Santam Employees Rewarded Well

Santam #2 in Large Category division Santam's dedicated employees live up to the company's "Best of the Best" motto.

Santam short term insurance proved once again that its workers are its most competitive edge in the business, after the group was named the second best company to work for in the annual Doilette survey.

The company's Chief Executive, Ian Kirk, said that the award certainly lived up to Santam's "Best of the Best" motto - even if it was referring to its dedicated staff of workers.

"We are a truly South African company that has evolved and transformed over the past ninety years to become the diverse and dynamic success story we are today," said Kirk. "Putting people at the center of our strategy, and adopting a client centric approach, has allowed us to prosper in many ways. It is only by recruiting and retaining the very best that we will remain the short term insurance leader in South Africa. We've worked hard at changing perceptions of the industry, and it is extremely gratifying therefore to receive this acknowledgement."

Ian Kirk said that part of Santam's success was listening to feedback and initiating changes based on these opinions. As a result, Santam has moved from the third best company to work for in South Africa (2007) to the second best in the large business category this year.

"Whereas a number of companies pay lip service to the concept of staff as 'brand ambassadors', we've actually combined 'brand' and 'people' in one department under one executive head," explained Kirk. "We've also shared every element of our strategy with our staff, and we're committed to developing all members of staff as individual leaders, free to express their views in innovative and unique ways, to challenge conventional wisdom and to be the best that they can be."