Hewitt Reveals Key Traits of Best Employers

According to the Hewitt analysis, the common characteristics of the best employers are:

• Senior leaders at the best employers genuinely believe in and treat their employees as their most important asset (88%) vs. other companies (52%). Their leaders are more visible and accessible to employees, and are more open in their communication. In addition, most of the best employers’ CEOs (72%) say they consult their people broadly when making changes compared to 57% of CEOs at other companies.
• Best employer HR or “people” programs are designed and executed to optimize their impact on organizational performance. Nearly all of the best employers’ employees (91%) say their companies’ mission and goals provide clear direction vs. 70% of employees at other organizations. Similarly, the best employers’ CEOs are more likely to state their HR programs are aligned with and support their business goals, and are delivered more effectively than are CEOs of other organizations.
• Best employers are more likely to set expectations for training and developing their employees and offer more types of these programs than other companies. Even more telling, employees at the best employers are more apt to say their organizations offer opportunities to develop skills necessary to assume greater responsibility (83% vs. 52% of other companies), provide a performance assessment process that helps them improve their performance (90% vs. 69% of other organizations), and offer ongoing feedback from their managers that helps them improve their performance (82% vs. 57% of other organizations).
• Eighty percent of employees at Best Employers feel they are paid fairly relative to the market compared to 49% of employees at other organizations. They also are more apt to say their performance has a significant impact on their pay (79%) compared to employees at other organizations (49%) and that they receive recognition beyond pay for their accomplishments (73%) vs. employees at other organizations (39%).
• Hewitt’s analysis shows the best employers offer more flexible benefits, programs and work arrangements than other organizations. In addition, employees of best employers are more apt to say their companies meet their work/life needs than employees at other companies (77% vs. 44% of other companies). A new trend of emerging importance is diversity, with more employees at best employers feeling their companies make an effort to embrace diversity (91%) than employees of other organizations (68%).

A blind judging process, in which company names were not disclosed until final selections were determined, was used by an independent judging panel to select Hewitt’s 25 Best Employers in Latin America. Companies were required to complete three surveys: an employee survey sent to a random sample of employees, a CEO survey completed by the CEO or highest-ranking executive in the country and a comprehensive HR/people practices inventory.

To obtain the full report highlighting these results, contact the Hewitt Associates Latin America regional office at (305) 476-8800 or bestemployerslatinamerica@hewitt.com .