Warsaw – 8 June 2011 – Aon Hewitt, the global human resource consulting and outsourcing business of Aon Corporation (NYSE:AON) announced today the results of its annual Best Employers Study for Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). The study which covered 479 participants from eight CEE countries (Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Turkey and Ukraine), ,has shown that what most differentiates Best Employers from other organisations is high quality of leadership.  This year’s Best Employers Study results also prove that parallel to the economic situation, there is a recovery also in employee engagement levels.

This year, the Central and Eastern European Study list was topped by Philip Morris (Slovakia) within the small organisations category; by Intel (Poland) in the category of medium organisations; and by Operator Gazociągów Przesyłowych Gaz System (Poland) heading the list for large size companies (a full listing of Aon Hewitt's Best Employers for small, medium and large scale companies follows in this news release).

Magdalena Warzybok, Best Employers Study Project Leader in CEE said:
“With winners representing different countries we see both differences and common patterns. Benefits, sense of accomplishment and perception of work policies are those engagement drivers, where employee satisfaction is highly differentiated and influenced by the specifics of countries. On the other hand, there is a set of drivers where the cultural differences matter less, such as senior management, line managers or autonomy. Interestingly the quality of leadership plays the crucial role when it comes to building high employee engagement.”

Best Employers companies have highly engaged workforces (78% versus 55% on average) and great leaders, whose leadership skills are appreciated by their employees. Best Employers` Senior Leaders are perceived as effective (75% in Best Employers vs 53% on average), open in communication (68% vs. 46%), appropriately balancing company and employees` interests (67% vs. 43%) and treating people as the most valuable asset in the organisation (66% vs. 41%).

Edward Stanoch, Aon Hewitt Director for Eastern Europe commented:
“In reality not even the best business strategy is a guarantee of success. To achieve high business results -  in addition to the right business strategy - organisations need good leaders capable of executing it and highly engaged employees to make things happen.”

After the tough period of economic turmoil, the Best Employers Study shows positive trends in employee engagement. Compared to last year’s results, the average engagement level of employees in the CEE region improved by three percentage points, which is in line with trends observed globally.

As the recession will no longer serve as a factor reducing employee attrition, organisations will need to quickly re-set their strategies to keep their best talent. This is also an area where the Best Employers set the pace: in their organisations, almost 70% of employees confirm that their companies are retaining key people, while only 45% of employees state the same on average. The study results show that disengaged employees are even less committed to their employers, many of them are thinking about leaving their current company and actively looking for alternatives.

Magdalena Warzybok added:
"In the past few years, the crisis and insecurity about the future made dissatisfied employees refrain from leaving their jobs. Now we are seeing an increased intention to change employers, especially in those companies with lower engagement levels. Not only is there higher voluntary turnover but also a much worse perception of their Employer Brands which will expose companies to bigger risks and costs.

"On the other hand we see that Best Employer companies are taking good care to ensure that the image of their organisation is consistent with the real employee experience (difference: 75% vs  52% ) and at the same time they are considered to be good places to work (85% vs. 62%).” 

Best Employers in Central Eastern Europe
 

About the Best Employers Study
Methodology
Aon Hewitt surveyed Employees and Senior Leaders out of 479 companies that joined the Study in eight Central and Eastern European countries.

The ranking is based on an objective, independent scoring methodology. 60% of the score depends on employees’ opinion and 40% comes from the “alignment score” (showing how closely the leaders’ perspective, employees’ needs and HR practices are aligned). The study examines three aspects:

 - Aon Hewitt Employee Engagement Survey: completed by a representative sample of employees. Set of questions on: the work environment, career and development, salary and compensations, top management, internal relations, work/life balance, HR practices and company processes. 

 - Aon Hewitt Leadership Team Survey: completed by the business leader (CEO) or equivalent to indicate his/her opinion on the companies' HR strategy and philosophy, and their companies as employers. It focuses on: leadership engagement, internal alignment of leadership, company strategy and business priorities, HR priorities, and leadership communication.

 - Aon Hewitt HR Audit Questionnaire: completed by the HR manager plus department. It focuses on: employer branding, talent management, HR activity and practice efficiency, compensation/perks, performance management, work/life balance, HR strategy, HR effectiveness

About Aon Hewitt
Aon Hewitt is the global leader in human resource consulting and outsourcing solutions.  The company partners with organisations to solve their most complex benefits, talent and related financial challenges, and improve business performance.  Aon Hewitt designs, implements, communicates and administers a wide range of human capital, retirement, investment management, health care, compensation and talent management strategies.  With more than 29,000 professionals in 90 countries, Aon Hewitt makes the world a better place to work for clients and their employees.  For more information on Aon Hewitt, please visit www.aonhewitt.com.
 

About Aon
Aon Corporation (NYSE:AON) is the leading global provider of risk management services, insurance and reinsurance brokerage, and human capital solutions and outsourcing. Through its more than 59,000 colleagues worldwide, Aon unites to deliver distinctive client value via innovative and effective risk management and workforce productivity solutions. Aon's industry-leading global resources and technical expertise are delivered locally in over 120 countries. Named the world's best broker by Euromoney magazine's 2008, 2009 and 2010 Insurance Survey, Aon also ranked highest on Business Insurance's listing of the world's insurance brokers based on commercial retail, wholesale, reinsurance and personal lines brokerage revenues in 2008 and 2009. A.M. Best deemed Aon the number one insurance broker based on revenues in 2007, 2008 and 2009, and Aon was voted best insurance intermediary 2007-2010, best reinsurance intermediary 2006-2010, best captives manager 2009-2010, and best employee benefits consulting firm 2007-2009 by the readers of Business Insurance. Visit http://www.aon.com for more information on Aon and http://www.aon.com/manchesterunited to learn about Aon's global partnership and shirt sponsorship with Manchester United.
 

Media contacts:
Dominika Korzeniowska (PR Manager)
+48 22 696 52 20
dominika.korzeniowska@aonhewitt.com

Magdalena Warzybok (Regional lead of Best Employers Study)
+48 696 52 23
magdalena.warzybok@aonhewitt.com