This
week’s international news in brief
Danes are great at caring for their workers
What
makes a good place to work? Caring for
people, according to Malene W Nilsson, HR project manager for the Kjaer Group in Denmark.
The international transportation service company was ranked the top place to
work in Denmark
by the Great Places to Work Institute, which started the awards system for top
workplaces in the EU. ‘Love cars, love people, love life’ are the key elements
of the company’s culture. All 59 employees gather for a communal coffee break
everyday when they trade stories and share information. For a special
achievement, a worker may win the Order of the Elephant and take home a big,
stuffed elephant with a bottle of wine, a cinema ticket, or even a chance to go
on a business trip to Africa, where the firm has
offices. Company perks include an in-house gym, ice cream on hot days, and a
visiting masseur.
Key to success for Czech firms is benefits
The
most successful companies in the Czech
Republic
spend more on compensation and staff benefits than others, according to a
recent PricewaterhouseCoopers survey. Paywell
2004 – HR Controlling found that these firms use salary reviews twice as often
and, in the case of top managers, actually three times as frequently. They also
regularly monitor whether their workers are contented. The firms tend to fill a
vacancy with an existing employee, rather than recruiting someone from outside,
as the person settles down to new work more quickly and turnover of labour is
lower as a result. The survey also revealed that a rising number of Czech
employers offer flexible working.
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Guidance on how to deal with complaints
The
International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has issued a new standard,
advising managers on how to deal with dissatisfied
customers. Global standard ISO 10002 has been designed to enable companies and
public services to benefit from complaints, while ensuring customers are left
as happy as possible. The standard gives comprehensive guidance, and it
dovetails with the group’s general quality management standard ISO 9001:2000.
ISO specialists are currently developing additional standards on international
best practice on codes of conduct and external customer disputes resolution
systems, which should be published in 2006.
www.iso.org/iso/en/ISOOnline.frontpage
