Union Coop Recognized as 2018 ‘Aon Best Employer in the Middle East'

Union Coop among nine organizations in the region selected for the prestigious award, following study by Aon

Dubai, UAE, October 31, 2018:  Union Coop has been recognized as an ‘Aon Best Employer in the Middle East’ by leading global professional services firm Aon, which provides a broad range of risk, retirement and health solutions. The results were announced at the recent Aon Best Employers Middle East 2018 Awards Ceremony at the Oberoi Hotel in Dubai. 

The 2018 Aon Best Employers Middle East winners were selected based on ranking consistently high levels for employee engagement, organizational agility, engaging leadership and strong talent focus. The rigorous process saw participating organizations assessed against Aon’s regional database of more than 350 organizations and 275,000 employees. This year, nine organizations across the Middle East – including Union Coop – were selected for the prestigious honour across sectors ranging from logistics, hospitality and F&B to aviation, pharmaceutical and e-commerce.

Mr. Khalid Humaid Bin Diban Al Falasi, CEO, Union Coop, said: “On behalf of the Union Coop family I would like to thank everyone associated with this award. This prestigious award is a recognition of our life-long commitment of a progressive and innovative working environment that is powered by ‘happiness’ for our 3100 employees, across 14 branches. 

Being voted as an Aon Hewitt Best Employer - UAE 2018 highlights the exceptional efforts our staffs deploy on a regular basis to ensure we meet our customer expectations, create a long-term working relationship, and establish an intimate bond in all the 14 branches in Dubai. Union Coop strives to be the ‘Retail Pioneers’ through highly motivated work culture, regular employee happiness initiatives, highly progressive career map and lots of smiling customers, who have enabled us to push boundaries of expectations. Rest assured the same level of happiness and enthusiasm will be reflected in the upcoming new branches and projects as well.”

Now in its sixth edition, the Best Employers Middle East study is the most comprehensive employer benchmarking program of its kind in the region. Launched globally by Aon over 18 years ago, Best Employers has become an international benchmark for business, affording organizations the unique opportunity to assess and understand the level of engagement amongst their employees. 

This year, the competition was stronger than ever, with an increase of 26% in the number of participants year on year. The increase reflects the growing awareness amongst organizations in the Middle East of the importance of employee engagement and satisfaction as a key pillar of an effective business strategy for attaining and maintaining a competitive advantage.

Christopher Page, CEO, Talent, Rewards & Performance, Aon Middle East and Africa, said: “We are delighted to see such leading examples across the Middle East, including Union Coop, recognized for their outstanding commitment to creating a positive workplace culture. The 2018 Best Employers demonstrated on average 17% higher engagement scores, compared to the rest of the market. Put simply – Best Employers’ people are more satisfied and engaged in their workplace. While these are promising results, our objective is to continue to raise awareness amongst organizations of the importance of prioritizing human capital as a key pillar of their business strategy, so that we begin to see these levels reflected market-wide. After all, the results speak for themselves: high levels of employee engagement, coupled with strong leadership, talent management and an agile working environment are directly correlated with positive business performance and sales growth.”