Telesure introduced an employee survey into the company three years ago to get an understanding of how its employees feel about working at Telesure.
Last year it felt confident enough to participate in the Deloitte Best Company to Work For survey to see how it would fare against other companies. It achieved third place in the 2008 survey.
Place to be - Telesure staff
Telesure CEO Leon Vermaak says that the management culture of participation, openness and transparency has contributed significantly to this achievement. This permeates all levels of management in the organisation.
There were 127 companies that participated in the survey and five of the Top 10 companies have been participating for five or more years. Out of the 13 insurance companies that took part, only two other insurance firms made the Top 10.
Employee training and development is key, and the in-house training division trained 1 950 employees in the 2008 financial year. The annual learnership programme had 12 graduates.
Telesure MD Tom Creamer says all customer-facing staff such as call centre operators are accredited intermediaries under the Financial Advisory & Intermediary Services Act (FAIS).
Telesure is a diverse organisation, with 62% black and 54% female. There is also an employee Assistance Programme (EAP) used by 14% of the staff to guide and assist in incidences of personal difficulty or family trauma.
Another Telesure employee initiative is the Telesure Football League, which rewards employees for effectively reaching goals and/or participating in reaching targets.
