you to make data-driven decisions and gain a comprehensive, 360-degree view of your organization as an employer. It significantly improves relationships with employees and makes hiring easier as candidates recognize you as a great place to work. Moreover, international recognition helps promote your organization on a global scale. Ultimately, this process keeps you at the forefront of employee relations and organizational development, driving continuous improvement and growth.

One of the biggest advantages and strengths of Fortenova grupa is the synergy and size of the organization, in which care for employees, potentials and talents in all positions, as well as continuous employment, both inexperienced young and experienced professionals, experts and managers, throughout the region ensures horizontal or vertical advancement within companies, but also through different businesses and countries. We use state-of-the-art tools and systems to develop potential and successors, thus ensuring the Group’s further progress.

Fortenova grupa’s shared values, attitudes and behaviours are creating a company culture that makes our organization one of the best working environments. Management is trusted and transparent about the challenges and the mission in front of the organization, communication is open and encouraged between the management and employees, workplace rules and procedures are set and updated accordingly. In addition, competitive benefits are enabled to all employees of the organization.

Excellence, responsibility, integrity, collaboration, innovation.

Most of our companies have collective agreements in place, which provide numerous benefits for our employees, including rewards for special occasions, additional health insurance and organized medical checks for all employees, paid warm meals and various non-financial benefits. For example, the companies provide a day off for parents and gifts for children for their first day at school, subsidize sporting activities, support in using parental leaves for fathers etc.

Regarding other activities provided by the companies to their employees, worth being singled out are the possibility of volunteering in different initiatives organized by the companies, the ‘Let’s Meet’ project, where employees in retail can visit a Group company in another country, meet their colleagues and learn about the differences in other retail companies; once a year, all companies organize a Town Hall meeting to present key information, and the employees actively take part by asking questions to be answered by the management.

Employees are encouraged to participate in running events such as B2Run Zagreb, Ljubljana Marathon, Belgrade Marathon, etc. The Group also has a basketball team that competes in the Business Basketball League and all the employees are welcome to participate.

There is a comprehensive range of activities whereby the Group gives back to the community on all five markets where it operates. Above all, the Group employs more than 46,000 people for whom the Group, in addition to regular salaries, provides numerous other benefits. Due to Fortenova Group’s regional significance, the improvement of relationships with the local communities, work on improving the quality of life and contributing to their economic growth are high on the list of priorities. By devising and implementing appropriate socially responsible programmes and policies and taking part in common partnership projects with the local communities, the Group exerts efforts to improve various aspects of life in the local communities. Investments in the local communities have continuously been growing. Thus in 2023 there were almost 50 projects directly related to the local community. The Group supported more than 20 humanitarian activities, over 50 projects focused on socially sensitive groups and more than 40 cultural projects. Viewed by the individual markets on which it operates, most of those investments took place in Croatia, followed by Slovenia.

Training and education are important backbones of the company’s competitiveness, and at Fortenova Group all employees have the opportunity to receive additional professional training, depending on their own and the business’s needs. In 2023, there were almost 332 thousand hours of training provided across the Group, whereof 72 percent was internal training. The Group follows the career development of its employees with potential to assume more complex jobs or transfer to other positions within Fortenova Group. Employees recognized as talents can put their career development forward as one of the topics at their annual interview with the managers, and the employees’ interest and potential are documented in an individual development plan. Fortenova Group is particularly proud of its own, internal long-term DRIVE Beyond Excellence programme, intended to improve the knowledge and skills of its employees, which started in 2021 and consists of three different group education programmes – Discover, Accelerate i Navigate – with the ultimate goal of further strengthening Fortenova Group’s human potential and contributing to the creation of an encouraging working environment and a winning mentality, which strongly drives the entire Fortenova Group forward.

Since 2005, Dragon Edge Group has been creating remarkable brands that bring more joy to people’s lives. Behind the company’s success is a passionate team led by equally passionate leaders that ensures only the best-quality products reach stores and our homes.

Beyond its products for customers, DEG also fosters a positive work environment and unique company culture that encourages new ideas and innovative thinking among employees. This has become a cornerstone of success within the company as DEG employees and leadership, also known as “DEGsters,” As a result, “DEGsters” develop their creativity and grow their potential in line with their core values to work with integrity and excellence, practice tamang diskarte and making sure things are done on time, take care of customers, and to be humble.

DEG provides leadership programs and initiatives for employees, where they can support the growth of employees to become strong leaders in the company. DEGsters are also given the chance to get their Master’s degrees from prestigious universities, like Ateneo Graduate School of Business and Wharton School.

Opening communication with employees is also key to DEG’s success. By talking to employees and receiving constructive feedback, the company was able to improve certain fields in their company culture, such as adding a retirement package to its benefits for DEGsters who are nearing this stage in life.

“We listen to our employees and we take note of feedback that would help us improve as a company, as long as it’s aligned with our values,” says Emily Balajadia, Dragon Edge Group Co-founder and Mother of Marketing.

Dragon Edge’s first product was a bottle of Beach Hut Sunblock in 2006, which was the first and only local spray-on sunblock at the time. This innovation pushed them to create other brands that challenged the status quo, and became the pioneers of many products, such as the first baby detergent Cycles and the first natural baby bottle and nipple cleanser, Cradle.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, DEG quickly responded by creating and distributing COV-X alcohol in just 11 days to help communities to stay safe and healthy.

The top priority is letting DEGsters’ express their creativity. Founders Dennis and Emily Balajadia believe that the best ideas come from “relaxed, informal settings.” This encourages the team to think outside the box to come up with attention-grabbing campaigns for their brands. This has led to some of the wildest ideas, like Beach Hut becoming the first sunblock to fly to space in 2017, which was crafted during a company drinking session.

The company has also expanded nationwide, and is already selling products in Indonesia since 2006. Not only did this allow DEG to branch out further, the expansion also created many opportunities for employees to help grow the company, while also growing within it themselves.

DEG’s fearless approach allows the company to tackle challenges head-on through innovative solutions that elevate customer experience. As part of Beach Hut’s brand initiatives, the brand opened Beach Hut Bar in Boracay in 2012. It gave vacationers a spot to enjoy the beach vibe with good music and signature cocktails, while protecting them from the sun’s harmful rays. Beach Hut also introduced the first sunscreen vending machine in Caticlan Airport and Boracay to keep tourists protected from the sun.

The company also takes a creative approach in implementing CSR initiatives for communities. Running for five years, Beach Hut Sunscreen is on a mission to support and develop grassroots women’s football, empowering young girls to follow their dreams both on and off the field.  

This year, the brand hosted the first-ever Women's Beach Football Festival, showcasing the brand's dedication to empowering Filipina athletes.

DEG is also leading the way in sustainability with the thrust of saving the earth for the younger generation with the launch of eco-friendly packaging, recycling bins, and Cycles and Cradle refilling stations.

Dragon Edge Group goes beyond creating game-changing products. Being recognized as a two-time Best Place to Work awardee emphasizes how they prioritize a culture of joy and celebration, translating into a passionate team that thrives on achieving and spreading positivity. This ultimately creates a ripple effect into DEG's employee benefits, CSR initiatives, and how they push to improve the quality of life of their customers and communities. As Dennis declares, “This is just the beginning. We have set the standard with our Best Place to Work awards, and it is now up to us to uphold and surpass it.”

Employee engagement is essential for business longevity and success. The key to keeping employees actively engaged is to listen carefully, encourage anyone to speak up, and work tirelessly to deliver what our employees need from a good workplace. I begin this journey by personally welcoming every new employee to Novo Nordisk GBS and kicking off the onboarding every Monday morning. We currently grow our presence in Bangalore by approximately 600 new roles each year.
 
Our employee resource groups play an important role in mobilising NNWay by driving initiatives and engagements that help us sustain our company culture. Unique employee listening opportunities in the form of open houses and employee connects, create platforms for people to connect with the leadership and ask any questions that are top of mind for employees. It is also an opportunity to share high-level vision in terms of people, products, technology, business, or strategy. There are no taboo subjects or silenced questions, what is important to employees is heard, and answered.
 
Knowing that we have 80% of our employees who are millennials, but also employees in their 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s, we commit to offering a sustainable, equitable, and transparent rewards and benefits proposition that ensures everyone feels respected, valued, and proud to work for Novo Nordisk. Be it pay equity or inclusive benefits; our policies are also designed keeping our values and the needs of our employees in mind. Our recently launched flexible benefits program WECare embraces the essence of wellness, and ergonomics, along with child and elderly care. An employee can utilise a fixed sum per year in a flexible way towards the needs geared for personal or family wellbeing, children, or eldercare.
 
Our organization is committed to providing a harassment-free work environment with equitable opportunities for all without any discrimination. Our policies reinforce the same messaging whether it’s the Equal Opportunity Policy (we provide equitable grounds and opportunities for overall employment) or the HIV & AIDS policy (this policy ensures non–discrimination, confidentiality related to a person’s HIV status and appropriate grievance redressal mechanism for all). We ensure that our workplace infrastructure also supports this endeavor by having gender-neutral washrooms in our offices. Employee benefits programs similarly reflect our diversity & inclusion ambitions with 8 weeks of paid leave for non-birthing parents and a group medical insurance policy that meets the diverse needs of our employee base. For example, the inclusion of gender reassignment surgery, surrogacy & infertility treatments, HIV/AIDS treatment, prosthetic device coverage for differently abled employees, dependent coverage for same-sex partners, specially-abled children without age limit, etc. 
 
Our recently launched Flamingo program for women caters to our women colleagues who are embracing motherhood. This unique and industry-leading policy is crafted to take care of the special needs of expecting mothers and new moms and engage volunteer buddies to support them.
 
Finally, having a comprehensive on-site health education, prevention, and treatment service with on-site medical doctors, Nurses, and visiting specialists, helps our employees feel supported in their daily well-being.
 
All these initiatives are focused on delivering the message that in Novo Nordisk GBS, Everybody Matters. Not only do we want our employees to be proud that they work for Novo Nordisk, but we also want their families to be equally proud too.
 
Our efforts on employee engagement have reduced our rolling average annual attrition down from around 16% in October 2022 to 7.5% in February 2024.

The ever-evolving workplace landscape calls for more than just reactive measures, there is a need for an even more proactive and people-centric approach. In Novo Nordisk GBS, ‘Everybody Matters’.
 
HR leaders have the challenging task of building and nurturing a workplace culture that is aligned with the organisation's values and vision. This task becomes more complex as we welcome people from various organisations, and from all corners of India. It’s essential to create an environment that allows employees to align with the purpose & values, whilst also being their true selves. While many companies take initiatives to promote inclusivity, it is crucial to implement these initiatives in the right way. Getting the gender ratio right is not the only definition of diversity & inclusion, at Novo Nordisk GBS we welcome and celebrate everyone.
 
We may not be able to go back to the pre-COVID era and return to the old ways of working: the pandemic has changed many psychological aspects of people’s lives: the way they look at work-life balance, well-being, and purpose in life has undergone complete change. The new generation is voicing requests for some bold workplace arrangements that are transformational for the organisation and employees. It’s important to listen, and act. Flexibility is one of the key factors in choosing a workplace or staying there. However, to encourage meaningful collaboration, we see that it’s important to support the employees with the right choices setting appropriate guardrails to ensure team and organizational dynamics, and then providing flexibility and empowerment to enable the right professional and personal balance.

Having led this organisation since September 2022, it’s very clear that I am standing on the shoulders of some giants who came before me, and I work with a leadership team who have decades of experience. Therefore, achieving this recognition was not an overnight success for Novo Nordisk GBS.

I remember my early days in the role and feeling that there was a “Maslow Hierarchy” of employee engagement, and my immediate focus on listening and fixing the basics seemed intuitively very important. As a GBS, our people are everything. If we have engaged people, who feel appreciated and not used, listened to, and not told, respected, and not belittled, developed, and not burned out, we have a sustainable workplace that can deliver world-class performance for Novo Nordisk. Hence it was important to focus on employee experience and ensure that continue to raise our bar beyond the easy, cheap, and simple, by understanding what our employees need and how can we facilitate this.     
 
When we signed up for the certification, it required us to collaborate across departments and teams to gather inputs for the assessment and survey. It was a rigorous process covering aspects that are critical to having a high-performance workplace culture.  The data gave us important insights into what the industry standards are and how we can continuously implement improvements.
 
Employee feedback helped us identify areas for further enhancements and transparency and at the same time allowed us to celebrate the successes. Finally, we felt immense pride being placed 1st in India, across all industry sectors and company sizes. The achievement is an acknowledgment of our strong purpose, strong culture, and laser-sharp focus on fostering a high-performance, inclusive workplace culture for our employees.

Creating an inspiring, inclusive, and healthy work environment is of utmost importance for our company. We implement employee development programs that incorporate the latest trends in technology and digitization, along with initiatives focused on physical and mental health, such as the Beko WellCare Journey. In addition, at Beko we provide training sessions so that all staff, including interns, subcontractors and temporary employees can contribute to the company's sustainability targets. We champion gender equality in technology through initiatives like Women inTech and Beko Women Community. Throughout 2023 we organized around 50 workshops for Beko employees on our workplace culture.

The white goods industry, like many others, is constantly looking for creating and sustaining inclusive workplace cultures and of addressing unconscious bias. Our HR efforts go towards fostering an environment where employees of all backgrounds feel valued, respected, and have equal opportunities for growth. The industry is also increasingly recognizing the importance of holistic health for employees - physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing. Stress management, mental health awareness, access to wellness programs are all critical areas that need addressing. Moreover, work-life is not just a personal need, it is a critical initiative that benefits businesses, employees, and society at large.

Beko prioritizes teamwork for holistic employee growth and fosters an inclusive work environment through initiatives like Beko Women Community and Beko WellCare Journey. These programs tackle gender imbalance and promote well-being, showcasing our dedication to a positive workplace culture. Beko Women Community was established in 2020, empowers women professionally and personally while striving for gender balance in management through diverse projects and partnerships like workshops, cancer prevention campaigns, and mentoring programs. The Beko WellCare Journey was launched 2022, focuses on employees' well-being across seven dimensions, including physical and emotional health, fostering a healthy lifestyle and work-life balance. With both offline and online components, it provides comprehensive support for employees on their well-being journey.

The communication throughout the certification process was characterized by a high degree of transparency and clarity. The team at Best Places to Work demonstrated a commendable level of professionalism, providing essential support for pivotal steps in the process. The comprehensive report furnished by the certification process serves as a valuable tool for companies to identify areas for improvement. The method employed, wherein strengths were underscored, is duly appreciated. The subsequent follow-up meeting proved to be enlightening and contributory to the overall evaluation.

The certification process involves an assessment of workplace practices and culture that provides valuable insights for identifying strengths and areas for improvement. The focus should not be on the immediate goal - getting the certification, but on creating a culture of continuous improvement and on authenticity. Every employee deserves to work in an environment where they feel valued, supported, and empowered to thrive. Treating employees fairly is not only ethical sound but also a strategic imperative for long-term success. Being recognized as a "Best Place to Work" brings great added value to a company beyond just the accolade itself. It signifies that the organization has successfully cultivated a positive and supportive work environment. This recognition not only attracts top talent but also enhances employee engagement, satisfaction, and retention. Moreover, it is an acknowledgement of the investments made in employee well-being, professional development, and work-life balance, serving as a reminder of the positive impact that prioritizing people can have on the organization.

Engaging our employees is at the heart of our culture. We foster a culture of open communication and transparency, where everyone's voice is heard and respected. A pivotal success story that has worked out well for us is having a dedicated group of engagement ambassadors from different functions who come together with the sole purpose of employee engagement and collaboration. Strong communication platforms have been designed virtually and onsite that allows for open dialogue and opportunities for cross cultural collaboration. We are constantly looking for ways to innovate and leverage the global resources we collectively have as a company. Our efforts have been directed to become a resilient output driven organization while keeping our employees in the center of this vision, looking at areas to provide a personalized experience for them. Additionally, we organize various team-building activities, wellness programs, and social events to promote camaraderie and well-being among our staff. We also lean on our internal ERG’s for guidance and support.

There has been a dynamic shift from an employee perspective on expectations from an employer. They want to be assured that they belong to a community that strives to constantly better itself. This requires for us to evolve some of the conventional practices and adapting them to newer ways of working. We have tried to imbibe this in our day to day processes, thereby empowering the individual.

Teamwork is fundamental to our success, and we offer a variety of activities to strengthen collaboration and camaraderie among our teams. From team-building workshops, to volunteering opportunities and sports leagues, employee resource groups, we provide a range of experiences tailored to different interests and preferences. These activities not only promote teamwork but also foster a sense of belonging and mutual support among our employees. We also offer professional collaboration across functions through digital platforms with our global colleagues.

Participating in the Best Places to Work certification journey has been an insightful experience for us. It has not only validated the efforts we've put into creating a positive work environment but also provided valuable feedback for further improvement. The process itself was rigorous yet rewarding, as it encouraged us to reflect on our practices and think about meaningful changes we would incorporate based on employee feedback. Being recognized as the best place to work in the UAE is a testament to our commitment to our people and our culture of excellence.

Our advice would be to approach the certification process with an open mind and thorough authenticity. There has to be a desire to enhance your workplace culture. Listen to your employees' feedback and take proactive steps to address any areas of improvement. Engage your team members throughout the process, as their input is invaluable in shaping a positive work environment. Most importantly, view the certification journey as an ongoing commitment rather than a one-time achievement, continuously striving to create a workplace where everyone thrives.