As the work force continues to shrink due to the downturn in the economy with work permits reducing in their thousands, there has never been a more vital time for Cayman’s employers to showcase their businesses in a positive light in a bid to attract and retain the best employees available, both locally and from overseas.

Cayman’s Top Employer of the Year initiative, led by the Cayman Islands Society of Human Resource Professionals, permits the workforce to truly appreciate the best companies to work for in the islands. Now in its second year, the competition is presently taking applications to find Cayman’s Top Employer for 2011.

Cayman’s top employers for 2010 include (in order of placement) Cayman National Bank, KPMG, HSBC, AON and Deloitte with recruitment company CML taking the top spot for mid sized businesses. 

Ormond Williams, President of Cayman National bank explains what the win meant for his organisation:

“In March 2010 Cayman National Bank was honored to be the first place recipient of the inaugural Top Employer Award by CISHRP.  We believe that this award validates all the strategies we have implemented over the years to create an environment where staff feel excited to work in and where they can excel at their careers.  The award has enhanced the pride staff have in the organisation and will further engender the sense of family we are endeavoring to create.  We have used the award in marketing collateral and do intend to apply for the award in the future.”

Stacey M. VanDevelde, Director, People, Performance & Culture at KPMG says in keeping with the firm’s key business priorities and ‘People First’ initiatives it was their aim to be successful in the first ever Cayman Islands Top Employer competition.

“As a firm, we are continually working to improve how we operate.  Being measured against the Top Employer standard is an important step in that improvement and identifies how well we work with our people to meet our business aims and objectives,” she states.  

VanDevelde says KPMG has used the Top Employer logo in all recruitment related materials (employment adverts, social media networking sites, e-mail signatures) and in many other materials and publications produced by the firm.

She believes that being placed in the top five for 2010 made a great impact on the firm.

“Our employees remain very proud and motivated by the receipt of this award.  From a branding and employer of choice perspective this is an important reinforcement tool. We will definitely apply again this year and encourage other employer and organisations on island to do the same.”

Olive Gregory, Human Resources/Office Manager with Aon says her firm is definitely considering entering this year’s competition. “Our placing in the top five last year gave us an opportunity to get an idea of how employees felt about working at Aon.  Also, we have been proud of the fact that we could display the Top Employer logo on our correspondence.  We were even able to share the news with our other Aon colleagues worldwide via our group’s intranet.”

Trust is the key

Amy Kropp, Corporate HR Director for Baptist Health South Florida recently visited Cayman to help kick start next year’s Top Employer of the Year competition. Her company is itself a top employer: in 2010 Baptist Health was ranked number 32 on Fortune’s list; it has been ranked on Fortune’s List for 10 years; was voted in the 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers and is among the 100 Best Places to Work for in Healthcare (according to Modern Healthcare magazine for 2008 and 2009).

She outlined what a top employer really is: “At the heart of the definition of a top employer is a place where employees trust the people they work with, have pride in what they do and enjoy the people they work with.” 

She added that the premise is that a great workplace is measured by the quality of three critical relationships: between employees and management; employees and their jobs and employees and other employees.

Why strive to become a top employer?

The benefits of a happy workforce for the business as a whole are numerous, as Kropp pointed out that top employers as a company typically perform better financially and are better prepared to weather economic downturns.  Top employers also generally receive more qualified job applications for open positions because marketing a company as a top employer entices such applicants, Kropp said.

“Your organisation is validated within the community,” she confirmed.

Stability caused by having a consistent workforce is another plus point if you are a top employer.

“Top employers are truly great places to work, as determined by their own employees, which reduces their desire to work elsewhere. Trust is nurtured in top organisations which aids in retention,” she confirmed.

Because the top employer competition (in Canada) highlights the benefits provided by competing firms across the board these benefits tend to be very competitive and often top notch. As a result, top employers engage in creative strategies to assist employees with work life balance and healthy lifestyles – a win/win solution all round.

The net result of all this input by top employers is that they benefit from higher productivity and profitability, as Kropp explained: “Employees at top companies are more engaged in their work.  Engaged employees are more productive, which increases profitability. As an example, with their 30 years of research on employee engagement, the Gallup organisation estimates that actively disengaged employees cost US companies more than $300 billion in lost productivity alone.”

But it’s not just the employers and the employees who benefit from the relations. Top employers enjoy higher levels of customer satisfaction and loyalty. 

“Employee engagement equals customer satisfaction,” Kropp said, and quoted an example from her employer, Baptist Health, the slogan of which is “We take care of our employees so they can take care of you”.

The Canadian initiative

The CISHRP has worked closely with their counterparts in Canada to ensure that the Cayman initiative ran along similar lines, to ensure transparency and fairness and also in a bid to develop the high regard locally that the Canadian initiative has developed over the years.

Tony Meehan, Publisher of Canada’s Top 100 Employers, with Mediacorp Canada Inc says that the Canadian Top Employer of the Year initiative, which has been running for 11 years, has raised the bar for employers in Canada because the reasons why Canada’s top employers have been judged so are published for everyone to see.

“People see in black and white just what makes a good employer. It has encouraged employers to offer better packages for employees, such as longer vacation time, longer maternity leave, etc,” he states. “Seeing all this information up front means employees can make informed decisions before they decide to apply to work for a particular company.”

Dan Ondrack, Academic Director for Executive Programmes at Rotman School of  Management in Toronto, Canada and a judge for this and last year’s top employer of the year says that attracting and retaining talent is particularly important for a jurisdiction that suffers from a shortage of a skilled labour force, such as the Cayman Islands. He also says that employers can benefit financially from becoming a top employer: “They don’t have to pay top salaries to attract the best employees.”

Ondrack says that a slow turnover of staff is also cost efficient for companies: “Once a company takes on board a new employee they have to invest in training them until they get up to speed. If there is a low staff turnover that expense is minimised.”  

Meehan is quick to point out that the Canadian top employer initiative actually focuses less on the “big ticket” items and more on the small things that employers can do to make a difference for the better within the work place that does not cost them money.

“We like to focus on the lessons that can easily be followed, such as improving the work atmosphere, changing the physical layout of the company, improving employee communication, ensuring that employees get the opportunity to communicate feedback about their managers, etc,” he states.

Who will become a top employer for 2011?

Top employers will have to show that they embrace not only the value of their staff but also their customers and their community. Phil Jackson, past President of the CISHRP who spearheaded the first top employer initiative in Cayman last year furthers: “The initiative seeks to recognise employers who are innovative, contribute to the community, and are considered industry leaders in their management and people practices.”

Jackson adds: “Our goal is to make this initiative transparent, fair, credible, and a rewarding experience for those organisations that choose to participate. It is an opportunity to remind employees of some of the things that make your workplace special and separates your company from the rest.”  

He furthers that being a top employer doesn’t necessarily mean the company pays the best salaries or provides the coolest perks and benefits - it goes much further than that, he says. “It means the majority of employees wake up in the morning and looks forward to going to work each day.”