Employee of the Year Award for private sector launched |26 February 2015

As from next year employees from private sector organisations and establishments will be rewarded nationally.

The Employee of the Year Award is an initiative of the Ministry of Labour and Human Resource Development and was officially launched during a ceremony held at the Kempinski Seychelles Resort at Baie Lazare on Tuesday evening as part of activities to mark the Productivity Awareness Week which started on Monday.

Labour and Human Resource Development Minister Idith Alexander launched the award in the presence of the Minister for Investment, Entrepreneurship Development & Business Innovation Michael Benstrong, principal secretaries of different ministries, chief executives and managers of different organisations, companies, businesses, among other guests.

Addressing everyone present at the event, Minister Alexander said the Employee of the Year Award aims to reward employees who perform above and beyond “the call of duty”, bringing distinction and contributing towards a positive image of their organisations.

“People are the most important assets of organisations but an even more powerful asset is a high productive workforce, with effective performance using their skills and knowledge,” Minister Alexander said in remarks to launch the initiative.

“As leaders, it is therefore important to focus on developing the best in employees and this can notably be done by appreciating and encouraging them,” she added.

“It is in this spirit that the labour ministry is launching the Employee of the Year Award as a way to ensure that workers and good performance are continuously valued  and promoted,” Minister Alexander stressed.

She pointed out that Kempinski Seychelles Resort was chosen for the launch ceremony of the award as it is an establishment which has a well established employee recognition structure in place.

“This award is also a means to encourage organisations to maintain and revamp their existing award systems and to motivate others which do not have such a system to introduce one,” Minister Alexander pointed out.

The general manager of Kempinski Seychelles Resort, Masami Egami, welcomed the  honour and commended the Ministry of Labour and Human Resource Development for the initiative which he said will boost the private sector’s effort to encourage employees to do better.

Minister Alexander went on to state that the award initiative also reaffirms the government’s and the Ministry of Labour and Human Resource Development’s support to the private sector in response to some of the issues and concerns put forward during visits conducted at different work places.

During the ceremony the Kempinski Seychelles Resort recognised and rewarded its best employees for 2014 and they were Sheena Botsoie, a front office supervisor and Kishor K. Maharjan, a security officer.

Both Ms Botsoie and Mr Maharjan have been working with the establishment for the past three years. They were presented with their awards by Mr Egami.

While she expressed her joy and satisfaction that her hard work has been recognised, Ms Botsoie said her passion for what she does has paid off.

“I am devoted to my job and I love and enjoy what I do and I will always go the extra mile to make the guests happy, putting myself in their shoes,” she said.

For his part Mr Maharjan said being pleasant to guests all the time and always being positive with a good attitude helps to take you a long way.

During the ceremony Marie-Claire Marie, a human resource consultant who has worked with the Ministry of Labour and Human Resource Development on the award initiative, presented the guidelines and criteria of the award.

The principal secretary of the same ministry Veronique Bresson for her part handed an award pack containing details of the award to heads of different organisations and establishments present.