Sanral is top employer

The South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) was last night recognised by an international organisation as a top employer. The certification is from the Top Employers Institute, which has its head office in the Netherlands.

The institute recognises leading employers around the world, with the focus on those which provide excellent employee conditions, nurture and develop talent throughout all levels of the organisation and strive to continuously optimise employment practices.

"Sanral is particularly pleased of this achievement," says Heidi Harper, Corporate Services Executive of the roads agency. "The agency builds, maintains and manages some of the best roads worldwide ? something which can only be done when an organisation has dedicated, trained staff.

"This has now been recognised. An outstanding aspect of Sanral is its ability to attract and keep top staff as well as the fact that its personnel costs remain remarkably low ? less than 1.3% of total expenditure."

Speaking at the award ceremony in Midrand, Sanral's CEO Nazir Alli said: "We have put in a lot of effort in the past 16 years of our existence to make Sanral an employer of choice. This includes providing our staff with security and stability, competitive salaries and benefits packages, encouraging a work-life balance and providing the opportunity for career progression. These are all factors that matter to our colleagues."

Alli emphasised what ultimately matters in being a good employer is having colleagues who are engaged with their roles and their organisation. "There are huge benefits for an organisation in terms of staff engagement. Colleagues who are highly engaged produce results and this has shown in the quality of roads the agency delivers and the successive unqualified audit reports we have had," said Alli who dedicated the award to all Sanral colleagues.