The founder of a not-for-profit dedicated to developing leadership skills in Jersey is encouraging businesses to get involved in a new workplace analysis initiative.
Jersey's Best Workplace is a new awards initiative launched by All Island Media – the parent company of Bailiwick Express and the Jersey Evening Post – which will help unlock insights about their teams.
In partnership with CompassJersey, the employee engagement award seeks to identify the gold-standard of employee satisfaction in the island.
To identify a winner, businesses will be benchmarked against each other and receive detailed analysis.
Kevin Keen, co-founder of not-for-profit business development organisation, Leadership Jersey, explained the importance of a good workplace culture and what insights Jersey's Best Workplace can unlock for employees and businesses...
What three words would you describe as the key tenets of a positive company culture and why?
Engaged: In order to serve customers in business, the people who work in an organisation have to be engaged, believe in it and be part of it.
Happy: Work is much better when it can be fun and you enjoy and respect the people you work with. Life’s too important to hate your job.
Stable: A good workplace will keep it’s people, which means there is less re-training and staff know what they’re doing to serve their customers.
It’s all about people; you can’t do your best job unless you have the best people and they are happy and motivated.
Why do you believe fostering a great workplace culture is essential in attracting and retaining top talent in Jersey?
Retaining staff is key and to do that you need a measure like Jersey’s Best Workplace to see how [the business] is doing.
This initiative is a really good thing, without it you can’t find out how you’re doing and how your people are doing. The initiative is also cheap for the information that [businesses] will receive.
It’s probably the best investment businesses will make this year.
What sort of insights do you think will be most helpful for businesses taking part in Jersey’s Best Workplace?
We [organisations], should know these things already. Employees won’t speak up about what they’re thinking directly to their boss so when you run one of these initiatives, people feel safe and can say what they really believe.
They can understand what’s good and what can be better in the business. At the end of the day, the people at the front line will know what customers want and how things can be improved. Like I said before, it’s a great investment for any business and I really mean that.
How would you suggest participants use the results of this initiative to shape their internal practices or influencing future strategies?
It’s about studying the results carefully.
The benchmarking aspect between organisations is useful but the key is really understanding your own organisation and how it compares. The real competition is to keep your people and to keep your customers and this [initiative] will be an important tool to do that.
Plus, hopefully businesses won’t just do it once, they’ll do it regularly to find out how they’re doing. The results would also bring some structure as to how businesses can implement improvements.
GET INVOLVED...
Top-performing companies will be highlighted in a special Jersey’s Best Workplace publication distributed in print and online through All Island Media's brands, Bailiwick Express and the Jersey Evening Post. Winners will also be honoured at a special awards ceremony next year.
In addition to the survey results and potential to be crowned 'Jersey’s Best Workplace', entrants will receive an All Island Media advertising credit and an annual subscription to the digital edition of the Jersey Evening Post.
For more information, and to register, click HERE.
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