The British American Tobacco Kenya crowned employer of the year

BAT staff from left East and Central Africa Area Talent Acquisition Executive Waturi Wamboye, Head of HR - Operations Marie Pinycwa, Senior HR Business Partner Wekulo Nasokho, Corporate Affairs & Communications Manager Caroline Mavuti and ECAA Area Head of HR Razeeah Belath, display the six awards won at the 2017 FKE Employer of the Year Awards. The Company was crowned Overall Employer of the Year at the Gala Dinner and Awards Ceremony on 19 May 2017 at the Villa Rosa Kempinski, Nairobi.

The British American Tobacco (BAT) Kenya company was crowned employer of the Year at a colourful ceremony held at the Villa Rosa Kempinski on Friday night.

The awards ceremony, which is the first by the Federation of Kenya Employers (FKE) had a total of eight awards categories with ten being shortlisted in each of the categories, and the first three being given awards.

Other than being the overall winner in the awards, BAT Kenya featured among the top three in four out of the eight categories.

BAT representative at the gala, Razeeah Belath, who is the company's Head of Human Resource attributed the victory to a culture that fosters freedom through responsibility and open mindedness.

"As an organization, we are very happy to have won this award tonight and we thank all BAT staff for their hard work and commitment, as well as all other stakeholders, as this is definitely the culmination of excellent team work," she told the Sunday Business.

At position two was Centum Investment Company Limited, with the University of Nairobi coming third.

The ranking was a culmination of a survey process conducted by the Price Waterhouse Coopers (Pwc) and where 129 employers took part.

The PWC report on the ranking of the various companies was not readily available by the time of going to press.

Speaking at the function the FKE chief executive Jacqueline Mugo urged employers to pay keen attention on the people as it is the human resource, more than the capital that drives the various busineses forward.

"By the end of the day it is all about the people," she said in her rather short speech.

The United Nations Resident Coordinator Mr Siddharth Chatterjee, who was the Chief Guest at the event, told the employers that the kind of work they do – that of creating employment – cannot be matched by any government anywhere in the world.

"That one million Kenyans join workforce every year shows how important the role you play as private sector is. No government can generate the jobs that private sector does," said Chatterjee.

He however told the employers to recognise the need for them to create not jobs but decent ones.