The Federation of Kenya Employers (FKE) has launched the Employers of the Year Awards (EYA) which are anticipated to happen on September 29, 2023 with an aim of ‘Honouring Best Employers.’
Speaking during the launch at Waajiri House on Tuesday, FKE Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jacqueline Mugo stated that the award seeks to recognise best practices amongst employers in Kenya since 2017.
Ms Mugo revealed the award falls under eight categories namely inclusion, working environment, performance of the enterprise, employee relationships and other different areas.
“The Employer of the Year Awards whose tagline is “Honouring Best Employers,” is FKE’s prestigious flagship event that aims to showcase and reward employers best practices and innovations in the areas of Corporate Performance, People Management and Industrial Relations practices amongst employers in Kenya. Our goal is to raise and sustain productivity, enterprise performance and responsibility,” Ms Mugo explained.
“We want to see consistent improvement in the performance of enterprises operating in Kenya so that we can enhance competitiveness and improve the capacity of companies to create jobs and progressively provide a decent environment,” Ms Mugo added.
The CEO commended the initiative of providing affordable housing citing it will provide decent housing if only Kenyans would be involved in determining how to do it.
“This is in line with the law which requires employers to cover employees’ housing or pay 15% for house allowance which is mostly done by the private sector,” said Ms Mugo.
Ms Mugo lamented on the 3% of the housing levy saying people’s living standards and net earnings should be put into consideration.
“The federation finds it difficult to support the housing levy as proposed because our members are complaining it is coming on the heels of very many other proposals that pause taxes on levies to us, we have just implemented the NSSF, discussion about NHIF going to 2.7% of an employee’s salary and all this will be pushed back to the employer,” Ms Mugo said.
According to her, the introduction of levies will pose danger to loss of jobs, citing the pressure will be too high to the employers who will have to bridge the gap by increasing the salary of the employees.
British American Tobacco Kenya (BAT) Head of HR Operations Racheal Matendechere said that the Employer of the Year Awards win by BAT in 2017 and 2018 in the categories of effective HR practices and work environment and leadership and Governance practices reflected in their corporate performance led to BAT receiving certification from the global Top Employers Institute as a Top Employer in Kenya, Africa and the Globe for the sixth consecutive year since 2018.
She urged fellow employers to participate in the EYA 2023 to enhance their brand reputation and drive productivity which is important for business sustainability and growth of our economies.
The Employer of the Year Awards focuses on voluntary disclosure of relevant information that give a view of an organisation’s workplace practices. The award continues to embed a strong industrial relations culture in Kenya for enhanced industrial harmony.
By Rebeccah Maria and Sophy Adhiambo
