The inaugural Africa wide Employment Engagement Awards and Conference hosted 150 people at the 2018 Awards and Conference yesterday at the Hyatt in Rosebank Johannesburg. It was a unique opportunity for business leaders to champion continent-wide achievements and innovative approaches to engaging employees, customers and communities.

Eleven category winners and 18 High Commended entries were awarded recognition from the independent judges supporting The Employee Engagement Awards & Conferences. From Tanzania, Acacia Buzwagi Gold Mine won the category for Wellbeing Reward & Recognition.

South Africa’s, Transnet Group Capital took the winning award as Public Sector EE Company of the year from Highly Commended entry by Eskom. The EE Diversity & Inclusion Award winner was Ford Motor Company SA. Hosted in association with N2Growth Africa, the Conference was sponsored by IE Business School – the international executive education school based in Madrid.

At the Conference, a Leadership Panel on Critical Skills for the continent, sponsored by the FP&MSeta South Africa, heard from Professor Sakela Buhlungu, VC of Fort Hare University, and respondents Ian Paterson, Grathel Motau, and Dorah Modise. Another specialist panel was chaired by Profesor Brian Armstrong from Wits Business School, together with international expert John Nives from N2Growth based in the US.

They were joined by Chief Digital Officer at BCX, Rapelang Rabana. Content from the conference will be available on the web in a few days. The Conference was followed by the Employee Engagement Awards which recognised the following other category winners: Growthpoint Properties (EE Company of the Year), Kauia (Employer Brand of the Year); Sun International (CSI) , Kwasa College (EE NPO of the Year); Thandeka Vocational Skills (Sustainability); Centre for Excellence in Leather Skills (Thuma Mina Award); Cummins (Learnerships & Skills); and Ethos Quality Management (EE Consultancy of the Year). Entertainment featured Nomadic Tribe, featuring Ntsika from popular accapella group ‘the Soil’. Next year’s awards will be held on June 5th and in 2020 the plan is to expand into West Africa from N2Growth Africa’s Lagos base.

Notes for Editors:
Engagement has become the driver for how business leaders are thinking about, supporting and growing successful people in their organisations and driving an exceptional customer experience. In turn, this impacts not only talent retention, but productivity, brand equity, competitive advantage and growth. Evidence for this was presented at the Conference.

The Awards Gala was a glittering black-tie affair celebrating world class achievements in delivering outstanding Employee Experiences from across Africa, hosted by journalist Samm Marshall and made possible by N2Growth Africa, FP&M Seta, MerSETA, Distell and IE Business School, partnered by IPM.