Danone Cambodia celebrated winning the “Best Employer Brand Award” at the Asia’s Best Employer Brand Awards held recently at the Pan Pacific Hotel in Singapore.

The top award for Danone Cambodia came as Danone India-Southeast Asia (ISEA) was honoured across four countries in seven categories:

Best Employer Brand Award (Danone Cambodia);

Award for Talent Management (Danone Thailand);

Award for Managing Health at work (Danone Thailand);

Award for Managing Health at work (Danone Malaysia);

Award for Excellence in Training and Learning (Danone Malaysia);

Award for Transitioning to Virtual Workplace (Danone India);

Award in Innovation in Career Development for (Danone India- South East Asia).

Organised by the Employer Branding Institute, World HRD Congress and Star of the Industry Group, the awards recognise organisations in Asia that have demonstrated excellent employer branding through effective talent management strategies, talent development and talent innovation.

Koh Kok Meng, country manager Cambodia and Myanmar, expressed his delight at Cambodia winning the “Best Employer Brand Award”.

“Getting this prestigious award marks another key milestone for Danone Cambodia in 2022, aside from moving to our brand-new ‘people hub’ office. Winning reflects our long-term commitment to growing our business and developing our talent, following HR strategy to be one of the ‘Best Employers of Choice’.

“We have strategically developed our local talent to be at a higher standard in capability and competency to thrive in a challenging environment and embark on new business opportunities.

“Providing our employees with amazing engagement activities and the Health and Wellbeing programme has escalated the motivation for each to deliver further, especially with all the support given during the challenging pandemic period. I am thankful to our team for being ‘proud Danoners!’” Kok Meng said.

Accepting the award at the ceremony, vice-president of Danone India-Southeast Asia (ISEA) Thibaut Helleputte said it was an honour to be recognised with such a way.

“At Danone, we are convinced that the most valuable resource an organisation can have is our people. We always strive to give employees the best working environment, providing opportunities for them to grow and flourish, while keeping in mind health and safety, which is especially crucial with Covid.

“This award is a milestone for us in confirming that we are on the right track to make Danone ISEA a work destination for talented people who want to impact the world, and specifically in our ISEA region with providing health through food to as many people as possible – walking the walk of our Danone mission.

“We also believe that sustainable value creation and performance always starts with people. Implementing the right culture and organisation, and selecting our talent to work in our teams, defines and achieves our ambitions while seeding new growth opportunities,” said Helleputte.

While Covid-19 brought with it many challenges, business uncertainty and unprecedented disruption, he added, the pandemic was also a moment for companies to learn leadership.

“My utmost appreciation goes out to all the HR leaders of countries and our operations unit in India-Southeast Asia.

“It is their hard work with their respective teams, as well as the involvement of ISEA Danoners that has enabled us to bring back awards. This has made us proud, and we will always be proud Danoners,” said Helleputte.

Danone ISEA human resource director, Normalis Mohd Sharif, in her speech also highlighted the importance the company places on people.

“For Danone, people are at the heart of the organisation, and HR is a very important business partner and contributor to the success of business strategies.

“In the current context of our VUCA world, HR has to constantly adapt to changing contexts, be innovative and more agile in the way we manage and develop our people.

“It is great to see many innovative HR ideas being presented through such platforms as the Best Employer Brand Awards, and we hope we can learn from each other,” she said.