10 June 2010 – The second JobCrystal Happiness Indicator takes a look at which South African companies have the happiest staff and are the best places to work. The Auditor General has the happiest employees, with Shell Oil, CSIR, Softline Pastel and Anglo Platinum also performing well. KPMG is rated as the best place to work in South Africa with Sanlam, Momentum, Pick n Pay and PricewaterhouseCoopers also getting the thumbs up from employees (see charts below).

The low correlation between companies where employees are the happiest and those rated the best place to work demonstrates an important take away for companies. Even if employees buy into the company culture, vision and environment and so rate the company as a good place to work, they also need to have their individual goals and requirements met in order to be happy. (See data tables below). It’s worth remembering that all these companies mentioned have a significant number of active and passive jobseekers, which have signed up on JobCrystal, www.jobcrystal.co.za, amongst their employees.

The JobCrystal Happiness Indicator data is compiled from the 100,000-strong JobCrystal database of jobseekers. Employees are asked how happy they are in their current position (miserable, frustrated, comfortable, happy) and also how they rate their employer (the best, excellent, fair, poor, awful) when they register on JobCrystal.

JobCrystal: Companies with the happiest employees
Company name	Happy employees1
Auditor General	72.6%
Shell Oil	70.0%
CSIR	69.8%
Softline Pastel	69.8%
Angllo Platinum	69.1%
Note: See the notes to editors for a sector breakdown.
1 Percentage employees rating themselves “comfortable” or “happy” in their current role when registering on JobCrystal.

JobCrystal: Top companies rated by employees “best”/”excellent” to work for
Company name	Best company to work for1	Happy employees2
1. KPMG	75%	62%
2. Sanlam	71%	48%
3. Pick n Pay	67%	54%
4. Momentum	67%	61%
5. Pricewaterhouse Coopers	66%	56%
1 Percentage employees registered on JobCrystal rating the company “best”/”excellent” to work for.
2 Percentage employees rating themselves “comfortable” or “happy” in their current role when registering on JobCrystal.

The first JobCrystal Happiness Indicator, released in April 2010, (http://www.jobcrystal.co.za/blog/post/JobCrystal/2010/04/Press_02/) showed that fewer than half of South African employees are currently happy in their role. This latest data shows that employees experience a huge difference in the impact of the general company environment as opposed to the achievement of individual career ambitions on their happiness levels.

“It is clear that the companies that focus on gaining staff buy-in for company-wide goals and objectives, at the expense of meeting employees’ individual career goals, are going to find it difficult to hold on to top talent,” said Kevin Laithwaite, JobCrystal Managing Director. “The two go hand-in-hand in terms of attracting and keeping star performers.”

JobCrystal compiles the Happiness Indicator from the data it collects when candidates enter their details on the talent management portal. One of the ways in which JobCrystal improves the recruitment process and the hiring success rate for companies is by using this and other data to make the best matches between candidates and vacancies.

JobCrystal focusses on candidates looking to earn R150,000 per year and more. It charges a flat fee per successful placement, with no upfront charges. Companies including Allan Gray, Santam, Standard Bank and Foschini are using JobCrystal to source candidates.

- ENDS –

Notes to editors:

Companies with the happiest employees by sector
Sector & Company Name	Happy Employees
Auditing
KPMG	62%
Ernst & Young	59%
Pricewaterhouse Coopers	56%
Banking
Standard Bank	57%
Wesbank	56%
Absa Bank	56%
Education
Tshwane University of Technology	63%
University of Pretoria	62%
University of Johannesburg	61%
FMCG
BAT South Africa	65%
Tiger Brands	57%
Unilever	55%
Government
Auditor General	73%
CSIR	70%
Department of Health	69%
Insurance
Metropolitan	63%
Momentum	61%
Discovery Health	57%
IT
Softline Pastel	7%
IBM South Africa	65%
Dimension Data	64%
Public Enterprise
Transnet	60%
SABC	56%
Eskom	55%
Retail
JD Group	68%
Foschini Group	60%
Edcon Group	56%
Telecoms
MTN	68%
Telkom	61%
Vodacom	61%

• Company details are only displayed if there is a statistically significant data sample size.

About JobCrystal

JobCrystal turns traditional hiring on its head by placing employers directly in touch with a pool of 100,000 passive jobseekers. The online service is highly automated and cleverly matches candidates with employers, making the interactive talent management portal faster, cheaper and more effective than any other way of recruiting. Founded by Kevin Laithwaite and Karl Westvig and launched in August 2009, JobCrystal is being used by companies including Allan Gray, Santam, Foschini, Mr Price, Ovations Group and Standard Bank to source candidates.

For more information please visit: www.jobcrystal.co.za (for jobseekers) or www.jobcrystal.co.za/talent (for employers)