Article: Top 25 Best Workplaces in Asia: THE One

Life @ Work

Top 25 Best Workplaces in Asia: THE One

Brands are not created; they are made by people and our people are the Soul of THE One
Top 25 Best Workplaces in Asia: THE One
 

Rank: 5

 

Number of Employees: 645, Headquarters: Dubai, United Arab Emirates, CEO: Thomas Lundgren

 

Founded by a Swedish philanthropist and entrepreneur Thomas Lundgren, THE One is a UAE-based home-fashion furniture company in the retail sector. The company has a solid, well developed and ingrained people culture. They aim to hire A-players, train and provide them with all the tools they need to perform, adding meaning to their daily job, recognizing and rewarding performance, celebrating wins and having fun in the process. “The key,” says CEO Thomas Ludgren, “is to inspire and entertain!”

Believed to have one of the highest levels of employer-employee engagement with a high visibility of commitment and engagement of the CEO towards the employees, THE One has one of the best employee engagement and retention practices. THE One has a reenergizing rewards and recognition strategy called Rewards and Celebrations Program, where the strategy is designed to recognize and reward achievements and build team spirit by awarding prizes during celebration parties. Other engagement programs include monthly Breakfast Bash, annual Team-Building Event to celebrate personal events like birthdays and weddings as well as to recognize and reward professional growth and achievements. An annual three-day off site to kick off the financial year is also organized to motivate and engage employees for the year. All of these help bring the teams together in strong camaraderie, giving employees a sense of being part of a community rather than an organization.

To create a meaningful difference in the society, THE One also gives employees an opportunity to make a difference to the world as part of their daily jobs. Upholding the belief that “the better we do, the more good we can do”, THE One has set up a sustainable village community initiative called “THE Onederworld”. Through the programme, THE One contributes to communities through its Local Volunteering and Ethical Sourcing initiatives and also educates children. Currently, under the Onederworld program, the company has undertaken school-building projects in India.

Established in 1996 with its first store in Abu Dhabi, UAE, THE One currently has 18 stores across the Middle East and hopes to increase the number to 99 by the end of 2020.

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Topics: Life @ Work, #AsiasBestWorkplaces2015, #BestPractices

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