Momentum Metropolitan Holdings has for the second consecutive year earned Top Employer Certification from the International Top Employer Institute, the global HR authority on certifying excellence in employee conditions.

The certification is based on employers that provide excellent employee conditions, nurture and develop talent across all levels of the organisation, and who strive to continuously optimise employee experience and employment practices. Driven by a global HR leader, the certification enables employers to benchmark people practices against world-wide standards and to align HR policy towards global best practice. 350 HR practices are evaluated.

“Reflecting on the demanding year that has, like the year before it, impacted organisations across the world, Momentum Metropolitan has continued to show that it prioritises maintaining excellent people practices in the workplace. They continue to meet the challenges of the changing world of work while working tirelessly to make a positive impact on the lives of their workforce. We are pleased to celebrate and applaud the organisations that have been certified as Top Employers in their respective countries this year,” says Billy Elliott, Top Employers Institute Regional Manager: Africa.

Globally, 1,857 companies received certification from the Netherlands-based Top Employer Institute, with 113 companies successfully qualifying in South Africa.

Lettie-Basani Phume, Group Human Capital Executive at Momentum Metropolitan Holdings, says: “The last 24 months have without a doubt been the most tumultuous of our times. Companies have found themselves scrambling to keep afloat while being forced to find new and innovative ways to look after their most precious cargo: people. This has meant a deliberate effort to find new ways to enhance our people management practices to ensure that, above all else, we remain people-centric.”

Against this backdrop, the organisation has continued to adapt to the evolving world of work and improved significantly in all six categories of the survey: Steer, Shape, Attract, Develop, Engage, and Unite.

• Steer incorporates business strategy, people strategy and leadership
• Shape covers organisation and change, digital HR and work environment
• Attract looks at employer branding, talent acquisition and onboarding
• Engage includes wellbeing, engagement, rewards and recognition, as well as offboarding
• Unite examines values, ethics and integrity, diversity and inclusion, and sustainability.
• Develop speaks to the professional training the organisation provides to improve and grow employees’ skills

Momentum Metropolitan’s strongest categories were Steer, Shape and Engage. The company saw improvements in all three areas within Steer – business strategy, people strategy and leadership – but the most substantial improvement was in leadership, which increased 24%.

“More and more during the pandemic, businesses have been measured on how they treat their people and provide support that recognises the whole human being, protects their wellbeing and promotes their development – and leaders set the tone and drive this culture, so we have prioritised making our leaders accessible and active in looking after the needs of our people,” says Phume.

The company also improved in terms of organisation and change, and work environment in the Shape category, with a focus on providing the tools and flexibility to help employees deal with everyday life and juggle both their work and personal lives through a remote working policy. designed to help cope with the rapidly changing needs of the workplace.

Enabling continuous learning and development

However, the area where the company saw the biggest improvement was in the Develop category, with strong growth in all three areas of performance, career and learning. “We have consistently prioritised learning and development as a focus area, and even as we are heartened by the improvements we have seen in the past year, we will continue to invest in strengthening our defined learning and development culture through a range of learning experiences and platforms to enable sustainable success,” says Phume.

This includes providing online learning communities, mobile support for the organisation’s online learning portal and microlearning content that is integrated into employees’ everyday activities.

Building a diverse, inclusive culture

Another area that the organisation excelled in was diversity and inclusion (D&I), which also improved by 24% – jumping from 43.5% to 68.3%.

Momentum Metropolitan has an active D&I strategy in place to ensure that this acts as a core differentiator in the way the company operates. The focus for the business is not only on ensuring that a broad range of people with diverse points of view are represented across the business and in decision-making processes through dedicated programmes such as gender equality and empowerment and disability disclosure, but also making space and creating opportunities for this broad range of people to participate meaningfully and have their voices included.

“The shift for businesses is to focus increasingly on inclusivity and on making people feel that their ideas and voices are valued, valuable and heard – and we are committed to empowering our people by giving them the freedom to bring their authentic selves and voices to the workplace, as well as help them find meaning in what they do,” says Phume.

“It is a proud yet humbling moment for us to be certified as Top Employer for the second year in a row. We especially thank our leaders and employees, because culture is shaped by every single person in the company. This certification endorses our mantra and the cornerstone of our people management approach: #ThinkHumanFirst . We will continue to invest in doing the right things, at the right time, for the right reasons.”