By Dr Paul Bundi Human beings are endowed with remarkable resilience, which can only be broken when they choose to give up. Says Viktor Frankl in his seminal book, Man's Search for Meaning; ''it is a peculiarity of man that he can only live by looking to the future-sub specie aeternitatis. And this is his salvation in thd most difficult moments of his existence, although he sometimes has to force his mind to the task.'' Man's life is primarily driven by the desire for future, the unshakable belief that the future holds promise. We invariably cease to live when we think we have hit a dead end, or that there's nothing more to be had by living. Theoretically, there is no limit to man's achievement, and that is what drives men to wake up and strive day after day. The opposite is spiritual, psychological death, which manifests way ahead of physical death. Lesson? Losing today doesn't mean losing always. You can lose 10 times and win the 11th time. Or, you
Employees can now share their opinions about employers online. As a result, companies face new reputation risks that can affect their customers and shareholders.For the third year, Bridge international academies has identified as the nation’s worst organisation to work for , this is primary based on reviews from jobs and career website Glassdoor.com and selected the 5 companies with the lowest ratings.complaints tended to focus on wages and hours worked. In many cases, these concerns focused on how difficult it can be for employees to meet targets that qualified them for commissions and promotionsIn other instances, employees complained more about how they thought a company was not involved in open conflict resolution and poor HR policies .
Based on these reviews, these are the top 5 worst companies to work for in Kenya today:
1) Bridge International Academies
Bridge International Academies is a chain of over 300 low-cost private schools in Kenya with approximately 100,000 students enrolled. Bridge has designed an “Academy in a Box” model, which seeks to deliver high quality education through standardization.
A significant share of employee grievances was directed at middle management mostly the supervisors . The company only has a score of 2.5 out of 5 and only 34% of the employees are likely to recommend the company to family and friends :,
unlike many private schools ,Bridge International Academies offers entry-level workers low-paying high-stress employment. Bridge International Academies has added a number of schools in the past several years in Nairobi, reaching a total of over 100,000 students in Kenya. According to numerous employee reviews, however, these new schools are the most likely to be poorly run. One such reviewer complained about inconsistent schedules, unqualified teachers , part-time hours and overall chaotic management.
2) Equity Bank Kenya
Equity Bank is a wholly owned subsidiary of
Equity Group Holdings Limited. Making it a member of the Equity Group Holdings Limited, has a customer base in excess of 9.2 million in the six East African countries that it serves, making it the largest commercial bank on the African continent, by customer numbers .
Equity bank is not new to controversy in terms of compensation and promotion model.It’s current rating on Glassdoor.com is at 2.7 and only 42% of the employees would recommend Equity to family and friends as an employer, even though the CEO has an approval rating of over 80% .
Former and current sales staff also indicated that the commission structure, which rewarded employees for selling highly profitable products like civil servant loans, often felt arbitrary or unfair. One employee noted that, “they make you do a lot of operational work and since you are on commission you don’t get paid for that work.” another employee aslo stated that the management is quite rigid and communication process is extremely bureaucratic and takes longer to make decisions ..
Another major complain was lack of fairness when handling employees Too much politics. Promotion with no immediate compensation. Does not reward or recognize loyal staff who have served for so long..
3) Techno Brain
Techno Brain is a custom software application development company provides IT Solutions, IT Products, IT Training and BPO Services in kenya and around the world and is currently among the largest software developers in Kenya. Employees of the company are among the most miserable and , Numerous current and former employees reported poor management, under-staffing and high turnover, it currently has an overall rating of 2.6 out 5 on Glassdoor.com Like many other entry-level positions, sales jobs at Techno Brain tend to involve penalties for unmet sales goals. While these pay structures offer higher wages for high achievers, employees reported poor job security and unreliable work schedules.
A business Analyst stated that “ Training division tend to feel like the lesser beings as compared to solutions division. Poor compensation (per diems)” this is a very common complain at Techno Brain with many also not happy with the HR structure stating that during interviews the HR personnel appear confused and some do not even understand English ..
4) Cellulant
Some employees have expressed concern over the company’s increased focus on profits. “They’ve lost sight of their values — the bottom line comes first and the residents are last,” one reviewer said on Glassdoor.com. , most reviewers are also talking about lack of salary reviews and poor wages , No clear HR structure and policy making it very difficult for one to grow,Despite these complaints, however,some employees feel that Cellulant is a better place to work just for experience purposes only since it’s in a very relevant field of building mobile banking solutions said an Implementation Engineer at Cellulant.
5) Haco Tiger Brands
Haco Tiger Brands, is a company co-owned by billionaire businessman Chris Kirubi and a South African firm, Haco Industries was established in the early 1970’s as single-product manufacturer. From those modest beginnings, Haco Tiger Brands is now one of the region’s leading FMCG manufacturers, supplying a wide range of products to the entire East African and COMESA Markets but all is not well with it’s employees, it currently has a score of 2.9 out of 5 at Glassdoor.com the main challenge at Haco is “The opportunity to match the existing staff together with new staff is missing. A new staff being compensated more as per the scales of the previous employer in relation to an existing staff who has to do a lot of training of the new staff” this is according to one Glassdoor reviewer and with many citing a difficult commission structure and the company’s ever-changing product prices.
Haco is also currently undergoing some management difficulties after it had a major scandal where top management had cooked profit figures to a tune of over 800 M KES ( USD 8 M) , negatively impacting the half-year results of the Johannesburg-listed Tiger Brands, which owns 51 per cent of the Kenyan operation.In summary A significant share of employee grievances was directed at middle management. Workers at these companies were also highly likely to disapprove of their CEO. Chief executives at 4 of the 5 worst companies to work for received positive approval ratings from less than half of their employees. less than 30% of workers endorsed the CEO.In the case of a number of these businesses, poor remuneration, lack of proper HR structures, weak earnings and a sinking stock price may all contribute to lower employee morale and negative perceptions of executive performance.
Based on these reviews, these are the top 5 worst companies to work for in Kenya today:
1) Bridge International Academies
Bridge International Academies is a chain of over 300 low-cost private schools in Kenya with approximately 100,000 students enrolled. Bridge has designed an “Academy in a Box” model, which seeks to deliver high quality education through standardization.
A significant share of employee grievances was directed at middle management mostly the supervisors . The company only has a score of 2.5 out of 5 and only 34% of the employees are likely to recommend the company to family and friends :,
unlike many private schools ,Bridge International Academies offers entry-level workers low-paying high-stress employment. Bridge International Academies has added a number of schools in the past several years in Nairobi, reaching a total of over 100,000 students in Kenya. According to numerous employee reviews, however, these new schools are the most likely to be poorly run. One such reviewer complained about inconsistent schedules, unqualified teachers , part-time hours and overall chaotic management.
2) Equity Bank Kenya
Equity Bank is a wholly owned subsidiary of
Equity Group Holdings Limited. Making it a member of the Equity Group Holdings Limited, has a customer base in excess of 9.2 million in the six East African countries that it serves, making it the largest commercial bank on the African continent, by customer numbers .
Equity bank is not new to controversy in terms of compensation and promotion model.It’s current rating on Glassdoor.com is at 2.7 and only 42% of the employees would recommend Equity to family and friends as an employer, even though the CEO has an approval rating of over 80% .
Former and current sales staff also indicated that the commission structure, which rewarded employees for selling highly profitable products like civil servant loans, often felt arbitrary or unfair. One employee noted that, “they make you do a lot of operational work and since you are on commission you don’t get paid for that work.” another employee aslo stated that the management is quite rigid and communication process is extremely bureaucratic and takes longer to make decisions ..
Another major complain was lack of fairness when handling employees Too much politics. Promotion with no immediate compensation. Does not reward or recognize loyal staff who have served for so long..
3) Techno Brain
Techno Brain is a custom software application development company provides IT Solutions, IT Products, IT Training and BPO Services in kenya and around the world and is currently among the largest software developers in Kenya. Employees of the company are among the most miserable and , Numerous current and former employees reported poor management, under-staffing and high turnover, it currently has an overall rating of 2.6 out 5 on Glassdoor.com Like many other entry-level positions, sales jobs at Techno Brain tend to involve penalties for unmet sales goals. While these pay structures offer higher wages for high achievers, employees reported poor job security and unreliable work schedules.
A business Analyst stated that “ Training division tend to feel like the lesser beings as compared to solutions division. Poor compensation (per diems)” this is a very common complain at Techno Brain with many also not happy with the HR structure stating that during interviews the HR personnel appear confused and some do not even understand English ..
4) Cellulant
Some employees have expressed concern over the company’s increased focus on profits. “They’ve lost sight of their values — the bottom line comes first and the residents are last,” one reviewer said on Glassdoor.com. , most reviewers are also talking about lack of salary reviews and poor wages , No clear HR structure and policy making it very difficult for one to grow,Despite these complaints, however,some employees feel that Cellulant is a better place to work just for experience purposes only since it’s in a very relevant field of building mobile banking solutions said an Implementation Engineer at Cellulant.
5) Haco Tiger Brands
Haco Tiger Brands, is a company co-owned by billionaire businessman Chris Kirubi and a South African firm, Haco Industries was established in the early 1970’s as single-product manufacturer. From those modest beginnings, Haco Tiger Brands is now one of the region’s leading FMCG manufacturers, supplying a wide range of products to the entire East African and COMESA Markets but all is not well with it’s employees, it currently has a score of 2.9 out of 5 at Glassdoor.com the main challenge at Haco is “The opportunity to match the existing staff together with new staff is missing. A new staff being compensated more as per the scales of the previous employer in relation to an existing staff who has to do a lot of training of the new staff” this is according to one Glassdoor reviewer and with many citing a difficult commission structure and the company’s ever-changing product prices.
Haco is also currently undergoing some management difficulties after it had a major scandal where top management had cooked profit figures to a tune of over 800 M KES ( USD 8 M) , negatively impacting the half-year results of the Johannesburg-listed Tiger Brands, which owns 51 per cent of the Kenyan operation.In summary A significant share of employee grievances was directed at middle management. Workers at these companies were also highly likely to disapprove of their CEO. Chief executives at 4 of the 5 worst companies to work for received positive approval ratings from less than half of their employees. less than 30% of workers endorsed the CEO.In the case of a number of these businesses, poor remuneration, lack of proper HR structures, weak earnings and a sinking stock price may all contribute to lower employee morale and negative perceptions of executive performance.
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