Everyone likes to moan about the boss - and now a new consultancy is set to measure how justified those complaints are in offices across the UAE. Neil Parmar looks at a new consultancy which measures how effective businesses are at making their worker happy The service will help workplaces improve employees' well-being, which the consultancy claims is the key to success. "You can't be a great organisation long-term and be sustainable without having a focus on your people," said Michael Burchell, a partner and director of Great Place to Work Institute UAE. The institute initially focused on an annual search to find the best workplace, but launched a business process improvement service in response to pleas from local companies taking part. "We felt that we wanted to have consultancy available because some of the clients were saying 'can you help us'?" said Farrukh Kidwai, the chief executive of Great Place to Work Institute UAE. Registration for next year's Top Companies to Work For competition, run by the institute, closed yesterday. This year's list identified multinational companies and home-grown brands, including PepsiCo Asia, Middle East and Africa, Microsoft, plus The One and Zayed University. "I want their staff to be treated like princes and princesses. They should be the focal point of any process," Mr Kidwai said of other companies. And many companies in the Emirates have some work to do, Mr Burchell said. "The UAE as a country is very focused on growing and being positioned as a commercial and financial hub in that region of the world," he said. "It is still a very young country and so the HR practices and policies and how employees think about the workplace is pretty new and young as well."
