Taking a Global Stance on Employee Engagement Benchmarking against the World s Most Admired Companies

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1 Taking a Global Stance on Employee Engagement Benchmarking against the World s Most Admired Companies A leading global provider of transport and logistics solutions Established in 1982 in Jordan and now operating in 59 countries An asset light model with human capital at the heart of the organisation 2012 headcount of 10,300 with plans to grow to 12,000 by 2014 Aramex, a global logistics company with an ambitious expansion agenda was facing new challenges in engaging with an increasingly global workforce. With the pressures of acquisitions and global economic uncertainty, Aramex measured employee engagement and took practical action with the results to make it an even better place to work. Aggressive growth strategy in emerging markets with a number of recent and planned acquisitions This is the first time we had done an internal assessment so to see that we compete with the FORTUNE 500, and that in some areas we out-perform them gave us great internal confidence. Challenges of global expansion Engaging new recruits in new geographical markets is a challenge for Aramex which increasingly has to communicate outside its comfort zone. This is both Aramex s biggest challenge and opportunity according to Ashraf Zeitoun, Director of Corporate Communications at Aramex: The challenge we are facing is how we bring new employees up to the required level of understanding of our values and culture. We need to inform them and engage with them and get our messages across. A lot of our stations have been operating for 30 years but then we go into a new market which is operated by local Why engagement matters talent and we need to give them the same level of understanding. Facing a fresh set of challenges, the senior leadership team decided that an objective assessment of employee engagement on a large scale was necessary. The end result was a robust instrument that could be aligned with what is important to Aramex. At the same time it has a foundation in Hay Group s research, verified with hundreds of case studies across geography and industry, identifying what truly matters to drive performance through people and creates a win-win culture where people thrive alongside the business and together impact bottom-line performance. AYMAN BADAWI HR DIRECTOR, ARAMEX Organisations with high levels of engagement and enablement have: 50 per cent lower employee turnover 33 per cent lower absenteeism 40 per cent fewer internal transfer requests 33 per cent higher individual performance 4.5 times higher revenue growth

2 The results achieved by Aramex are nothing but astonishing, going beyond the benchmarks set by high performing companies over Hay Group s 25 years of conducting employee opinion surveys for some of the worlds most admired organisations and most recognised and respected brands. JAN MARSLI HEAD OF EMPLOYEE SURVEYS, HAY GROUP Reading the results More than 5000 employees participated in Aramex s employee opinion survey in November - December There was little resistance to participation especially at the manager level and upwards. In order to overcome the obstacles of time and access to a computer at the more junior levels, Aramex set up sessions for employees to complete the survey and anonymously submit it. Ayman Badawi, HR Director for Aramex was delighted by the findings of the survey. Not only could the company have pride in competing on employee commitment against other Middle Eastern companies but also against the FORTUNE 500: This is the first time we had done an internal assessment so to see that we compete with the FORTUNE 500, and that in some areas we out-perform them gave us great internal confidence. Iyad Kamal, Chief Operating Officer at Aramex added: Engagement at Aramex compared to Middle East norms and high performing organisations Middle East 65 We have beliefs about our employees satisfaction from our day to day interactions with them but it was important to take the opportunity to have an independent party validate this. The reflection of our beliefs in the results of the survey are a great endorsement. The survey was comprised of 66 questions, with 80 per cent of responses being positive. Aramex has an overall satisfaction level 15 per cent ahead of the average in the Middle East. When comparing Aramex to Hay Groups high performance benchmark, which is a global benchmark including some of the World s Most Admired Companies, Aramex is ahead by 11 per cent. In 2011, Aramex will very likely be part of that benchmark, raising the bar for organisations globally when it comes to standards of excellence in people management. Aramex culture Aramex believes one of the secrets to its commendable level of employee engagement is its federal structure. Each station operates like an independent entity to a certain extent with the station manager setting the targets as well as the profit and loss. The visible leadership at Aramex and an absence of hierarchy is also key to the high levels of employee engagement. As well as a degree of autonomy, the training and development of people is instilled at all levels of management and leadership is visible but not high profile. Those on the global leadership programme have a grass roots induction to the company undertaking tasks from CSR to courier duty. On Courier Day the COO himself has been known to deliver parcels as he believes it s the best type of customer satisfaction survey there is and a hands-on experience to guide Aramex on what can be enhanced and improved. High performing Aramex Ashraf Zeitoun says the exercise also educated the leadership team: Something that surprised us in the result was the level of importance that our employees put on CSR. We pride ourselves on being corporate citizens and our commitment to CSR is unbridled but we never realised ourselves how important it was to our staff." "Giving back to the community and the corporate reputation is a part of our culture but we never thought this would reflect so positively on staff and retention rates. It has been proven to us that a commitment to corporate reputation makes a difference.

3 Building a picture of engagement at Aramex Clear strengths A clear performance culture 1. Line managers coach staff in their development 2. Staff have room to participate in training 3. Performance is linked to reward 4. Promotions and transfers are done fairly 5. Work is well organised in teams 6. Aramex is innovative in terms of improving internal efficiency Areas of concern 1. A concern around staff loyalty Intention to stay below HP organisations 2. Participation in community events 60 per cent have, 40 per cent have not 3. Regular team meetings 73 per cent do. 27 per cent do not Areas for improvement Having absorbed the good news, the leadership team took to reviewing those areas where improvements could be made: Knowledge of strategy and vision: Although Aramex scored a +3 rating against the high performing companies, they are still keen to improve on employees knowledge of the organisations overall strategy and vision which comes down to comprehensive communication. Empowerment is an area where Aramex wants to improve on a rating of +6 against high performing companies. This is a challenge since individuals naturally desire different levels of empowerment and autonomy to one another. Where some might require less autonomy, some might perceive this as restrictive. Continuting to work for Aramex is a dimension which initially disappointed Aramex. However, a deeper analysis of the data suggests a lot of the perceived churn could be attributed to Aramex s acquisitions meaning that a large proportion of employees were relatively new under the Aramex umbrella and likely feared for job security or wider scale changes under the new organisation s management. Ayman Badawi, HR Director at Aramex says the leadership team are keen to learn from the survey results: Since the organisation is growing rapidly and internationally including a number of recent acquisitions, communication does not always reach everybody. In days gone by an annual conference was a forum to communicate but with an organisation that has outgrown this medium it is time for a new approach. I was initially disappointed at the length of time [-9 compared to the HP norms] that employees indicated they would continue to work for Aramex. However, I feel it is related to our recent acquisitions which can create uncertainty. In order to reduce such anxieties we are making efforts to reassure employees. For example, at our recently acquired South African operations the CEO sent a letter to all employees and actually visited all 22 branches in South Africa along with the executive team to formally welcome the new employees to the organisation. We are conscious of keeping these communication channels open and deepening them, especially with our increasingly large global footprint.

4 A snapshot of engagement at Aramex The 65 questions asked in the survey were grouped into 16 dimensions. To the right are all dimensions listed, as well as the comparison to high performing (HP) companies. The HP comparison shows how Aramex exceeds the HP benchmark. HP Norm Customers +16 Quality +7 Strategy and direction +7 Work process +24 Enablement +13 Leadership +13 Teamwork +14 Performance +11 Information and resources +13 Respect and recognition +13 Authority and empowerment +6 Engagement +3 CSR +9 Training +19 Development +19 Reward +16 In Aramex will be using the findings heavily, embedded in all communication channels whether it be to communicate with employees newly acquired firms, or in recruitment and retention initiatives. Putting the results into action The results have been put to extensive practical use. Each station manager was tasked with producing an action plan based on the lowest areas of engagement at each station. Station managers then presented their plans to the leadership team for approval before implementation. In the spirit of frank and open communication at Aramex, Ashraf Zeitoun says the organisation is not one that is afraid to learn from its mistakes and inefficiencies: In Aramex will be using the findings heavily, embedded in all communication channels whether it be to communicate with employees from newly acquired firms, or in recruitment and retention initiatives. Aramex is incorporating the findings into their HR strategy for the years to come and conversation about the findings is encouraging more employees to talk about why they are working for Aramex. The results have also been put to practical use by the HR team says Ayman Badawi: Since the survey results were published, we have taken steps to install a new performance management system in which everyone has objectives from the top down so that the organisation s vision and mission are cascaded throughout the business. This fulfils part of Aramex s goal to align communication across the organisation. ASHRAF ZEITOUN DIRECTOR OF CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS, ARAMEX

5 We are conscious of keeping these communication channels open and deepening them especially with our increasingly large global footprint. AYMAN BADAWI HR DIRECTOR, ARAMEX Moving forwards Aramex believes the employee opinion survey will help them in the long run to benchmark against other regional companies and building up a more robust picture of the region. In the future, Aramex would like to compare new stations with old exiting stations as a performance assessment: a test to see whether they are able to cascade the values and bring new stations up to standard of the established stations. In future surveys, Aramex will continue to ask the core 65 questions; the leadership recognises that although it was tough to get to the top, it is even tougher to stay there! They will also add some additional questions says Ashraf: This time we asked easy questions, next time we need to challenge our staff to find out the weaknesses. In order to benefit fully, we need to ask both the easy questions and the difficult questions. Aramex believes benchmarking employee engagement will be especially important for emerging companies coming out of the region so that they can compare their organisations with other emerging players and benchmark against global competition as well as other regional industry leaders. Iyad Kamal, Aramex's COO says that working with Hay Group provided a unique insight: We wanted to work with Hay Group because it is an organisation with in-depth experience in measuring employee engagement and enablement. Hay Group also has the knowledge and data to benchmark Aramex against MENA region and high-performing companies so we know where we stand in comparison to the best. As a company with growing international presence and global ambitions, Aramex will continue to compare its engagement levels with the world s high performing companies. Iyad Kamal, Aramex s COO says this is the culmination of the company s focus and efforts on creating a positive culture: The results of the engagement study are proof of the Aramex culture that we have been nurturing for thirty years; this is not something that happens overnight. What we have achieved is making sure what we preach is actually implemented and that it is having the desired positive effect on our employees. Our unique offering is our people who are at the core of what we do. It is very important for them to be satisfied; for them to be able to achieve, for them to be creative, innovative and enabled to deliver on the Aramex values and brand promise. It is reassuring to us that our people are going out there and doing the best they can do. Want to know more about using employee engagement to improve business performance? Dubai, United Arab Emirates Suite No. 2301, 23rd Floor Festival Tower, Dubai Festival City P O Box Dubai United Arab Emirates t +971 (0) w haygroup.com/uae Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Kingdom Tower 28th floor, office 1409 P. O. Box Riyadh Kingdom of Saudi Arabia t +966 (0) w haygroup.com/sa