Women bank named the best employer in Deloitte’s survey

Kenya Women Microfinance Bank was yesterday named the best company to work for in an annual survey by audit firm Deloitte East Africa.
The country's largest micro-lender, which controls about 45.5 per cent of the deposit-taking microfinance segment, was recognised for providing a conducive working environment for its staff, mostly millennials (persons who reached adulthood around 2000). The bank has balance gender-wise, the researchers said when they released the report in Nairobi yesterday.
“I think that considering that we came in second place for the past two years, we were bound to get this win. With over 3,000 employees, we do our best to make them want to stay with us,” the lender's managing director Mwangi Githaiga said.
Githaiga said the company is currently 22 per cent owned by the employees, 55 per cent of whom are women. Women representation rises to about 60 per cent when it comes to top-level management.
The micro-lender, which was voted the second best in 2015 and 2014, said its average employee age is 26.
Giant brewer East African Breweries emerged second best, while CIC Group was third in the large-sized companies category which focuses on firms with more than 500 employees.
DHL took first place in the medium-sized category followed by ICEA Lion Group and Capital Markets Authority in the survey now in its fifth year.
In the Deloitte's standard of excellence category, other recognised companies were Magadi-based TataChemicals, technology firm Spenomatic, and clothing retailer Deacons which scooped the first three positions, respectively, with 3.7 rating out of five.
Deloitte EA advisory leader Rodger George said there was need for companies to target millennials who thrive on their individuality in the work place. He said culture and engagement were the two key challenges companies faced in employee relations.
“Business leaders must radically evolve their organisations to cope with a series of new disruptors,” he said. “These include the rise of digital technology, increased pace of change in business models, and a shift in the way the psychological contract between employer and employee works, as employees look to move jobs more frequently in their careers.”
The survey measured 10 parameters including leadership, operational effectiveness, inclusion, relationship with supervisors, fairness and equity, overall job satisfaction, learning and development, values and culture, performance and recognition, as well as remuneration.